Kessler continues to tear the food industry apart. He blames our food industry for “Americanizing” everything by adding more sugar, fat, and salt. We may have a Chinese restaurant, but dishes served will be American. For example, the dish General Tso’s is not traditionally sweet or syrupy. But to make it irresistible, Chinese restaurants in America serve it as such.
Kessler also explains other ways as to how the food industry reaches its goal of creating irresistible foods. Companies have discovered what factors make food irresistible—Kessler calls this the irresistibility ladder. To be irresistible, a food must have fat in it—this provides a good mouthfeel and calories. Second, it must be flavorful. And finally, it must have a good texture. Without these things, consumers won’t be as pleased.
Additionally, food companies can make food even more irresistible artificially. When you see ingredients in products that you have no clue what they are, they’re probably chemical additives used to bolster appeal. Most chain restaurants use food that is processed/contains additives. Consumers aren’t aware of this because the final step of cooking is done in the restaurant, so it seems fresh. However, the preparatory stages are done in a factory. From a consumer standpoint, this is beneficial. The food is cheaper and it tastes better because it is perfected at the factory. Simultaneously, however, the food is much less nutritious, so it’s actually horrible for the consumer.
In general, consumers aren’t aware of the goings-on of the food industry. Kessler described studies in which consumers were to estimate the fat, sugar, and salt contents of food from restaurants, and consumers underestimated in all cases.
Consumers are also not aware of how the food industry is constantly altering their eating habits by gradually increasing portion sizes. For instance, companies like Coca-Cola are so powerful that they can double beverage sizes, double the cost, and consumers will buy more. All the while, Coke makes tons more money and their cost of production remains fairly the same, because production costs are only increased by a fraction (the beverage itself is not very expensive to produce).
Finally, consumers don’t realize that most chain restaurants that now promote healthier options are just using a new marketing strategy. Companies don’t care if their food is healthy—they can promote healthy foods, consumers will come to their restaurant, but they’ll probably end up choosing unhealthy options in the long run.
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