Welcome back to Kaylee’s Conspiracy Corner. Today, we are going to dive into something that might make you look at your favorite snack a little differently, and maybe why you cannot stop at just one.
To do so, let us go back to simpler times: the 1980s, a time of crack cocaine, AIDS, nuclear threats, and smoking. Smoking was on a rapid decline throughout the decade, and lawsuits began to form, causing Big Tobacco corporations to bleed. Tobacco consumption declined with the increase in public awareness, and they needed new ways to raise their profits. So, companies like Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds did what any corporation would do, they went another way to hook customers.
Not everyone consumes tobacco products, but one thing everyone consumes, and actually needs to survive, is food. Philip Morris bought General Foods in 1985 and Kraft in 1988, while R.J. Reynolds merged with Nabisco, creating RJR Nabisco. The companies that once sold cigarettes were now selling snacks, sodas, and other processed foods.
These were not just random business deals. They did not just slap their logo on a cookie and move on. Morris and Reynolds brought over the same science that made cigarettes addictive and started implementing it to create snacks that would keep the consumer coming back for more. They were not just selling snacks, but addiction disguised as convenience and pleasure. The bliss point describes the design behind processed foods. Developed by food scientist Howard Moskowitz, it identifies the exact combination of sugar, salt, and fat that maximizes enjoyment and, critically, keeps consumers coming back for more.
Morris and Reynolds applied this principle with precision, creating ultra-processed foods that trigger the same reward pathways in the brain as nicotine. But the manipulation did not stop at flavor. Additives, emulsifiers, and refined ingredients were chosen to increase palatability, prolong shelf life, and encourage overconsumption. Sugars and carbohydrates create hyper palatable tastes that overstimulate the brain’s reward system. Fat enhances the taste and mouthfeel, making the food more desirable. Casein is a protein in milk that breaks down casomorphins during digestion. They have an opioid-like effect that can contribute to addictive tendencies.
The powerful combination of these substances can activate the brain’s reward system as strongly as addictive drugs. Every bag of chips, cookies, and drinks becomes a target, carefully engineered to bypass your natural signals of fullness, which makes you crave more.
According to Harvard Public Health Magazine, 1,600 Americans die every day from chronic food illnesses, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Each year, 678,000 Americans die from chronic food illnesses. That toll is higher than our combat deaths in every war in American history combined. There are more deaths each year from our food than all the combat deaths. That is a serious issue.
Marketing also had a very calculated approach. Tobacco companies used emotional appeals, motivational graphics, and incentive programs to promote their products. They applied those same tactics to promoting food, turning snacks into tools of profit.
Despite decades of research linking highly processed food to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other public health issues, government regulation has been little to none. Unlike tobacco, which is heavily restricted and taxed, food companies face few limits on additives, flavor enhancers, and marketing strategies they employ. Numerous public health agencies have continuously highlighted the dangers of overprocessed food, yet policymakers and government officials have avoided imposing any sort of beneficial regulation or strict rules.
But here is the question we will tackle next time: why isn’t the government stepping in to stop it? Join me as we dig into politics, the money, and the loopholes that keep Big Food untouchable, and what it would actually take to break their grip on our plates.