[darthoctopus]

read the article. literally the first few paragraphs:

> In the 1980s, tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds acquired the major food companies Kraft, General Foods and Nabisco, allowing tobacco firms to dominate America’s food supply and reap billions in sales from popular brands such as Oreo cookies, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Lunchables.

> The new research, published in the journal Addiction, focuses on the rise of “hyper-palatable” foods, which contain potent combinations of fat, sodium, sugar and other additives that can drive people to crave and overeat them. The Addiction study found that in the decades when the tobacco giants owned the world’s leading food companies, the foods that they sold were far more likely to be hyper-palatable than similar foods not owned by tobacco companies.

it is difficult to argue that they were simply unfortunate to happen to produce one class of unhealthy products when the same companies proceeded to then move on to an entirely different product class, and somehow also engineer products to also be maximally addictive and, as it turns out, unhealthy.

[ttonkytonk]

So they're exceptional in producing unhealthy, but profitable products?

[landemva]

They are good at producing products that people willingly purchase and consume. It is voluntary.

To contrast what voluntary can mean, children consuming unmetered fluoride doses via the water supply is not really voluntary.

[ttonkytonk]

The cravings are most involuntary however, I assure you.

[randomdata]

Oreo cookies and Kraft Dinner are craved?

They do very well on the convenience front, which is significant, but seem like the some of the last things you would want if you could have anything magically placed in front of you.

[MandieD]

Judging by the contents of the little “USA” shelf at my grocery store in a midsize German city, enough of us are addicted. A large packet of Oreos that I would guess is about $3-4 back in the States is 10 EUR, a box of off-brand Mac & Cheese is 3.50 EUR, and I will confess to buying the latter on an approximately monthly basis, despite being able to make real mac and cheese with cheddar and cream, which actually doesn’t take any more time and only slightly more effort.

Other things we are evidently addicted to, despite objectively superior and far cheaper local equivalents: Pop-Tarts, Swiss Miss hot cocoa, Hershey’s syrup, Cheese Wiz.

[landemva]

I find it interesting and amusing to walk by the imported shelf-stable food at KaDeWe. Let's me know what somebody thinks is consumed.

And reading the blurb on the back of the Kriket package is hilarious!