Why are some foods so addictive? What are the ingredients in chocolate, fries, or chips that make you always want more and make portion control impossible?
It’s not surprising that cheap and delicious processed foods are one of the biggest obesity factors today. We all know we shouldn’t eat them, but that’s easier said than done. The fact they are so tasty surely doesn’t help, but did you ever stop and think that they were designed like that on purpose?
Not all foods are the same. It’s difficult to overeat a salad, but it’s practically guaranteed you’ll overeat if you have a big bag of chips in front of you. No natural foods are as addicting as those made by humans, and it’s the synergy among their key ingredients that makes them like that.
Foods that have the right proportions of sugar, salt, fat, and carbs — at least two of those groups — activate the parts of your brain responsible for pleasure and basically act like some drugs. They keep your brain wanting more, which is just what the manufacturers want so you’ll keep buying their products. Companies invest huge amounts of money to find just the right formulas, and you should know it’s not completely your fault that you can’t stop eating certain foods.
