Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating – how the food industry cracked the code and made us all eat more
His thesis isn’t original. In 2001, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation warned fast-food chains were driving unhealthy dietary habits and feeding obesity. Van Tulleken claims that these strategies have leapt from the chain restaurant to our kitchens, where many of us find it more practical to ping a ready meal in the microwave than rustle something up from scratch.
Whether by design or not, the food industry has cracked the code of how to make people eat more. One scientist explains how he would have volunteers eat ice cream while he measured their brain patterns, allowing him to identify which flavour and consistency produced the maximum pleasure. Another recalls urging the manufacturer of Pringles snacks to keep its tubular packaging narrow because “people like struggling to get their hand in, like they’re foraging bears”.
The narrative around unhealthy eating has focused on personal responsibility – which is to ignore how our habits are encouraged by corporate interests. That’s the big message of Irresistible – that we should not feel guilty over how and what we eat but alarmed and angry that companies have knowingly got inside our heads and encouraged us to consume more than we need. He offers Colombia as a positive example, where high-sugar kids’ cereals carry ominous health warnings about potential dangers.