There’s a concept in economics, the “bliss point,” that indicates the precise level of consumption at which consumers enjoy an apex of satisfaction.
Any further consumption past that peak would tip them over into relative dissatisfaction, leading to worse and worse outcomes the more consuming they do.
The same general concept also exists in the world of food, related to our enjoyment of (and indulgence in) it.
Recent research conducted by a psychophysicist and market researcher (based on earlier research from the mid-20th century) who has created a portfolio of successful food and beverage products, indicates there is a precisely optimal ratio of salt, sugar, and fat—those three elements balanced perfectly with each other—that creates what he calls a bliss point that results in the largest number of people enjoying the food or beverage at an optimal level, creating the maximal positive response.
So the exact right amount of saltiness and sweetness and richness, according to this and subsequent research, can spark a maximally enjoyable food or drink experience for the consumer, triggering bodily reward systems that are calibrated to point us toward nutritional elements we need in order to survive and thrive.
This could be construed as a hijacking of those reward systems, because the approach aims to game the biological system, basically, triggering a flood of endorphins in the consumer that lasts just long enough for them to form associations with the activity they were engaged in when they received it (consuming that food or drink product). This, in turn, creates a drive to do it again immediately (eating another chip or taking another swig of soda) but also long-term, leading to the formation of powerful habits and rituals involving these products.
The right blend of salt, sugar, and fat leads to more potent outcomes than any of them individually or as a pair, and this body of science has essentially created models that allow food- and beverage-makers to more consistently trigger a pleasure-chemical cascade in consumers, raising the question—with some scientists and regulators, at least—about how much of our over- and unhealthful-consumption habits are the fault of we the consumers, and to what degree we are being manipulated by the companies utilizing this knowledge to lock us in a cycle of reward-system hijacking experienced as cravings.
This is still a relatively young realm of inquiry, but the impact of this series of discoveries by people working in and with food and beverage companies has already been influential on their sales numbers, and (ostensibly, at least) on the health of the consuming public, as well.
There’s a chance future discoveries will tell us that the power of bliss points in this space have been overblown and that the consumer has more self-determination in this regard than is currently being suggested, but as with other chemically addictive products (like those that contain nicotine), there’s also a chance we’ll look back at this research as the source of a new understanding that helped us pinpoint a previously unrecognized influence on our consumption habits, which in turn could lead to the empowerment of more healthful offerings (increasing the bliss point of healthier foods and beverages), alongside regulations that temper bliss point-utility in unhealthful junk food.