How food and drink companies use science and statistical methods to create cravings

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This New York Times article, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food talks about how companies create food products that are often unhealthful and incredibly irresistible. It has implications for a diet based on moderation -- some foods are manufactured to be had to resist once you start eating them -- the brain doesn't fire the usual satiety messages.

So what is a calorie-conscious person to do? Smaller pre-packaged portions are one answer, though they can be expensive when bought in that form (you can make your own 100-calorie snacks with some generic zip bags). And, you have to make sure that they're stored in an inconvenient enough place that you don't just grab more than one. Not such an easy task.

Maybe you do need to avoid some foods you like. For me, I know that Fig Newtons are my kryptonite. Whether the box contains 2 cookies or 100, I'll devour them all, in shockingly little time, with seemingly no self-restraint. It's happened many times. So, now, I treat Fig Newtons like a successfully recovering alcoholic treats booze -- I avoid them like the plague. I haven't had a Fig Newton in my house for years. Sometimes I see them at an airport and think of picking up a small pack to take on the plane with me, knowing at least that I won't be able to get any more at 30,000 feet. But, I'm afraid it will rekindle some primal cravings for the product and I skip it in favor of something, almost anything else.

In general, I think eating small amounts of the foods you crave is a good thing -- it keeps you from obsessing about certain foods and the small amounts encourage you to savor ever little bit of the high-calorie foods you enjoy. But I also think it's useful to know what your version of Fig Newtons is and to maybe think about avoiding that in hopes of forgetting/extinguishing those cravings.