Why Are These Chips Sooooooo Delicious?

So what makes a flavor a hit? Why do we love some flavors and curl our lips at others? To understand the answers, wander over to a mirror and stick out your tongue. That slimy pink blob is a sophisticated instrument, packed with flavor-sensing taste buds. Your 10,000 taste buds (which are on your cheeks as well as your tongue) can detect five flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.

Our power to detect flavors is a critical survival tool. Thousands of years ago, when our ancestors were hunting and gathering food in the wild, a quick taste could determine if a food was edible or deadly. A bitter berry? It could kill you! That sour hunk of buffalo meat? Bleh! It’s rotten!

Our tongues, however, play only a small role in taste. Ever wonder why food tastes bland when you have a stuffy nose? It’s because your tongue is pretty much lost without your nose. The tongue can distinguish between something sweet and something bitter, but it’s the complex interplay between aroma and taste that tells your brain whether that delectable ice cream you’re eating is chocolate or vanilla.

If flavorists understand the intricacies of taste, then food companies understand which tastes translate into a best-selling product. Through their research, food companies have discovered that the most successful products “pop” in the mouth with bursts of different flavors that quickly fade, leaving the brain wanting more. They have also found that texture—the buttery softness of a cookie, the delightful ooze of cheese on a pizza—is key. In fact, food companies know how we prefer nearly everything, from how much crunch we want in our chips to how thick we like our donut glaze. All this data enables companies to make foods that are seriously scrumptious.

But is it possible that some foods are too delicious?

Many of the foods we love the most are the least healthy. Some experts believe companies deliberately create foods that are hard—indeed, nearly impossible—to resist. Studies have shown that certain textures combined with just the right flavors short-circuit our body’s system for signaling when we’re full. So we just keep eating and eating . . . and eating. This means more money for food companies and health problems for us.

Most food companies dismiss this criticism. They insist they’re just making foods that taste great. Isn’t it up to us to know when we’ve had enough?

Of course it is. This bag of chips we’ve been eating? We know we should put it away. We’ve eaten way too many chips already. But they’re so yummy!

Maybe we’ll have just a few more.