The late night munchies . We ’ve all had them . And we ’ve all given into them — sit on the couch , watching a motion picture , and short substantiate we ’ve eaten nearly an entire bag of crisp . How did that hap ?
Here ’s some food for thought ( pun intended ) . What if we tell you that a dish of chips is design for exactly that design — for you to empty it without suppose ?
Most of us wo n’t take an entire chocolate cake out of the fridge and absently exhaust the whole thing , but chips and other march food are a different story . Why ? It ’s all about something call the " bliss point . "
The bliss level of processed intellectual nourishment is the tip where food progress to the story of being as delicious as possible , yet not so hearty that we do n’t want more . To take it back to the umber cake exemplar , a hot chocolate patty will end up being sweet enough at some dot that we ’ll sense quenched and block up eating . With treat ( or junk ) food , however , we never really strike that " mytastebuds are sate " level .
How do food scientists formulate the foods we ’ll care the most ?
The bliss compass point is a proportion of three nutrient our bodies are programmed to seek out : fat , sugar andsalt . These three compounds trigger all 10,000 - plus of our taste sensation bud and send a message to the pleasure receptors of our Einstein that makes us guess , " More ! More ! " lifelike foods also have these three nutrient , but not in the perfect bliss point ratio where we do n’t feel satisfied . Science , however , has taken aid of that .
fatty , sugar and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks all process together to make food taste better and make us want more . blubber gives foods like chips and crackers a smoother grain . Salt mask the chemical substance gustation of processed intellectual nourishment and is the gimcrack spiciness around . wampum hits the pleasure points in our brains and increases the ledge life of merchandise . Food manufacturing business can pluck the ratios of fat , sugar and common salt , and then exhaustively try test products until they reach the good bliss point in time with consumer . Bliss points determine a food ’s crave level , which in turn fix sales event and profit .
One well - known example of bliss detail enquiry is Dr. Pepper soda . When essay to excogitate a novel sapidity , the fellowship went through 61 formulas and 4,000 sample events , which allowed their intellectual nourishment scientist to continually tweak the formula until they find out the ultimate bliss tip . The resulting soda was Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper , one of the company ’s most successful products ever [ source : Moss ] .
So the next clock time you find yourself on the lounge with your hand in an empty Doritos dish , blame science .
