Ditto Food: Microwave Popcorn
In The Shangri-La Diet I argue that the obesity epidemic is due to what I call ditto food: Food that tastes exactly the same each time. Just as you will make a very deep hole with a gun if you hit exactly the same spot each time you fire it, you will produce a very strong flavor-calorie association if you eat a food that tastes exactly the same each time.
The experience of a Colorado man supports this idea. He went to a doctor because of shortness of breath. He didn’t smoke. His test results resembled those of workers in microwave popcorn factories, who often have lung damage because of exposure to a flavoring chemical. The doctor asked the man if he was around a lot of popcorn. “How could you possibly know that about me?” the man said. “I am Mr. Popcorn.” He had eaten microwave popcorn twice a day or more for at least 10 years. When he stopped, he lost 50 pounds in six months. Apparently he made no other changes.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I find your experiments and theories quite intriguing, albeit I remain skeptical.
However, the research discussed in this article seems to provide support for a generalization of your theory involving the sense of sight!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2157226,00.html
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 am
[…] It doesn’t seem like much of a leap that eating the same foods over and over might contribute to weight gain, provided those foods had a strong, consistent flavor and dense calories. Junk food, fast food, sugary bevarages and heavily processed foods all seem to fit into this theory nicely. Seth Roberts, the author of the Shangri-la Diet, calls these foods ditto foods. I think most people would accept the idea that foods which are dense in calories are fattening. What might be surprising is how important strong, consistent flavors are. […]