When I started learning about nutrition -

about which, by the way, much less is known than you might think -

I learned that what mattered most about one's health was not necessarily the nutrients,

good or bad, that you were consuming or staying away from,

or even the calorie counts.

But what predicted a healthy diet more than anything else is the fact that it was being cooked by a human being and not a corporation.

Corporations cook very differently than people do.

They use vast amounts of salt, fat, and sugar.

Much more than you would ever use in your own cooking,

and the reason they do that is those are three incredibly attractive and incredibly cheap ingredients,

and when they're layered properly, as you know, a chip or pastries and forms of junk food, they're incredibly addictive.

They really press our buttons. They activate our dopamine network, our cravings,

and in fact, people in the industry,

they don't talk about "addiction" in the food industry even though they traffic in addiction.

They talk about "craveability". It's the same thing,

and "snackability" is another term they use. It's a lovely word!

And then the last point about corporate cooking that's important to understand is they cook different stuff than you do at home.

What they're good at—

In general, they don't cook that well, but things like chips, they cook incredibly well.

And here's a classic food that if you make it yourself...

If you've ever made French fries, you have to wash the potatoes,

you have to peel the potatoes, you have to slice the potatoes, you have to fry them in a lot of oil.

You have to spatter your entire stovetop.

You have to clean up and then you have this pot of oil you have to get rid of.

It's really difficult and it's a pain.

They're wonderful, but it's a pain.

If you make them yourself, you'll only eat them every six weeks, two months cuz it's too much work.

But when you let corporations cook for you,

it's so simple and so inexpensive and they're really good

that you'll have them twice a day as many people in America do.

The kinds of foods you end up with are labor-intensive foods and desserts.

These special-occasion foods become everyday foods when we let industry cook for us.

Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.