Why can't we stop eating certain foods? - BBC — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00even if they want to cut down even if
2. 0:01they know it's killing them they find
3. 0:03they can't stop my name is Chris vankin
4. 0:06I'm an NHS doctor I'm a scientist and
5. 0:09I'm part of a growing group of doctors
6. 0:11and academics who are increasingly
7. 0:13worried about the effect that the global
8. 0:16food system is having on all of us when
9. 0:19it comes to obesity the way that we've
10. 0:20understood the problem is it's a failure
11. 0:22of willpower people are just making bad
12. 0:25choices they're somewhat lazy it's
13. 0:28basically their fault this is American
14. 0:30government data for men and women of all
15. 0:32different ages the different lines of
16. 0:34different ages for obesity what you see
17. 0:36is between 1960 and 1975 there's a
18. 0:40fairly steady percentage of obesity in
19. 0:42the
20. 0:43population but in the mid 1970s obesity
21. 0:46starts going up in all of the groups
22. 0:49[Music]
23. 0:51simultaneously now if you're saying
24. 0:53willpower is responsible what you're
25. 0:55proposing is that all of these groups of
26. 0:57people simultaneously lost moral
27. 1:00responsibility and that's not
28. 1:01plausible something else happened to our
29. 1:04food in the mid 1970s to make it
30. 1:07irresistible to people my name is John
31. 1:09Ruff and uh I've spent 40 years in the
32. 1:12food industry across seven different
33. 1:14countries companies spent a lot of time
34. 1:17optimizing all aspects of their product
35. 1:19the flavor The Taste the texture people
36. 1:22want their product to be as good it's
37. 1:24not better than the competitor um so it
38. 1:26will sell more we use train sensory
39. 1:29panels to give us ratings is it squishy
40. 1:32is it hard is it soft is it crunchy and
41. 1:34that's very much how the food industry
42. 1:37operates one thing many people don't
43. 1:39realize is that factory processing
44. 1:42changes the textural properties of food
45. 1:44an interesting fact about soft food is
46. 1:47you're not chewing it as much that
47. 1:49actually short circuits the normal
48. 1:51satiety mechanisms that you would have
49. 1:53if you were actually chewing food
50. 1:55properly so you're bypassing a normal
51. 1:57mechanism that tells you you're full
52. 2:01once youve worked out that playing
53. 2:03around with the texture of food making
54. 2:05it softer tricks that normal satiety or
55. 2:08fullness mechanism clearly there's
56. 2:10there's an opportunity there for some
57. 2:12kind of scarless behavior in making food
58. 2:14softer so that people will eat more and
59. 2:17therefore you sell more of your
60. 2:19[Music]
61. 2:24product so much of the packaged food
62. 2:26that we eat is incredibly soft
63. 2:31[Music]
64. 2:34my kids love
65. 2:37these you don't typically think of this
66. 2:39as being a soft food because it's a bit
67. 2:42crunchy but actually after that initial
68. 2:44crunch you can just crush it with your
69. 2:45tongue right it's got no resistance at
70. 2:47all but in terms of the calories per
71. 2:50gram it's got way more calories than
72. 2:52even a a very fatty Burger so the
73. 2:55softness and the energy density mean
74. 2:57that you consume it incredibly quickly
75. 2:59and this there a food industry term for
76. 3:01these very light puffy foods that melt
77. 3:04in the mouth it's called Vanishing
78. 3:07caloric
79. 3:11density
80. 3:15gone the thing that makes us eat a lot
81. 3:18isn't just what we do to the
82. 3:20food it's also about logos marketing
83. 3:26branding the Box the food comes in
84. 3:30[Music]
85. 3:35eating is a multi-sensory
86. 3:38experience there's the look of the food
87. 3:40there's the smell of the food there's
88. 3:42the feeling of the food on your
89. 3:45fingers even the sound of Food
90. 3:48[Music]
91. 3:52Matters when you open a fizzy soda
92. 3:55you've got two noises you've got the
93. 3:57click and The Tear
94. 4:00sound engineers and manufacturers work
95. 4:03really hard to get that sound just right
96. 4:06and that's Sonic
97. 4:12branding many companies have asked me to
98. 4:15work on Sonic branding for them and I
99. 4:17think I can mention when I was working
100. 4:19with Kellogg they said ooh what's Sonic
101. 4:22branding and I said you invented
102. 4:26this most people will remember as
103. 4:28children the experience of lifting a
104. 4:31ball to their ear and what are they
105. 4:33listening for snap crackle and pop
106. 4:37that's Sonic branding at its best and
107. 4:40that's the
108. 4:41original there's a lot of competition
109. 4:43out there and food companies make their
110. 4:46money by the amount of products we
111. 4:48consume from them so there's a stomach
112. 4:50share that they're fighting for and
113. 4:52there are hours in the day in between
114. 4:55breakfast lunch and dinner what happens
115. 4:57between those hours they want us to
116. 4:59snack
117. 5:01[Music]
118. 5:02you wake up and this is what you have
119. 5:04snack number one breakfast shake Ultra
120. 5:07processed this is heavily marketed for
121. 5:09you to have on the Go Do not sit down do
122. 5:12not take time to Crunch through
123. 5:14something snack number two of the
124. 5:18day it's empty calories energy dense
125. 5:21nutrient poor midday you're starting to
126. 5:25get a little bit peckish and what do you
127. 5:27have veggie straws this is a good
128. 5:30example of a health claim snacking
129. 5:32product whereas before we would have had
130. 5:35food actual food now we are marketed
131. 5:38into believing that this is actually a
132. 5:40healthy
133. 5:42replacement some snacking products have
134. 5:44now been made to be linked with being
135. 5:46physically active so after the gym I
136. 5:49have a high protein low sugar bar
137. 5:53instead of having a healthier
138. 5:56option you finish having dinner and you
139. 5:59have these snacks that are sold to you
140. 6:02as more to share where in fact you can
141. 6:04just finish them watching the TV by
142. 6:07yourself I do like them and I cannot
143. 6:10stop eating
144. 6:13them and I literally
145. 6:16can't my God I think one of the biggest
146. 6:19problems with this kind of food is that
147. 6:21so many of us struggle to stop eating it
148. 6:24hi everyone I'm so thrilled to be here
149. 6:26today to speak with you on my research
150. 6:29looks at parallels between addictive
151. 6:32substances and Ultra processed food when
152. 6:35we look at the sorts of foods that
153. 6:36trigger those key diagnostic indicators
154. 6:39of addiction it's really clear what it's
155. 6:41not it's not minimally processed foods
156. 6:45like fruits or vegetables or beans or
157. 6:48lean meats like chicken breast it's
158. 6:51really processed foods it's chocolate
159. 6:54it's ice cream it's Pizza it's foods
160. 6:57that don't exist in nature
161. 7:01the potency and the reward power of
162. 7:04these ultr processed foods can trigger
163. 7:06an addictive response that leads them to
164. 7:08consume these in such a compulsive way
165. 7:11that even if they want to cut down even
166. 7:13if they know it's killing them they find
167. 7:15they can't stop imagine you're trying to
168. 7:19cut down an ultra processed food or
169. 7:21avoid it
170. 7:24altogether forar might be the only food
171. 7:27you can afford and that is true for
172. 7:28millions of people
173. 7:30but it's
174. 7:31everywhere and it's engineered and then
175. 7:34marketed by some of the smartest people
176. 7:36on Earth to be
177. 7:41irresistible so if someone is watching
178. 7:43this and they are struggling with their
179. 7:45weight with diet related disease I just
180. 7:47want to reach out and grab them and go
181. 7:49this is not your fault it is not you it
182. 7:51is the
183. 7:54food the food and drink Federation
184. 7:57declined our request for an interview
185. 7:58but provided this statement
186. 8:00food and drink manufacturers take the
187. 8:02issue of obesity and poor diets very
188. 8:03seriously and we know we have a key role
189. 8:05to play in helping people to eat
190. 8:06balanced diets our members continue to
191. 8:09invest hundreds of millions of pounds in
192. 8:10creating healthier products for Shoppers
193. 8:13as a result UK shopping baskets now
194. 8:14contain significantly less salt sugar
195. 8:16and calories than they did a decade ago
196. 8:19companies are also working to raise the
197. 8:20fiber fruit and vegetable content of
198. 8:22their products it's of course up to
199. 8:24government if they want to introduce new
200. 8:26taxes or warning labels however taxes
201. 8:28will push up the cost of food and could
202. 8:30disincentivize ongoing investment in
203. 8:31healthier products we think there are
204. 8:33more effective ways to encourage
205. 8:35positive dietary change on labeling we
206. 8:38believe the UK's traffic light system is
207. 8:39a more positive way of nudging consumers
208. 8:41towards healthier choices than warning
209. 8:43labels where Global evidence suggest the
210. 8:45longer term impact is limited however we
211. 8:48would support a labeling review
212. 8:49including to test whether consistent
213. 8:51positive labeling on all healthier
214. 8:53products would help
215. 8:54consumers the government's scientific
216. 8:56advisory committee on nutrition had said
217. 8:58there's insufficient scientific evidence
218. 9:00on the concept of ultra processed foods
219. 9:02for it to be used for dietary guidance
220. 9:04or policym and that further research is
221. 9:06needed if research comes to light that
222. 9:09processing is a cause of concern the
223. 9:11food industry will act quickly to change
224. 9:12their ingredients or processes