Summary Of The Extraordinary Science Of Addictive Junk Food
In daily routine and life-changing situations alike, environmental factors constantly impact people’s decision-making process. Michael Moss, a journalist, examines how the junk food industry influences its users’ appetites with both marketing and product composition in “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food”. Similarly, writer Andrew Solomon’s “Son” details how people and their views of others can impact another’s emotions and behaviors. As a result, people’s ability to achieve their goals are hurt. People find themselves passively guided into making destructive decisions as a result of the environment around themselves. Those who are able to rise above this do so by realizing how fighting social influence, utilizing negative environments,
…show more content…
resisting negative cravings, and ignoring environmental pressures are vital to one’s growth.
A person’s ability to achieve personal growth is dependent on their ability to actively manipulate their outside environment instead of passively be guided by it. People judge their actions as a result of the opinions of others. They act in fear of disapproval from others. Moss introduces this idea in relation the food industry through the eyes of Dr. James Benke, who tries to . Despite Benke’s best efforts, the food industry failed to acknowledge the importance of public health over sales of product (259-260). Benke speaks to a dismissive crowd due to the idea of remaining faithful towards a community’s opinions. His fellow industry members’ unwillingness to change for healthier options shows the industry’s weighted importance in following the public idea of profits over public health. This form of social influence comes from a built-up industry standard to prioritize the profit of a product over its nutrition. This unwillingness to change as a result of a pre-established ideas comes from the fear of being rejected from the industry or losing against competitors. Due to this mindset, it is difficult to take actions or view situations that conflict with pre-established ideas. The idea
to maintain a certain frame of mind perpetuates the idea that the only thing that matters to the junk food industry is profits hurts them by being unable to communicate on pressing issues such as the link of their industry’s practices to rising obesity rates and how that will affect government regulations. The inability to change position leaves an ironic situation where the junk food industry risks hurting themselves by over-prioritizing self-preservation by holding tight towards the industry’s influences. To a similar degree, Solomon’s family faces the same social pressures when dealing with the idea of his potential sexual preference; “[Solomon’s] mother didn’t want [him] to be gay because she thought it would be the happiest course for [him]” (376). His mother’s fear of the negative image homosexuality presents forces her to protect her son from that image. Ironically, this hurt him. Solomon’s struggle to live with himself as a homosexual originates from the public’s inability to accept the identity. As a result, he was not allowed to grow of not being able to express himself as his true sexual orientation. His mother’s fear is a direct result of the discrimination that is standard for people who identify as homosexual. Just the same, Solomon’s mother and the junk food industry share negative effects as a result of their inability to adjust and see past social influences. Both are unable to accept reality due to the fear of what reality presents them. There isn’t much difference between facing possible profit loss and being subjected to discrimination by society for you expressing your true self. Solomon’s mother’s eventual acceptance of his personality demonstrates the positive growth he was able to obtain as a result, even if his ability to express his sexuality remains limited by social influences. Social influences cause people to act with intention of maintaining a positive position in the perspective of others.
The negative elements of an environment can help people mature with their ability to overcome the struggles they encounter. Solomon believes, “without [his] struggles, [he] would not be [him]self” (383). The personal growth he experienced is a direct result of his reaction to the struggles his environment presented him. His struggles made him a better person, despite spending decades recovering and learning to succeed in self-expression. He should consider himself lucky, as without small doses of positive reinforcement from his family and his teachers kept him from experiencing permanent physical or mental injury. Solomon’s success is an image of taking his environment and learning to thrive by learning to resist the destructive effects of what is around him and learning to embrace the positive things around him. His discovery of openly supportive communities was essential to this achievement. Moss converses with someone able to take a negative environment and extract positive aspects jus the same. Jeffery Dunn, a Coca-Cola executive, told Moss about his ability to transform the malicious junk-food industry to fulfill his goal of a healthier snacking options; “We are pro-junk-food behavior but anti-junk-food establishment.” (275). Dunn’s manipulation of a negative environment to achieve his goals is a rare sight. The use of this practice to achieve positive results demonstrates both creativity and innovative skills. His refusal to accept the snack market as a place to sell junk-food that is unhealthy is a clear example of turning away negative aspects of his environment. Dunn’s use of the negative aspects of the junk-food industry to achieve his goals parallels Solomon’s ability to grow through the discrimination of his own sexual identity. Both find themselves in a negative situation where they turn away the negative aspects and utilize the positive to achieve their goals. Cravings attract people towards making bad decisions. Moss has Howard Moskowitz, an experimental psychologist, cover the idea called “the bliss point” which means “any of the other systems that help food companies create the greatest amount of crave” (264). Moskowitz targets consumers by examining their inner working and targeting their vulnerabilities. This specific targeting is designed to leave people craving something that would deter them from good health. Targeting someone’s bliss point attracts them to making dietary decisions that would be detrimental to maintaining good health. This manipulation doesn’t just exist with dieting. Solomon’s personal struggle to find social connections manipulated him in a way where his mental and physical health were dependent on the acknowledgement of others, specifically, role models from his youth. “Their [his high school teachers] implicit acknowledgement of my sexuality helped me not to become an addict or a suicide” (378). Solomon’s mental and physical health were both dependent on the acknowledgment of others. Without this acknowledgement, he is left in a depressed state. His teachers’ recognition of his sexual identity and uncommon preferences enables him to survive in an environment that discourages the factors that are necessary for his survival and growth. Their fulfillment of his social craving allows him grow as Solomon’s high school teachers let him to express himself and communicate his emotions. The biological responses from consumers and Solomon both demonstrate the environmental manipulated that is made in reaction to cravings. “Bliss points” cause people to crave more of the same product due to its creation of desire. Products that are engineered to trigger these points create the desire for people to consume more of the same product, pushing people towards desiring the same product in the future. Solomon craves acceptance in a similar fashion. He finds himself searching for acceptance and self-expression throughout his life and depends on it for his own mental well-being. It affects his lifestyle until he is focused on achieving this acceptance as a major life goal and grows around the concept of finding acceptance from both his family and peers. Solomon’s final growth happens when he finally learns to satisfy his craving in a positive manner, finding acceptance from others for his genuine identity. Overall, both situations show a dependency on biological cravings and how they push people towards compulsive actions. Solomon and consumers alike are forced into a journey to achieve a feeling of satisfaction as a result from the stimulus of craving. The circumstances of one’s environment can affect how people make decisions. People find themselves trapped in an environment that they can’t escape or ignore easily, as it exists all around them and its constant exposure constantly encourages people to fall short of personal goals. Moss records the accounts of Todd Putman, a former Coca-Cola employee in terms of how the company abusively targets consumers. Coca-Cola asked, “How can we drive ounces into more bodies more often?” (274). Coca-Cola, along with other junk food corporations, are known for attempting to manipulate the public by forcing their goods upon people through forms of convenience and marketing. People are subjected to abusive targeting through aggressive advertisement and price targeting. This encourages them to use their products despite their negative effects. People do fall victim to these ploys despite the obvious negative results of doing so. It is hard to ignore one’s environment, no matter how hard one tries. In a similar fashion, Solomon attempts to gain insight from a blind girl on how to turn away such environments of negative reinforcement. “The blind girl kept repeating that I should ‘just ignore it,’ and so I sat there pretending unconvincingly that it wasn’t happening” (377). People can find themselves stuck with elements of negative reinforcement that push ideas that lead to negative reception. The ability to resist this exposure is crucial to one’s success. However, the blind girl and Solomon aren’t actually able to resist their environment. Solomon stills becomes affected by the taunts from his peers as it leads him to still experience the pain of his environment rejecting him. In both situations, mastering the refusal of one’s negative environment is crucial to the growth of one’s self. In conclusion, people and their ability to grow are directly impacted by manipulate their exposure to their local environment. Society constantly pushes people towards ideas and opinions that may go against what they truly feel or believe. In a similar fashion, their bodily addictions and desires directly cause them to crave what they either can’t have or don’t need. Along with the social pressures, one’s environment can cause either positive or negative reinforcement of one’s actions. People can be negatively affected by such support for negative actions. Overcoming these obstacles and managing what lessons to take away is the key to growing into a better person.
resisting negative cravings, and ignoring environmental pressures are vital to one’s growth.
A person’s ability to achieve personal growth is dependent on their ability to actively manipulate their outside environment instead of passively be guided by it. People judge their actions as a result of the opinions of others. They act in fear of disapproval from others. Moss introduces this idea in relation the food industry through the eyes of Dr. James Benke, who tries to . Despite Benke’s best efforts, the food industry failed to acknowledge the importance of public health over sales of product (259-260). Benke speaks to a dismissive crowd due to the idea of remaining faithful towards a community’s opinions. His fellow industry members’ unwillingness to change for healthier options shows the industry’s weighted importance in following the public idea of profits over public health. This form of social influence comes from a built-up industry standard to prioritize the profit of a product over its nutrition. This unwillingness to change as a result of a pre-established ideas comes from the fear of being rejected from the industry or losing against competitors. Due to this mindset, it is difficult to take actions or view situations that conflict with pre-established ideas. The idea
to maintain a certain frame of mind perpetuates the idea that the only thing that matters to the junk food industry is profits hurts them by being unable to communicate on pressing issues such as the link of their industry’s practices to rising obesity rates and how that will affect government regulations. The inability to change position leaves an ironic situation where the junk food industry risks hurting themselves by over-prioritizing self-preservation by holding tight towards the industry’s influences. To a similar degree, Solomon’s family faces the same social pressures when dealing with the idea of his potential sexual preference; “[Solomon’s] mother didn’t want [him] to be gay because she thought it would be the happiest course for [him]” (376). His mother’s fear of the negative image homosexuality presents forces her to protect her son from that image. Ironically, this hurt him. Solomon’s struggle to live with himself as a homosexual originates from the public’s inability to accept the identity. As a result, he was not allowed to grow of not being able to express himself as his true sexual orientation. His mother’s fear is a direct result of the discrimination that is standard for people who identify as homosexual. Just the same, Solomon’s mother and the junk food industry share negative effects as a result of their inability to adjust and see past social influences. Both are unable to accept reality due to the fear of what reality presents them. There isn’t much difference between facing possible profit loss and being subjected to discrimination by society for you expressing your true self. Solomon’s mother’s eventual acceptance of his personality demonstrates the positive growth he was able to obtain as a result, even if his ability to express his sexuality remains limited by social influences. Social influences cause people to act with intention of maintaining a positive position in the perspective of others.
The negative elements of an environment can help people mature with their ability to overcome the struggles they encounter. Solomon believes, “without [his] struggles, [he] would not be [him]self” (383). The personal growth he experienced is a direct result of his reaction to the struggles his environment presented him. His struggles made him a better person, despite spending decades recovering and learning to succeed in self-expression. He should consider himself lucky, as without small doses of positive reinforcement from his family and his teachers kept him from experiencing permanent physical or mental injury. Solomon’s success is an image of taking his environment and learning to thrive by learning to resist the destructive effects of what is around him and learning to embrace the positive things around him. His discovery of openly supportive communities was essential to this achievement. Moss converses with someone able to take a negative environment and extract positive aspects jus the same. Jeffery Dunn, a Coca-Cola executive, told Moss about his ability to transform the malicious junk-food industry to fulfill his goal of a healthier snacking options; “We are pro-junk-food behavior but anti-junk-food establishment.” (275). Dunn’s manipulation of a negative environment to achieve his goals is a rare sight. The use of this practice to achieve positive results demonstrates both creativity and innovative skills. His refusal to accept the snack market as a place to sell junk-food that is unhealthy is a clear example of turning away negative aspects of his environment. Dunn’s use of the negative aspects of the junk-food industry to achieve his goals parallels Solomon’s ability to grow through the discrimination of his own sexual identity. Both find themselves in a negative situation where they turn away the negative aspects and utilize the positive to achieve their goals. Cravings attract people towards making bad decisions. Moss has Howard Moskowitz, an experimental psychologist, cover the idea called “the bliss point” which means “any of the other systems that help food companies create the greatest amount of crave” (264). Moskowitz targets consumers by examining their inner working and targeting their vulnerabilities. This specific targeting is designed to leave people craving something that would deter them from good health. Targeting someone’s bliss point attracts them to making dietary decisions that would be detrimental to maintaining good health. This manipulation doesn’t just exist with dieting. Solomon’s personal struggle to find social connections manipulated him in a way where his mental and physical health were dependent on the acknowledgement of others, specifically, role models from his youth. “Their [his high school teachers] implicit acknowledgement of my sexuality helped me not to become an addict or a suicide” (378). Solomon’s mental and physical health were both dependent on the acknowledgment of others. Without this acknowledgement, he is left in a depressed state. His teachers’ recognition of his sexual identity and uncommon preferences enables him to survive in an environment that discourages the factors that are necessary for his survival and growth. Their fulfillment of his social craving allows him grow as Solomon’s high school teachers let him to express himself and communicate his emotions. The biological responses from consumers and Solomon both demonstrate the environmental manipulated that is made in reaction to cravings. “Bliss points” cause people to crave more of the same product due to its creation of desire. Products that are engineered to trigger these points create the desire for people to consume more of the same product, pushing people towards desiring the same product in the future. Solomon craves acceptance in a similar fashion. He finds himself searching for acceptance and self-expression throughout his life and depends on it for his own mental well-being. It affects his lifestyle until he is focused on achieving this acceptance as a major life goal and grows around the concept of finding acceptance from both his family and peers. Solomon’s final growth happens when he finally learns to satisfy his craving in a positive manner, finding acceptance from others for his genuine identity. Overall, both situations show a dependency on biological cravings and how they push people towards compulsive actions. Solomon and consumers alike are forced into a journey to achieve a feeling of satisfaction as a result from the stimulus of craving. The circumstances of one’s environment can affect how people make decisions. People find themselves trapped in an environment that they can’t escape or ignore easily, as it exists all around them and its constant exposure constantly encourages people to fall short of personal goals. Moss records the accounts of Todd Putman, a former Coca-Cola employee in terms of how the company abusively targets consumers. Coca-Cola asked, “How can we drive ounces into more bodies more often?” (274). Coca-Cola, along with other junk food corporations, are known for attempting to manipulate the public by forcing their goods upon people through forms of convenience and marketing. People are subjected to abusive targeting through aggressive advertisement and price targeting. This encourages them to use their products despite their negative effects. People do fall victim to these ploys despite the obvious negative results of doing so. It is hard to ignore one’s environment, no matter how hard one tries. In a similar fashion, Solomon attempts to gain insight from a blind girl on how to turn away such environments of negative reinforcement. “The blind girl kept repeating that I should ‘just ignore it,’ and so I sat there pretending unconvincingly that it wasn’t happening” (377). People can find themselves stuck with elements of negative reinforcement that push ideas that lead to negative reception. The ability to resist this exposure is crucial to one’s success. However, the blind girl and Solomon aren’t actually able to resist their environment. Solomon stills becomes affected by the taunts from his peers as it leads him to still experience the pain of his environment rejecting him. In both situations, mastering the refusal of one’s negative environment is crucial to the growth of one’s self. In conclusion, people and their ability to grow are directly impacted by manipulate their exposure to their local environment. Society constantly pushes people towards ideas and opinions that may go against what they truly feel or believe. In a similar fashion, their bodily addictions and desires directly cause them to crave what they either can’t have or don’t need. Along with the social pressures, one’s environment can cause either positive or negative reinforcement of one’s actions. People can be negatively affected by such support for negative actions. Overcoming these obstacles and managing what lessons to take away is the key to growing into a better person.