How Food Companies Engineer Addiction

Drawing from books like Salt, Sugar, Fat, Hooked, and Ultra-Processed People, the YouTube video Big Food Companies Are Using Indians As Lab Rats argues that India is not just a market, but a lab—1.4 billion test subjects under weak regulations.

It shows how brands create a “health halo” by slapping words like protein, fiber, multigrain, natural, and organic on their packaging.

It highlights how a "healthy" snack brand riding on the health appeal of Ragi sells chips with the same calories as a pack of Lay's, yet charges two and a half times the price. nutritional info is listed per 30g instead of 100.


Companies are required to be honest with us when it comes to their claims. But there is nothing stopping them from manipulating our lack of awareness and attention to detail against us.

Fighting back starts with a skill that's becoming increasingly important: knowing how to read a label.

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