Our brain loves to consume three things: fat, sugar, and salt. Hence, if you look at some of the most addictive or compulsion-forming foods in the world, they would have a mix of the three. Here are some examples:
- Pizza: Cheese for fat, salt, and sugar from the sauce. Or the sweet can be from pineapple too!
- Salted caramel toffee: Salt from sea salt, obvious. Butter for fat. And caramelized sugar for the sweet.
- India Chaat snacks or Pani Puri: Salt from black salt in the chaat masala. Sugar from the dates chutney. Fat from oil, ghee, or vegetable oil in the fried puris.
- Cheeseburger: Fat from the cheese and meat. Sugar and salt from the sauces or even the bun.
- French fries: Fat from the oil. Salt, of course, added. Naturally occurring sugar from the potatoes. Or sugar could be even added in small forms along with dextrose for that golden color.
Now there is a fourth ingredient in the foods mentioned above. It is invisible to the eyes, but our brain and palette drool for it. And that is.. Complexity! If you watch carefully while eating the above foods, you will realize no two bites are the same. Though each bite may seem to be similar, every bite has some degree of flavor variation, a bit of novelty in it that our brain notices easily and keeps craving for more.
Hence, for some of us, even if these foods may not look addictive, we may never get bored of them. Recollect that dating app question? “If you are stuck on an island, what is the one food you would like to have forever?” In such a scenario, you can safely choose the wholesome pizza!
Now the Indian Chaat goes a level up in this complexity game. Not saying because I am an Indian. But because Chaat involves a plethora of textures. Let us sample a Sev Puri. It has the crunchy puri as the base. Then on top are soft al dente potatoes. Next, it is topped with crunchy veggies. And finally, the show stopper is the tickly crisp Nylon Sev sprinkled with Chaat masala or black salt powder. At every serving, not only do the flavors play, but the textures form an orchestra too.
FMCG companies and food businesses know this. Reese’s Big Cups (chocolate cups filled with peanut butter and potato wafers) contain all four ingredients mentioned above, plus chocolate, which in itself is addictive. Karachi biscuits (Osmania biscuits, Butter biscuits, Nankhatai) contain all four ingredients. Maggie contains all four.
So if businesses can profit from these secret ingredients, why not us? Just put the SCAMPER innovation technique to work. Substitute all the bad stuff with good ingredients. If you find hydrogenated vegetable fat (vegetable oil) or palm oil, then you can replace it with better fats like ghee, coconut oil, or even nuts. Corn syrup, maltase, or simple white table sugar can be substituted with honey, maple syrup, or jaggery, to name some. Salt is salt. Reduce it to safe levels, and do try exotic varieties of salt. Keep experimenting with different cooking techniques in order to play with the texture and further add complexity to your mix.
Dear parents, healthy eaters and fitness freaks
- Hate your dietitian for making you eat those greens?
- Need to increase your daily fiber intake?
- Kids throwing tantrums to eat those veggies, fruits, or drink milk?
Level up your cooking strategy. Use the power of these secret ingredients—fat, salt, sugar, and complex textures—to your benefit. Use SCAMPER; get creatively good at cooking. Use evolutionary traits in your favor to ‘Cook Health’ as Dr. Foo says!