Designed Desire: The Driver of Modern Eating (Part I)

How modern food learned to speak the language of dopamine.

Through medicine I learned that the body does not crave what it needs. It craves what it is taught to want.

At some parties, the table overflows with fried plantain, soda, chips, and bowls of nuts. Music plays as the first generation dances.

You sit before the food, already full, yet your hand reaches out again. Not from hunger, but because the mood is there, the food is there. There is more than enough. Why not?

Since 1980, eating in excess has risen everywhere. Globally, obesity has more than doubled and now drives much of healthcare spending.

Industries push diets and programs, yet the curve keeps rising, in statistics and in silhouettes.

If “just eat less, move more” were enough, the problem would be solved. Discipline is not the whole story. The environment has taken over. It makes decisions for us, rewiring our reward systems to respond to the sight of food before hunger even begins.

When Full Isn’t Enough

Dopamine. Most know it as the “feel-good” hormone. Fewer understand how deeply it shapes desire.

Next to pleasure, dopamine drives wanting. It is the hormone of pursuit, not satisfaction.

That is why your hand reaches again into the bowl of chips, long after the point of fullness. It is not the taste that keeps calling; it is the feeling of wanting itself.

Food should nourish, and yes, it should be enjoyed. But in modern life, food dominates the reward system more than it did fifty years ago. The pressure on dopamine has never been greater

The body still has its “I am full” system. Those humble signals of satiety stand small against the giant pull of dopamine, like David before Goliath.

Designed to Overpower

The rise of processed food since the 1980s is no coincidence. It mirrors the rise of obesity.

Where earlier generations ate beans, fish, or eggs, today’s shelves overflow with engineered combinations of salt, sugar and texture. On paper, their nutrition looks balanced. In the body they do something different.

These foods suppress satiety and heighten desire. They are designed not to nourish but to trigger dopamine again and again.

Try eating 1,500 calories of plain potatoes. You will likely stop halfway. Yet 1,500 calories of chips or ice cream can slip by as a snack.

The design does its job.

The Turning Point

Must it stay this way? Awareness is the first step toward change.

The reward system, flexible by design, can renew itself at any age. The path forward may feel demanding at first, but it is within reach.

This is where a new story begins. A story where the body and its reward system serve each other again.