Welcome to the continuing diary series "Let's Read a WHEE Book Together!" This week, we're continuing with David Kessler's The End of Overeating, Chapter 23. If you're just discovering this diary series, you will find links to the previous installments at the bottom of this diary.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
The End of Overeating, by David Kessler, M.D.
Chapter 23: Nothing Is Real
In Chapter 23, Kessler goes down to Strawberry Fields ("Nothing is real...") via the annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists. In the Institute, the strawberries may not taste...exactly like strawberries, but surely the snozzberries taste just like snozzberries - for they are the music makers - they are the dreamers of dreams. Specifically, they are the dreamers of artificially-flavored dreams:
"Our business is to make something taste like something else, even if it is not," the food scientist added.
Kessler provides an overview of the state of the art of the artificial flavorings that the food industry adds to combinations of "sugar, fat, and salt" to produce novel and highly palatable foods. The companies mentioned in Chapter 23 range from homely and familiar names like Kraft and McCormick, to obscure industrial players like SensoryEffects, FMSS, and Comax Flavors.
Several of the companies mentioned in Chapter 23, including Kraft, have been around since the early 20th century. In fact, David Michael & Company was started in 1896, but their flavor combinations - apple chervil, coconut pineapple Thai basil, chocolate espresso chipotle - show them to be the very model of a modern major flavor company.
A look at David Michael's Web site is instructive. As Kessler notes, David Michael's motto is "Hit your flavor target faster." But if merely "faster" isn't fast enough, you may want to consider the Fast Track Flavor Process,
...a system designed to deliver exceptional response times and on-target submissions to our clients.
As you might guess, the companies represented at the Institute of Food Technologists convention are just as good at producing marketing buzzwords as they are at creating innovative tastes. According to Kessler,
Food Marketing Support Services boasts, "FMSS identifies sensory space to target product development and maximize consumer acceptance" and "FMSS artists excite the senses and create remarkable foods."
[and are no doubt working on bottling fame, brewing glory, and putting a stopper in Death - Ed]
Kessler quotes Wild Flavors' marketing literature:
Consumers want products that are indulgent and create a mood of experience
This quote leaves me with just one question:
What happens if you put a Mood of Experience inside a Bag of Holding?
Previous chapters from The End of Overeating:
Part 2: The Food Industry
Chapter 22: The World's Cuisine Becomes Americanized (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 21: The Ladder of Irresistibility (reviewed by me)
Chapter 20: What Consumers Don't Know (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 19: Giving Them What They Like (reviewed by me)
Chapter 18: No Satisfaction (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 17: The Era of the Monster Thickburger (reviewed by me)
Chapter 16: That's Entertainment (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 15: Cinnabon: A Lesson in Irresistibility (reviewed by me)
Chapter 14: A Visit to Chili's (reviewed by Clio2)
Part 1: Sugar, Fat, and Salt
Chapter 13: Eating Behavior Becomes a Habit (reviewed by me)
(there are links to Chapters 1 through 12 in my Chapter 13 review)
The Devil Made Me Do That Dept.
Speaking of artificial flavor...have you ever heard the devil's voice talking to you?
To keep my dietary protein levels up while I'm still eating a calorie-restricted diet and to help recovery after hard workouts, I use whey protein powder. I've tried a couple of companies' products, but I usually buy Optimum Nutrition's (ON) Gold Standard variety. I've found the chocolate flavors are the most palatable over the long term, but I've tried the other flavors as well. The other flavors range from tolerable (Banana Creme) to downright nasty (Vanilla was pretty bad, but Cookies and Creme was the worst - the tiny bits of real Oreo cookie in the low-fat whey protein was a classic example of what Gail Vance Civille called "little tiny globs of stuff suspended in saliva" back in Chapter 19 of Overeating).
Recently, I noticed a "Limited-time Seasonal Flavor" of ON whey protein - Apple Pie. Remembering the Cookies and Creme "Mood of Experience," I hesitated, but finally decided to order a 2-pound jar. When it arrived, I mixed up a scoop with a cup of water and checked it out. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Cookies and Creme, but not quite as good as the Banana Creme, either. Despite the "Natural and Artificial Flavors" claimed on the jar, the flavor seemed purely artificial to me. The flavor reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. A couple of days (and scoops) later, it came to me - the stuff tastes like a Jolly Rancher Apple candy - about that sweet, and just about that artificial.
I've had good experience using my hand blender to blend half a banana with a scoop of the Banana Creme flavor and 2% milk, so I decided to try mixing in a real apple flavor - I peeled a couple slices of apple and blended them with a cup of water and scoop of Apple Pie whey protein. Talk about "little tiny globs of stuff suspended in saliva" - I was able to finish it, but I decided not to do that again.
A couple of days ago, as I was swallowing the last of another dose of Apple Pie protein in water, I thought to myself, "Say, I bet a dash of caramel flavor Torani or Da Vinci sugar-free syrup would really punch this up." And that's when I heard the Devil speaking to me:
You know what would really give that a kick? A couple of spoonfuls of cajeta...
I haven't bought a jar of cajeta yet, but it's probably only a matter of time.
Scheduled WHEE Diaries
November 15
Sun AM - louisev Turtle Diary
Sun PM - Open Thread and Holiday Fit Club
November 16
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - Brimi
November 17
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 24)
November 18
Wed AM - ???
Wed PM - ???
November 19
Thurs AM - Ed G
Thurs PM - ???
November 20
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
November 21
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 25)