So you’re a bear in the forest, and you’re hungry. When you trundle toward a raspberry bush and get your first taste of ripe, sweet fruit, dopamine floods your brain, pleasure as a form of instruction: More of this. Faithful to your body’s signals, you’ll be back to these same bushes throughout the summer, and every summer after that.
[...]
Now the question is whether the food industry will change. Critics are intensifying a public relations war against ultra-processed food by highlighting its history with the widely distrusted tobacco industry — and exploring how strategies against Big Tobacco might be applied to food. Meanwhile, the food industry is fighting for its reputation with a new seven-figure ad campaign from the trade group Consumer Brands Association that emphasizes the manufacturing jobs it creates and the benefits of “everyday essentials that are convenient, affordable, and above all, safe.”
[...]
“We’re caught in the cycle, whether it’s cigarettes or ultra-processed foods and beverages or social media or sports betting — all of these things are like the junk-food equivalents of trying to feel rewarded,” Gearhardt said. “And I think, in our bones, we know that this isn’t what life is supposed to feel like. I’m not supposed to feel this frantic and constantly unsettled, and like my mind’s always looking for the next fix.”
Read the complete article at STAT News
