Not sure why this comment by KurSix is marked dead:

>What stands out to me is that the real transfer wasn't a specific ingredient or recipe, it was institutional knowledge: how to engineer repeat consumption and then market the hell out of it

But this really is the gist of it. The execs from the Tobacco industry saw the writing on the wall, and moved over to the food industry where the knowledge of making things addictive to consume was applied to food.

agreed. the comments in here feel reactionary, not taking into account the sheer amount of influence marketing has on society. beyond just hyperpalatability, the tobacco companies also leveraged all they learned from their extremely successful advertising campaigns and applied it to foods

that meme image of Garfield saying 'you are not immune to propaganda' comes to mind. it's always the people who are the most confident that they aren't influenced by marketing that also have some of the most irrationally strong brand loyalties