The Dorito Effect

01How food tastes have changed since the 50s

Let's talk about flavor. It's not just about making our food taste good. It's also a way for our bodies to figure out what nutrients we need. For example, when we taste the sweetness in fruit, our bodies know we're getting sugars that give us energy. The savory taste in meat and mushrooms? That's our bodies recognizing proteins. Back in the day, say the first half of the 1900s, food was mostly grown on small farms. The focus was on quality, not quantity. Fruits and veggies were ripe and bursting with flavor. Meat came from animals that ate natural diets. You didn't need to douse your tomatoes in spicy dressing or smother your fruit in whipped cream. They were tasty just as they were. But then came the 1950s and the rise of industrial farming. The goal shifted to making more food for less money. This meant using artificial fertilizers and pesticides and breeding crops and livestock for high yields. Sure, we got more food, but it wasn't as good. The flavor suffered. Julia Child, the famous chef, once said that chicken tasted like teddy bear stuffing. It had become bland and tasteless. At the same time, the food industry started adding artificial flavors to make food more appealing. Take Doritos, for example. When they first came out, they were plain tortilla chips. But they didn't sell well. So, the marketing guy at Frito-Lay, Arch West, decided to add taco flavoring. It was a hit, and it led to a bunch of other flavors like nacho cheese and salad dressing. So, here's the weird thing. Natural foods have lost their flavor, but processed foods are packed with artificial flavors. This isn't just about taste. It's about health. When we eat artificially flavored food, our bodies think they're getting nutrients that aren't really there. This can lead to overeating and not getting enough of the right nutrients. It's a big part of why we're seeing so much obesity and other diet-related diseases. In short, the change in flavors since the 1950s isn't just about new flavors. It's about losing the real, natural flavors in our food. This has big implications for our health and well-being. It's something we need to think about when we're deciding what to eat.