[Fin_Code]

A useful analogy is the Coca plant. Chewing its leaves will give a mild stimulant and is relatively benign. But if you extract and concentrate the active ingratiate it becomes highly addictive. This is pretty much what we have done with our food.

[snarf21]

Even worse, our food has been specifically engineered to be as addictive as possible without increasing manufacturing costs.

[resource_waste]

I agree.

However, don't we grow tolerant to pleasures? For instance, the first time you have a salty chip, its great. The 100th time you had one, its not great.

Also, curious if you are limiting it to processed foods, or are making claims that potatoes are more addictive than before.

The first, obvious, but it has manufacturing and inventory costs. The latter is happening on such a tiny scale, its not noteworthy.

[jacobr1]

> don't we grow tolerant to pleasures

For some, the tolerance doesn't cause them disinterest but rather a drive to go further. Can they get an even _saltier_ chip? Or rather more flavorful with increasingly exotic condiments. Or one bowl no longer does it, maybe 2 will do.

You can see this in American supermarkets on the snack aisles. You see variants of the same products from plain/traditional, to novelty flavor, to 5x extra novelty flavor. It isn't just marketing or just the normal distribution of individual preferences. I think it is a hedonistic ratchet. You see it in the level of nuances specialists take to any field or hobby the deeper on delves. The craft beer connoisseurs to who keep wanting more hops in their IPAs are a good example too.

[feoren]

> However, don't we grow tolerant to pleasures?

Yes: growing tolerance is part of the addiction cycle that causes you to need ever more to satisfy the same urge.

[gscott]

During the packaging process I am pretty sure they spray on chemicals that cause addiction.

[Pigalowda]

It’s just sugar, fat, and salt but at scale. No need for more.

Get it when you want and as much as you want. Doctors will say you can be healthy at size and advertisers will tell you to be body positive. Then when you’re over served and obese you can get weight loss injections and start all over. It’s the American way. An endless orgy of consumerism. Binge and purge like a hedonist Roman could never even imagine.

[lcfcjs6]

I think this is an accurate point. I would also add preservatives. Companies have an incentive to increase shelf-life, so they pump these products full of them, despite their effects on health.

[bberrry]

What evidence is there of preservatives having detrimental effects on humans (in the doses we actually receive)?

[ramblenode]

Preservatives achieve their intended function by broadly destroying and preventing the growth of microbes, which are an integral part of our digestive system. So I would flip the question: what evidence is there that preservatives don't damage a healthy human microbiome?

Here is a review of some of the research. It seems to still be an open question because of the many variables involved: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9864936/