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  • (GASPS)

  • When I started learning about nutrition -

  • about which, by the way, much less is known than you might think -

  • I learned that what mattered most about one's health was not necessarily the nutrients,

  • good or bad, that you were consuming or staying away from,

  • or even the calorie counts.

  • But what predicted a healthy diet more than anything else is the fact that it was being cooked by a human being and not a corporation.

  • Corporations cook very differently than people do.

  • They use vast amounts of salt, fat, and sugar.

  • Much more than you would ever use in your own cooking,

  • and the reason they do that is those are three incredibly attractive and incredibly cheap ingredients,

  • and when they're layered properly, as you know, a chip or pastries and forms of junk food, they're incredibly addictive.

  • They really press our buttons. They activate our dopamine network, our cravings,

  • and in fact, people in the industry,

  • they don't talk about "addiction" in the food industry even though they traffic in addiction.

  • They talk about "craveability". It's the same thing,

  • and "snackability" is another term they use. It's a lovely word!

  • And then the last point about corporate cooking that's important to understand is they cook different stuff than you do at home.

  • What they're good at

  • In general, they don't cook that well, but things like chips, they cook incredibly well.

  • And here's a classic food that if you make it yourself...

  • If you've ever made French fries, you have to wash the potatoes,

  • you have to peel the potatoes, you have to slice the potatoes, you have to fry them in a lot of oil.

  • You have to spatter your entire stovetop.

  • You have to clean up and then you have this pot of oil you have to get rid of.

  • It's really difficult and it's a pain.

  • They're wonderful, but it's a pain.

  • If you make them yourself, you'll only eat them every six weeks, two months cuz it's too much work.

  • But when you let corporations cook for you,

  • it's so simple and so inexpensive and they're really good

  • that you'll have them twice a day as many people in America do.

  • The kinds of foods you end up with are labor-intensive foods and desserts.

  • These special-occasion foods become everyday foods when we let industry cook for us.

  • Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.

(GASPS)

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