on today's episode of the Real Foodology podcast.

The brain, when it comes to eating, is like a paranoid forensic accountant.

It is absolutely obsessed with what it's getting.

That's why we have taste buds.

That's why we can smell food.

Because the brain wants to have some idea of what it's getting.

But then what most people don't know is that after we eat, it's not like food just disappears inside you.

The brain continually analyzes food

as it makes its way into your stomach,

but also as it's metabolized in the body.

So it keeps score, what do I think I'm getting?

What am I getting?

And this, I argue, is how food has changed the most,

which is to say it doesn't

taste the way it used to. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Real

Foodology podcast. I am your host, Courtney Swan. Today's guest is absolutely fascinating. I

interview the author Mark Shatsker. He is probably most well known for his book, The Dorito Effect.

He also wrote Steak and his newest book, The End of Craving.

He is a writer in residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center,

which is affiliated with Yale University.

And his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,

Best America Travel Writing, and Annual Review of Psychology. I was so excited to talk to Mark. I am

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