Hooked: How Processed Food Became Addictive

by Michael Moss

Here’s where this research got even more valuable for the companies. When Kroger further crunched the data on what we buy and why, it found that large numbers of the brand-loyal shoppers responded to variety, too, and even some of the price hounds could be lured by a new kind of cookie or cereal or baking mix. This meant that new items could be designed to hit our emotions on several fronts at once, with variety acting as a unifying agent for higher sales. You can see this shift in strategy quite plainly on the front of the labels on processed food. Where before they went after just one of our emotions with just one catchphrase, the boxes and bags of our favorite brands in the grocery store began sporting a double wallop to the part of the brain that spurs us to act fast: “New Flavor!” and “Lower Price!”