The Dorito Effect By Mark Schatzker

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor
By Mark Schatzker
Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

We have heard of the “placebo effect,” the “nocebo effect,” the “side effect” and many others. This book answers that burning question I’m sure you have always wondered about: What is the “Dorito effect”?

Studies done with chickens, cows and other animals have looked at what they eat and why, examining why animal tastes change from one day to the next. Researchers have found that cravings for certain foods correspond to nutritional status. If an animal is deficient in phosphorus, for example, it may pig out on high-phosphorus plants today and then avoid those same plants tomorrow because that nutritional shortage has been corrected.

Do humans have this same ability? The answer is a very qualified “yes.” Sometimes those instincts work, and sometimes they go horribly wrong. Before you conclude that you have a severe deficiency in Ben & Jerry’s and run off to slam down a half-gallon in one sitting, you might want to read a little further.

The animals in these studies were fed real food. Much of the human food supply is not real. This book goes into some detail about the kinds of artificial flavors and appetite enhancers that manufacturers have added to fake food. The frequent side effect of these chemicals is a badly scrambled metabolism and feedback system. If you eat these pseudo-foods, you will not be able to depend on your innate nutritional wisdom to steer you right. This is the dreaded “Dorito effect.”

Author Mark Schatzker illustrates this point using Doritos, explaining that once they start munching on these chips, most people have a hard time stopping, even when they are not hungry any more. They will keep eating until their blood runs orange. This is a little strange to me because I find Doritos to be the most disgusting food-like substance on the planet. Just the smell of them makes me want to launch my lunch. Yes, I’m weird, but we all know that.

The economic incentives here are obvious, however. These addictive chemicals are cheap, and junk food produces a secure and loyal base of food zombies who can’t get enough of the product. That works great until the zombies die—but then the funeral services cash in. They not only need more coffins, but supersized coffins. Win-win. Unless you’re the one in the coffin. The economics work only for short-term thinkers.

We have become a little too impressed with ourselves and think we can do things better with our techno-whiz-bang methods. Many entities have put a lot of effort into making fake snacks, meat and milk. We might even get the government to subsidize fake food, making it look cheaper, but there is a minor downside— customers really will drop dead. Producing truly healthy food synthetically, without fake economics, would be ridiculously expensive, if it can even be done. The real economic winner is to get as much food as you can from good, local sources. That will save you on medical bills, too.

This book came out in 2016, so it is not new. I would not take every detail of nutritional advice in this book too seriously, but the main point about what has happened to the food supply is very good and the book is entertaining and well-written. The thumb is UP.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2024

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