> 1) R&D in the food industry that optimizes for profit, where profit is maximized by creating foods that are irresistible.
The problem is, what is irresistible for someone who makes two meals a day is different than what is irresistible for someone in a different diet, lifestyle or even mood.
While I was busting my ass inside an stressful office until 10:00 PM without eating, I wanted to get home and sink my teeth in a pepperoni pizza as fast as possible while watching TV. Nowadays I'm on a different lifestyle and, mind you, I woke up craving for squid, for some reason (the body talks). I went downtown, bought fresh squid, cooked a risotto myself with the things I like. A low fat, low sodium, high protein, Zinc and Selenium rich meal - the exact opposite of pizza, but satisfied me just as much today.
You're saying the food industry optimizes for irresistible (crunchy, fiberless, fat and sugar rich) food and there's no way around this formula. I'm saying they are only selling what hungry, depressed and stressed people are craving to eat.
Good pizza and good squid risotto aren't polar opposites: they are both full of carbs and contain almost the same amount of sodium. Pizza probably has more vitamins due to the tomato sauce.
My contention is that pizza doesn't have to be junk food, it just is most of the time in the US. Choose a better restaurant or make your own.
What I'm comparing is the satisfaction hit you get from having a greasy pepperoni pizza delivered and devoured in 20 minutes and eating something completely different depends totally on lifestyle and mood.
What the OP was implying is that fast/junk food is inherently irresistible and that's why more people are obese. What I'm saying in turn is that it's today's lifestyle which makes people find it irresistible and that nothing else satisfies.
I know what you were saying, I was going off topic, because as an Italian and a food enthusiast, I'm tired of hearing pizza being described as junk food. That's all. :)
Even mass-produced pizza doesn't have to be junk food ... but when you sit down and eat a whole pie, you're going to be over-doing it regardless of how healthy the ingredients were.
Why do you think pizza is bad for you? I incorporate pizza in my diet frequently. The main limiting factor with it for me is keeping carbs down, but as someone else pointed out: a risotto is also carb heavy; that rice is pretty much all carbs.
Pizza can be massively unhealthy if you buy from somewhere that's full of sodium and soaked in grease, but there are plenty of ways of making pizzas that are fine to eat every day even.
Heck, squid works just fine on a thin pizza base too, as do mussels and prawn if you want a nice seafood mix.
You're saying the food industry optimizes for irresistible (crunchy, fiberless, fat and sugar rich) food and there's no way around this formula. I'm saying they are only selling what hungry, depressed and stressed people are craving to eat.
Well yes, but solving problems like depression, stress, and overly-long working hours is much tougher than just blaming food executives.
The problem is, what is irresistible for someone who makes two meals a day is different than what is irresistible for someone in a different diet, lifestyle or even mood.
While I was busting my ass inside an stressful office until 10:00 PM without eating, I wanted to get home and sink my teeth in a pepperoni pizza as fast as possible while watching TV. Nowadays I'm on a different lifestyle and, mind you, I woke up craving for squid, for some reason (the body talks). I went downtown, bought fresh squid, cooked a risotto myself with the things I like. A low fat, low sodium, high protein, Zinc and Selenium rich meal - the exact opposite of pizza, but satisfied me just as much today.
You're saying the food industry optimizes for irresistible (crunchy, fiberless, fat and sugar rich) food and there's no way around this formula. I'm saying they are only selling what hungry, depressed and stressed people are craving to eat.