However, the side effects of these drugs are not the ones you would normally associate with "hard drugs". Sugar - especially in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup, puts a great strain on the liver, raised levels of fat in the bloodstream and a whole range of problems, which are all associated with cardiovascular disease.
Excessive intake of salt has been linked to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease and over-consumption of fat to obesity, diabetes and other related epidemics.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for fat for women is 70g and for men 90-95g, for children aged 4-18 years of age it is 25-35% of total calories. RDA for sugar for women is 25g or 6 teaspoons, men 37.5g or 9 teaspoons and children should keep sugar intake to 6g or less per day. RDA for salt in adults is 2,300mg (2.3g) equivalent to about 1 teaspoon. In children aged 2-3 years 1,000 mg (1g), ages 4-8 = 1,200 mg and ages 9-18 = 1,500 mg.
So what is being put in our food and why?
Food manufacturers put extra salt, sugar and fat in foods to make them taste better. They even have a term for it: "BLISS POINT". This is how manufacturers describe levels of sugar, fat and salt in processed foods that are so appealing they guarantee we will be coming back for more.
Michael Moss, an award winning investigative writer, has spent more than three years investigating the science of junk food for his new book: Salt, Sugar and Fat: How the food giants hooked us.
His investigations have uncovered an unsavory amount of tricks employed by food manufacturers to tempt us into buying foods that are often extremely unhealthy. Tricks such as changing the physical shape of salt to altering the chemical make-up of sugar and even giving crisps a louder crunch.
Moss spoke to many executives and scientists at multinationals such as Pepsi, Kraft, Kelloggs, Unilever and Mars and discovered that at the heart of all the corporate strategies are three legal drugs: salt, fat and sugar. Moss also found that there is no limit as to how far the industry will go to harness the seductive powers of these 3 drugs.
Companies use the results from MRI-scanning to study the sensory power of food - for example, how sugar lights up our brains the same way it does after someone has taken cocaine.
Their objective is to achieve the perfect link between food and pleasure in consumers' brains to make us come back for more, so the industry has become obsessed with finding that "BLISS POINT".
This means that the manufacturers who manage to hit on the most Bliss Points generate by far the biggest profits. However, their profits come at a cost for the general public - those Bliss Points come with the side effects of many of their customers becoming dangerously obese and close to addiction. The junk food industry even labels its most faithful customers as "HEAVY USERS", says Moss.
Moss, who works for the New York Times, managed to persuade three of the biggest food manufacturers to let him sample their products with significantly reduced levels of salt, sugar and fat, while researching his book. He soon discovered how powerful these 3 ingredients can be.
Kellogg produced a salt-less version of a savory cracker that Moss loves:
"Without any salt, the crackers lost their magic. They felt like straw, chewed like cardboard, and had zero taste," he says.
The same happened with soups, meats and breads that other manufacturers made for him including Campbell: "Take more than a little salt, or sugar or fat out of processed food, these experiments showed, and there is nothing left. Or even worse, what is left are the inexorable consequences of food processing; repulsive tastes that are bitter, metallic and astringent."
However, it is still cheaper for food manufacturers to make sugar, salt and fat more alluring by interfering with their chemical make-up than attempting to make their products more appetizing.
Moss reports that Nestlé's scientists are actually modifying the distribution and shape of fat globules in foods to affect the way they feel in the mouth.
Research on brain reaction to food reveals that the pleasure of fatty foods is as much about the FEEL as the TASTE. We feel fat through the trigeminal nerve, located above and behind the mouth. It sends tactile information about fat to the brain, and the better the experience, the bigger the craving.
It isn't just the food manufacturers adding too much to processed foods. At Cargill, the U.S. based world's leading salt supplier, scientists are pulverizing salt into a fine powder so that when consumed, it hits the taste buds faster and harder, improving the "flavor burst", says Moss. It is developments such as these that have made crisps (potato chips) more irresistible than 20 years ago.
And it sin't just salt. Sugar is also being altered in many different ways. Not only have food scientists created enhancers to boost the sweetness of sugar by up to 200 times, one component, fructose, has also been crystalized into an additive that boosts the allure of foods with a naturally low content.
The Food and Drink Federation in Britain is keen to be seen in a friendly light and argues that its members are being responsible by lowering salt levels to help customers make healthy choices.
The Federation's Director of Food Safety, Science and Health, Barbara Gallani says:
"UK food and drink manufacturers' efforts to tackle obesity and diet-related diseases are long-standing."She states that members of the Federation have voluntarily cut salt levels by 10% in the past 5 years and improved product labeling.
There is no current evidence that food is actually addictive, and Ms Gallani bases the Federation's defense on that,
"Recent scientific reviews show there is no evidence to suggest food addiction exists in people, either to specific foods or to nutrients like sugar or fat."
I am still trying to reconcile myself with her classing SUGAR as a NUTRIENT!
However, on the other side of the pond, Moss says no one is more aware of the problems caused by salt, sugar and fat than the processed food companies.
In 1999, the 11 heads of the largest U.S. food companies met in secret to discuss how to tackle the emerging obesity epidemic by managing recipes and strategies. However, no positive action followed, these companies are totally dependent on these 3 ingredients and no one is willing to be the only one to probably lose profits against the others by producing healthier products for their customers.
In the UK, manufacturers have reduced salt in their products over the past 10 years. However, obesity levels continue to rise, probably because companies have found a way to relieve the pressure put on them about making their products healthier.
Moss explains in his book that when food makers have to reduce on of the three key ingredients, they often increase the levels of the other two to make up for the lost appeal. Therefore, products labeled "low salt" may have higher levels of fat and sugar.
"It is one of the industry's most devious moves," says Moss, that is why we must all be very wary of products whose labels proclaim: "Now low in..."
Proof of this is in the fact that most executives at the big food companies tend not to eat their own products, according to Moss,
"I found that many of the executives I talked to go out of their way to avoid their own products," he says, "especially if they have run into health problems."They prefer to eat fresh foods and take regular exercise to stay fit and healthy.
I believe that if the industry is going to put its customers first then the way to go is to gradually reduce salt, fat and sugar over time. There is evidence that our taste buds do adapt over time. Obviously a drastic cut too quickly would be rejected but a gradual one would go unnoticed. However, if you really want to be healthy, my advice is to follow the example of the executives and eat fresh foods and take regular exercise - processed foods are not doing any of us any favors.
Social Nutrition:
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