Have you ever wondered why a bag of chips or a bottle of soda is so hard to put down? It’s not just the salt or the sugar—it’s the flavor.

In his eye-opening book The Dorito Effect, author Mark Schatzker explores how the modern food industry has turned flavor into a science. Instead of flavor being a natural result of real ingredients, many of the foods we eat today are laced with chemical flavor enhancers designed to simulate taste without delivering the nutrition our bodies really need.

Here’s the problem: Flavor is meant to be a signal. For most of human history, flavor helped us identify what foods were rich in nutrients. Sweet meant energy (usually from fruit), savory meant protein, and bitterness often warned us of toxins. But now, those flavor cues have been hijacked.

Chemical flavorings—often listed as “natural flavors” or “artificial flavors”—trick our brains into thinking we’re eating something nourishing, when in reality, we’re consuming highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. Over time, this rewires our taste preferences. Real, whole foods like a tomato or a piece of grilled chicken start to taste bland compared to their artificially flavored counterparts.

This shift can have a real impact on our health. As we crave more hyper-flavored, artificially enhanced foods, we often eat more than we need and miss out on the vitamins, minerals, and fiber that come from natural ingredients. Worse yet, our palate becomes desensitized to real food’s subtle, nourishing flavors.

Schatzker’s research highlights a hard truth: We don’t just have a junk food problem—we have a flavor problem.

So what can you do?

• Start reading labels — the more whole and recognizable the ingredients, the better.
• Cook with real herbs and spices to reawaken your taste for natural flavors.
• Choose foods with flavor that comes from the food itself, not from a lab.

Retraining your taste buds takes time—but it’s worth it. When you start tasting food as nature intended, you’ll find that real flavor is healthier and far more satisfying.

Link to Morter March Monday Rebroadcast: