Why we can't stop eating unhealthy foods
What this covers
Sugar scientist and UCSF professor of health policy Laura Schmidt questions whether consumers really do have freedom of choice – and what policymakers can learn from corporations in nudging consumers toward healthier behaviors.
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Modern food environments are deliberately engineered to create addiction through concentrated sugars and additives, removing genuine consumer choice; public health solutions must redesign the environment through taxation, advertising restrictions, and shelf placement rather than relying on individual education or willpower.
- Food corporations employ neuroscience and brain imaging to make products maximally habit-forming, mirroring addiction research techniques
- 74% of grocery store products contain added sugar; individuals cannot maintain freedom of choice in saturated environments
- Public health interventions that nudge behavior (taxes, ad restrictions, shelf placement) work because they flip the script corporations use to seduce consumers
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Effective public health interventions do not rely on individual choice or education; instead, they 'nudge' populations away from unhealthy options by making them less convenient, visible, or affordable—essentially flipping the corporate strategy.
“Food companies have gotten very good at seducing us towards their products in ways that we barely even notice. All of the most effective public health strategies just do the opposite. They gently nudge us away from the unhealthy stuff. It's simple. We just flip the script back.”
Food corporations hire neuroscientists to use brain imaging (MRI) technologies on consumers eating products like Doritos to engineer recipes that maximize habit-formation, paralleling research methodologies used in addiction studies.
“Food corporations hire scientists to engineer the most irresistible habit forming foods. Sugar is currently their go-to ingredient. These guys have flipped the script on us. They are using the very brain imaging technologies that we use to try to find cures for addiction. only they put people in the MRI machine and feed them Dorito chips to figure out ways to tweak the recipe to make it even more habit forming than it already is.”
Even when individuals possess knowledge that sugary drinks are unhealthy, living in a sugar-saturated environment imposes a heavy burden of constant rejection; most people succumb to the engineered convenience and accessibility.
“But when you live in a sugars saturated environment, more often than not, you'll probably just reach for what's been put in front of you. And if it's a concentrated source of pleasure, a product carefully engineered with white powders to get you hooked, that puts a huge burden on you all the time to say no. And many of us don't.”
When the coca plant is industrially refined into its most concentrated form (crack cocaine), the humble coca leaf transforms into a lethally addictive drug with severe consequences.
“Things do get really bad when we industrialize the cocoa production process. When we learned how to refine the cocoa plant down into its most concentrated form, a little rock of white powder. That's when the humble cocoa leaf becomes the lethally addictive drug we know as crack.”
Coca-Cola was formulated in the 1880s and contained cocaine; the formula was changed in 1903 when political attitudes shifted against cocaine use, replacing cocaine with caffeine as the addictive agent.
“CocaCola is one of the most successful products in in modern history. It was formulated in the 1880s... But at one time in history, the Coca-Cola Corporation was forced to change its recipe. That was in 1903 when the political current, the tide was shifting away from cocaine eventually to make it an illegal drug. That's when Coca-Cola took the cocaine out of the coke. Of course, they just replaced it with a different addictive substance, namely caffeine.”
Most addictive substances (heroin, cocaine, alcohol) are safe or mild in their natural form and become dangerous only after industrial refinement concentrates the active compounds.
“Most addictive substances are actually quite safe in their natural form. Heroin comes from poppy seeds, cocaine from the cocoa plant, alcohol from fruits and grains. For centuries, farmers high up in the Andes mountains have chewed cocoa leaves. It's a tradition. It's a mild stimulant like drinking a cup of coffee.”
At no time in human history has our species been so bombarded by products designed to get us hooked, with companies competing explicitly on the basis of creating habit-forming products.
“At no time in human history has our species been so bombarded by stuff designed to get us hooked. Companies compete on the very basis of creating ever more habit forming products.”
Small environmental changes can accumulate into large population-level shifts in behavior and health outcomes, as demonstrated by decades of research on how to counter addictive substances.
“Small changes can add up to big shifts in the environment. We know this from decades of research on addictive substances.”
Shelf placement of candy at child eye-level in grocery stores is a deliberate corporate manipulation; moving candy to higher shelves reduces accessibility and creates a counter-nudge.
“If they pay grocery stores to put candy at eye level for our little children, we can put it a little higher on the shelf.”
As long as food corporations do not break narcotics laws, they can formulate products to maximize habit-formation without legal restriction.
“The fact is, as long as food corporations aren't breaking narcotics laws, they can do pretty much whatever they want to formulate their products to make them even more habit forming.”
Advertising bans on unhealthy foods (like Captain Crunch and Cocoa Puffs) targeted at children can remove the advertising seduction that corporations currently use to drive consumption.
“If food corporations are barging our children with advertisements for Captain Crunch and Cocoa Puffs, we can just take those ads off the air.”
Soda taxes raise prices slightly, which creates a 'gentle nudge' that reduces consumption by making the product less accessible, mimicking corporate pricing strategies in reverse.
“For example, soda companies, they intentionally keep their prices down so that we'll buy more. If we put a tax on the soda, that raises the price a little and gently nudges us away.”
The issue is no longer about personal choice; it is about collective public choice and redesign of shared systems.
“It's not about personal choice anymore. It's about our public choice.”
Type 2 diabetes is linked to heavy sugar consumption and sugary drinks; it was historically called 'adult onset diabetes' because it appeared only in adults in the previous generation, but now one out of four American teenagers is pre-diabetic or diabetic.
“Type 2 diabetes is linked to heavy sugar consumption and especially sugary drinks. It's called adult onset diabetes because in my parents' generation, we only saw it in adults. Today, one out of four American teenagers is pre-diabetic or diabetic.”
Education campaigns telling people to make healthy food choices do not work in practice; 48% of Americans still drink sugary drinks daily despite widespread knowledge of health risks.
“Everybody always says, 'Educate the public in healthy choices.' But we know that doesn't work. If it worked, then why would 48% of Americans still be drinking a sugary drink or more a day? The fact is, I could say until I'm blue in the face, 'Don't drink that stuff. It's unhealthy.' You already know that.”
The speaker is primarily concerned not about rising obesity rates, but about two disturbing health trends: appearance of adult diseases in children and emergence of entirely new diseases linked to sugar and poor diet.
“So, why do I care about this so much? It's actually not the rising rates of obesity worldwide that keeps me up at night. It's two other very disturbing trends. And the first is the appearance of adult diseases in children.”
When living in an environment saturated with food products scientifically engineered to be habit-forming and bombarded 24/7, genuine freedom of choice becomes impossible.
“When you live in a world that is surrounding you on a 247 basis with food products scientifically engineered to be habit forming, do you really have freedom of choice?”
The belief that individuals have complete freedom of choice over food consumption is an illusion when the environment is deliberately saturated with engineered products.
“I understand we really would all like to believe that we're in charge, that we have complete freedom over what we eat. But how free can we be living in a saturated environment, one that continuously surrounds us with food products carefully engineered to get us hooked and keep us coming back for more.”
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is linked to heavy sugar consumption and poor diet; the diagnosis did not exist until 1980, and by 2020 it will be the leading cause of liver transplantation.
“The diagnosis non-alcoholic fatty liver disease didn't even exist until 1980. Again, a condition linked to heavy sugar consumption and poor diet. By 2020, in five years, it's going to be the leading cause of liver transplantation.”
74% of foods in American grocery stores have added sugar, including products that do not taste sweet.
“74% of the foods in your grocery store have sugar added to them. Stuff that doesn't even taste sweet.”
The standard advice to 'shop around the perimeter of the grocery store' to avoid junk food is itself an obstacle course—a parallel to the tactics children use to avoid drug dealers in the Tenderloin.
“All the health experts will tell you shop around the perimeter of the grocery store. That way you can steer your way around all the junk that's in the middle. But how different is that from a strategy that steers children around drug dealers in the tenderloin?”
Living in a processed food and sugar-saturated environment is equivalent to living in an obstacle course; all Americans face this, not just residents of specific blighted areas.
“It's like living in an obstacle course when it comes to food, to processed food and sugar. We're all living in an obstacle course. Our own tenderloin. It's on every corner, in every store, in every workplace.”
The emergence of new diseases in the population is analogous to climate change warning signs like melting icebergs and rising sea levels—they are systemic red flags indicating something is fundamentally wrong with the food environment.
“This is the global warming of human health. These trends are warning signs like melting icebergs and rising sea levels. They're telling us that there's something very wrong with our food environment.”
Food deserts (areas without access to grocery stores) are less harmful than conventional grocery stores filled with 74% junk food; the distinction between food desert and food oasis is meaningless if the oasis is poisoned.
“Those kids in the tenderloin, they apparently live in what's called a food desert. They don't even have access to a grocery store. But really, what's a grocery store when it's stuffed with junk food? 74% of it loaded with added sugar.”
Modern Coca-Cola combines concentrated sugar with concentrated caffeine, creating a 'double' addictive product with synergistic habituation potential.
“So, here you have it. A concentrated dose of sugar combined with a concentrated dose of caffeine. Double the pleasure. Double the chances we'll get hooked.”
We have the capacity and knowledge to redesign the food environment to be safe and healthy, rather than remaining in a system rigged to make us fat while blaming individuals for health consequences.
“We can do so much better than this. We don't have to live in an environment that is rigged to get us fat and then blames us for the health consequences and the medical bills. We don't have to sit by and watch our children suffer from diseases of adulthood. We can rerigg this environment to make it safe.”
Sports celebrities who endorse Gatorade and other sugary drinks could alternatively be paid to promote water consumption, creating a counter-nudge to celebrity endorsement strategies.
“And if they pay famous sports figures to promote Gatorade, we can pay them to say, 'I drink water.'”
Until the 20th century, cocaine was an innocent domesticated white powder like sugar is today, commonly added to consumer products including cough syrups and tonics, and given to children.
“up until the 20th century, cocaine was actually an innocent domesticated white powder, just like sugar is today. People put it in everything. You could go to your drugstore and and buy it in a soothing tonic. People put it in cough syrup and gave it to their kids.”
78% of Americans cannot get out of bed in the morning without checking their cell phone first, indicating habitual dependency driven by device design.
“I am one of the 78% of Americans who can't get up out of bed in the morning without checking this thing first”
The Safe Passage program in San Francisco's Tenderloin exists because children cannot safely walk to school without organized protection; volunteers must guide them through routes that avoid drug dealers and liquor stores.
“The Tenderloin has a program called Safe Passage. Volunteers go to the school bus and pick up children to safely walk them to their homes. They have to travel routes through the city streets to avoid all the drug dealers and liquor stores.”
Coca leaves chewed in their natural form by Andean farmers produce mild stimulant effects comparable to coffee, with no severe long-term health consequences beyond possibly dental decay.
“For centuries, farmers high up in the Andes mountains have chewed cocoa leaves. It's a tradition. It's a mild stimulant like drinking a cup of coffee. It helps them work longer hours and cope with the high altitudes. Probably the worst thing that can happen to you after a lifetime of chewing cocoa leaves. So, maybe you'll get bad teeth.”
San Francisco's Tenderloin district exemplifies 'alcohol and drug saturated environments' where liquor stores and drug dealers occupy every corner, forcing residents (especially children) to navigate obstacle course routes.
“My work takes me into San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Every big city has a place like this, right? It's a few square blocks of extreme poverty and urban blight. There's a liquor store on every corner, usually with a bunch of drug dealers hanging out in front. We have a name for places like this. We call them alcohol and drugs saturated environments.”
Powdered alcohol (Palcohol) products enable concentrated, portable, easily-consumed alcohol that can be mixed anywhere, increasing accessibility and consumption occasions.
“Palcohol. It's going to be out on the market this year. So, I can just carry around this convenient little package and mix myself up a cocktail whenever, wherever I want. Maybe I should add it to my morning coffee at work.”