Snack food giants try developing healthy, satisfying food

In 2016, admitting that one eats and drinks unhealthful foods and drinks, or worse- feeds them to their children, likely qualified as social-suicide in some communities.

In recent years, food critic and "Serious-Eats" founder, Ed Levine watched the snack-food giants of the world diversify into more nutritious brands.

Pepsi's CEO promised to transform her company into the worldwide leader in healthful food and drink sales.

"These big companies are not leading trends. They're following trends," he said.

Yet sales around the world of three less healthful options: Lay’s, Doritos and Cheetos have grown an average of 5% a year for the last five years.

"Food companies are constantly balancing foods that people say they want to eat and food they eat," said Levine.

Levine reminded everyone that we eat more salty-fatty-foods and drink more sugary ones than we admit, perhaps disappointing investors in nutritious products like Pepsi-Co, which found itself off-pace to reduce fat and sodium levels in its products by 2020 by the amount it promised.

If you could make healthy food that tasted as good and was as satisfying as non-healthy foods, you would dominate the world's processed-foods market like no company in the history of the planet.

For now, most of us find that the least nutritious foods often taste the most delicious while the most healthful fail to satisfy our cravings.