London: Junk food manufacturers have created such combinations of fat, sugar and salt which are so tasty that they trigger a "bliss point" leaving people hungry for more, a leading expert has claimed.
David Kessler, the former head of the US Food and Drug Administration, has warned that snacks, cereals and many ready meals devised by food scientists can act on the reward centres of the brain in the same way as tobacco.
"It is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese. The real problem is we have created a world where food is always available and where that food is designed to make you want to eat more of it. For millions of people, modern food is simply impossible to resist.
"The right combination of tastes triggers a greater number of neurons, getting them to fire more. The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to look for even more food," Kessler was quoted by British newspaper 'The Sunday Times' as saying.
In fact, in his new book titled 'The End of Overeating' Kessler has claimed that food manufacturers have achieved a similar result using precise combinations of fat, sugar, salt and texture to make foods "hyper-palatable".
He has cited Heinz tomato ketchup and Starbucks white chocolate mocha Frappuccino as examples of the thousands of modern foods that have been engineered to stimulate feelings of pleasure.
A study carried out by Kessler with researchers at Yale University using functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, showed that about 50 per cent of obese people and 30 per cent of those who are overweight were prone to what many say is "excessive activation".
"Many of us have what's called a 'bliss point' - the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt. As more sugar is added, food becomes more pleasurable until we reach the bliss point, after which it becomes too sweet and the pleasure drops off," Kessler said.