'Dorito Effect' author says flavourful foods have us craving all wrong

For decades we've been trying to pinpoint what has sparked the obesity crisis. First, we assumed it was fat that was the problem, then it was carbs, then it was sugar. But what if it isn't really a nutrition problem, but a flavour one?

In his new book, "The Dorito Effect," journalist Mark Schatzker argues that the food industry has expertly learned to manipulate flavour to make their products irresistible, while fruits, vegetables and meat have all become incrementally less delicious.

"We're in a situation where a) the whole foods we grow are getting blander, they're not so fun to eat. And b) we're sprinkling flavour -- you might say the sheen of nutrition -- onto all sorts of (food)," he told CTV's Canada AM Friday.

The result is that our bodies now crave all the wrong things. Flavour used to be the language of nutrition, Schatzker says. Our bodies would seek out the flavour of the foods that contained the nutrients we needed.

But after years of loading our food with lab-made flavouring, we have interfered with that ancient chemical language.

Artificial flavours are not just in junk food, Schatzker cautions; they're everywhere, helping to mask the blandness of processed foods that now make up a large portion of our diets.

"It's in yogourt, it's in soy milk, it's in butter, it's in pasta sauce," Schatzker said.

As an illustration of how our bodies will seek out the foods that are good for us, he points to a 1939 study in which a group of toddlers were put in charge of feeding themselves. For several days, they were able to choose from a selection of 34 foods, including beef, vegetables, fruit, water and more.

"Everyone thought, at the time, that if you let kids do this they would eat themselves into a state of scurvy," says Schatzker.

But instead of binging on the sweetest or tastiest foods, the toddlers ate things that best nourished them.

"They were incredibly vigorous by the end of the experiment. One of them came in with a terrible case of rickets (which is caused by a lack of vitamin D) and actually drank cod liver oil -- of his own volition…. until his rickets was gone."

Nowadays though, we are hooked on flavouring ingredients that are often so powerful, just a few drops could flavour Niagara Falls for an hour, Schatzker writes.

They're mysterious ingredients to most consumers, and appear on labels as "artificial flavour" or "natural flavour" – with "natural flavour" being every bit as artificial as "artificial," says Schatzker.

Doritos are the perfect illustration of why food makers are also addicted to artificial flavouring. The first Dorito was actually a salted tortilla chip that didn't sell that well. But when Doritos makers decided to add taco flavouring to the chips, bags flew off the shelves.

At the same time we're adding flavour to our packaged foods, Schatzker says it’s being lost from whole foods. Produce yields are bigger and livestock is ready for market more quickly, but they have become unappetizingly bland and less nutritious in the process.

Ask anyone who has eaten a free-range, farm-raised chicken, or a home-grown carrot, and they'll tell you it tastes a whole lot better than store-bought. All those watery strawberries and pale tomatoes might travel well to the grocery store but they're so lacking in flavour, we need to dunk them in artificially-flavoured dips and dressings.

Schatzker says the key to turning the trend around lies with consumers. "We need to start valuing tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and the crispest, best apples. We shouldn't go in with the mindset of 'I want to buy whatever is 99 cents a pound,'" he says.

"I'm not saying we should spend a ridiculous amount on food, but (remember) this is fuel for your body. So if you can buy a nice cellphone or buy a nice car, think about the food you're putting in your body."