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[quote=Anonymous]A lot of American foods, especially snack food and junk/fast food is designed with flavors that instigate a short-lived pleasure response. It’s all the sugar but also high levels of sodium and often carefully crafted flavors (like designed by food scientists) to provoke a jolt of pleasure. Like a drug. Once it’s over you want it again.

This is why it’s hard to stop eating many popular American foods. French fries, potato chips, cookies, soda, American-style pizza (think Papa John’s or Dominos, not Neopolitan), the sorts of snack-y foods you’d be likely to find at a Cheesecake Factory.

Traditionally, in Europe, people eat less processed foods. Flavors are less complex and less likely to have that addictive blend of sweet and salty in high concentrations. The food is designed to sate appetites, not incite addictive behavior. I’ve met many Americans who find European food too simultaneously mild and heavy.

In contrast, food in many Asian countries does tend to have more complex flavor, and more heat. However, unlike in the US, the flavors are delivered in a diet heavy in fish, while grains, and vegetables. And you still rarely find that specific blend of salty-sweet. Asian cuisine embraces a wider variety of savory flavors — tangy, sour, nutty, classic umami. But rarely combines salty and sweet and has lower sugar content in general.

American food is what happens when a culture turns its cuisine over to corporations whose goal is to sell more. The goal is not to sate, it’s to induce more eating.

People speculate about the potential impact of the chemicals and additives in American food on health, like there is some nefarious but unknown effect. And maybe there is. But the KNOWN effect is nefarious— these additives are designed to get you to want to eat more.[/quote]

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