
The Nacho Dorito - sethbannon
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/01/dining/nacho-graphic.html/#
======
machinagod
I've read recently the book that the article references - Why Humans like Junk
food - and it's a fascinating read - despite being poorly written.

Putting theories behind food appreciation, like Vanishing Caloric Density, the
Umami flavor (MSG, garlic and Friends) and flavor familiarity (vanyloids are
present in breast milk) - on the context of foods your familiar with, changes
your perspective when you're tasting any kind of food, allowing you to
deconstruct what are you experiencing: "Ho, I like this because it's greasy,
and it salty, and it has loads of umami from the garlic".

It allowed me to deconstruct a common action, changing it from an immediate
appreciation to a more rational, pondered thought process.

~~~
samatman
Reminding me of my favorite hunger hack: got into kitchen, chop onion or press
garlic, toss into oil, fry. In ten seconds, I go from "dinner sounds like a
hassle" to rooting through the cupboards, salivating madly.

------
thatcherclay
It is really impressive when you think about it; the level of genius that goes
into tricking our brains to like this synthetic mush is astonishing. But only
the same way that the porn industry is astonishing in some ways - both appeal
to a desire and then over-stimulate, and both are on tenuous morale standing.

~~~
twoodfin
What's morally tenuous about making food people enjoy? Gourmet chefs use the
same science as Frito Lay. The only difference is that almost anyone can
afford to have Doritos whenever they like.

~~~
rthomas6
Really. Price is the only difference between gourmet chefs and Doritos. Oh,
come on. Frito Lay doesn't make food people enjoy, they make food people
crave. You don't feel satiated after eating a lot of Doritos, and as this
article points out, Doritos are engineered that way on purpose. You don't get
sick of them, or full from them, or long-lasting enjoyment out of them. You
just get an overloaded reward center in your brain, a lot of empty calories,
and a blood sugar spike. Gourmet food typically strives for the opposite:
intense and complex flavors, long-lasting enjoyment, and a pleasant full
feeling. To keep with OP's analogy, saying Doritos and real food are the same
is like saying porn is the same as being in a great relationship, except
anyone can afford porn.

~~~
twoodfin
_Really. Price is the only difference between gourmet chefs and Doritos._

That wasn't my claim. My claim was that they're using much of the same
chemical and culinary science. For example: salt = good, more salt = usually
better! Similarly, people can and do gorge themselves on gourmet food. God
knows I've done so myself a few times.

 _You don 't get sick of them, or full from them..._

I invite you to test this claim with a 17oz bag!

Plenty of people find themselves completely satisfied with a reasonable
quantity of Doritos. It's also an enjoyable experience for them. This food
engineering is designed to make that experience more enjoyable. They're not
physically addictive in any meaningful sense. If your threshold for "moral
tenuousness" is the potential to cause harm because you've produced something
tasty enough that people have more than is healthy for them, then you'd have
to string up a whole bunch of brewers and winemakers, too. Which would be too
bad.

~~~
rthomas6
You are right and I concede your point. I just wonder at what point does a
product maker become irresponsible? Obviously a manufacturer is not directly
at fault when someone misuses their product, and they also are only selling
what the consumer wants, but what level of responsibility do manufacturers
have to help the consumer make good choices? I disagree that Doritos are not
physically addictive in any meaningful sense. Like all simple carbs, Doritos
can and do create cravings. If you eat a small bag of Doritos every afternoon
for a month then stop, you will experience fairly strong cravings. You will
feel miserable if you don't get your sugar. Try it! I used to eat a big bowl
of cereal every day, then I stopped because I realized I needed to lose
weight. It worked, but I felt miserable for a few weeks, cutting out my daily
sugar infusion. That doesn't mean that selling simple carbs is bad, but I
would argue that Doritos are engineered to be as addictive as possible, and
purposefully sold in portions that encourage overconsumption.

You mention that we would have to string up a whole bunch of brewers and
winemakers, but we do currently. Brewers, winemakers, and cigarette companies
are all heavily regulated and taxed _because_ they have the potential to cause
harm. Is Four Loko, which is designed for overconsumption, morally tenuous?
Probably. Four Loko is on a different level than Doritos because the health
effects are much worse, but the same principle applies. Clearly Doritos should
not be illegal, but maybe they should be disincentivized, because...

We have an obesity epidemic. More people in this country are overweight than
not overweight. It's becoming a national health crisis, and costing us a lot
of money. Type 2 diabetes, renal failure, and the like are preventable.

I think this article sums up my feelings on the whole situation. We have a
health problem, and the cheapest, tastiest products make the problem worse.
[https://medium.com/health-the-future/918b3d08f21f](https://medium.com/health-
the-future/918b3d08f21f)

~~~
yinso
> Obviously a manufacturer is not directly at fault when someone misuses their
> product, and they also are only selling what the consumer wants, but what
> level of responsibility do manufacturers have to help the consumer make good
> choices?

As much as I agree with the sentiment of responsible companies (with my
upvote), IMHO the reality is that consumers are the ones calling the shots.

Demand is like a vacuum suction. When there is a demand there will be supply,
even if some don't choose to provide on moral grounds, others will fill in. No
demand, no supply.

The only responsibility that companies have is to make money, and that is done
via making products consumers want. If consumers want to buy only from the
responsible companies, all viable companies will be responsible.

They aren't all responsible because we don't all vote with our wallets that
way.

Look at the demand for health food these days even causes McDonald's to offer
salads. Change demand, and you change supply.

> We have an obesity epidemic. More people in this country are overweight than
> not overweight. It's becoming a national health crisis, and costing us a lot
> of money.

Each individual is responsible for his/her own health. We can't legislate
unhealthy lifestyles away. We can only educate and motivate people to learn
more and take control of their own health, starting from not visiting the
highly popular junk food isles.

------
Mikeb85
Even though I eat a generally healthy diet, even I can't resist the pull of
the Dorito... There's just something about salty, savoury, crispy, fatty and
sometimes spicy treats that is so appealing.

------
jmduke
I forget where I read it, but a while back Frito-Lay food scientists were
actually able to eliminate the 'gold dust' from Doritos. Focus groups for the
new chips -- that had the exact same taste and 'biology', just without the
dust -- revealed that consumers hated them, because at some level we equate
flavor with the dust (and thus lack of dust with lack of flavor.)

~~~
hfsktr
I remember reading that (probably on imgur). I looked it up but first result
wasn't promising: [http://wafflesatnoon.com/2013/05/07/doritos-powder-
hoax/](http://wafflesatnoon.com/2013/05/07/doritos-powder-hoax/)

I can't really dig too much deeper because I am at work but it really seems
unlikely that they would pay for a powder that isn't needed.

------
scragg
I love this flavor... reading this article makes me wish I had a bag right
now.

------
MrZongle2
This article read like a commercial.

------
HaloZero
I'm curious if they understood all these concepts when they created the chips
or if they were developed afterwards and realized this is why we love them.

~~~
stonemetal
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doritos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doritos)

 _The original product was made at the Casa de Fritos at Disneyland in
Anaheim, California. Using surplus tortillas, the company-owned restaurant cut
them up and fried them (as in traditional Mexican chips called totopos) and
added basic seasoning, resembling the Mexican chilaquiles, but in this case
being dry. Arch West was the Vice President of Marketing of Frito-Lay at the
time, and noticed the popularity. He made a deal with Alex Foods in 1964, the
provider of many items for Casa de Fritos at Disneyland, and produced the
chips for a short time regionally, before it was overwhelmed by the volume,
and Frito-Lay moved the production in-house to its Tulsa plant._

Sounds like the chips came first. It wouldn't surprise me if the additional
flavors of doritos were experiments studying the phenomenon, and plunged back
into reformulations of the original.

------
DiabloD3
This page isn't rendering correctly, text is overlapping with images. Good job
NYT.

I'm on Firefox, btw.

------
hxrts
reads like a syndicated article

------
zwieback
Nacho Doritos - I don't even know why they make other chips anymore.

