I came across this recent article in the New York Times and it is just insane. Almost twenty years ago a bunch of CEO’s from various processed foods giants such as General Mills got together to discuss the rising obesity epidemic. Their main concerns were less about producing healthier, less processed foods, but about how to avoid being penalized and suffering the way the tobacco industry recently had with all the heavy fines and taxation they received. Long story short, the meeting went nowhere.

What has happened over many decades are many, many different methods developed by scientists and marketing professionals to make crappy junk food more appealing and irresistible to children and adults alike. In fact, industry insiders talk about finding the ‘bliss point’ – meaning how to make people constantly crave a food product.

Much of these strange marketing tactics that seem straight out of a scifi movie are the works of a man named Howard Moskowitz. Not surprisingly, Moskowitz not only studied Mathematics at Harvard he also has a Ph.D in Experimental Psychology from that historic university. Scary stuff. And yes he might also be related to Dr. Frankenstein :).

While people like Moskowitz analyze a ton of data to get the results they’re after one obvious, gross fact about much of their work is that it involves a lot of sugar. Moskowitz is best known for making Prego spaghetti sauce wildly popular. Guess what the largest ingredient is after tomatoes? Sugar!

I think what is most frightening about the food industry is that they honestly don’t care. If they can sell crap and make money they will do it. Moskowitz is even quoted in the article as saying, “There’s no moral issue for me. I did the best science I could. I was struggling to survive and didn’t have the luxury of being a moral creature.”

This is all the more reason for us to educate ourselves to combat this insanity. The food industry is often like a drug dealer with its fake foods. They prey on the poor, the uneducated and the young. It’s really sad, but hey we’re fighting back!