In a recent appearance on the Table Manners podcast, BBC scientist Professor Hannah Fry issued a clear warning to Pringles enthusiasts about why this popular snack is so hard to put down. According to Fry, the ultra-processed potato crisps have been intentionally designed to bypass the body’s natural signals of fullness, making it nearly impossible to feel satisfied after eating them.
Pringles, often criticized as one of the “worst” ultra-processed foods, are engineered in such a way that they dissolve rapidly once consumed. Fry, a Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at Cambridge University and president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, explained that this rapid dissolution prevents the release of hormones in the intestines that signal fullness. “Once you pop, you literally can’t stop,” she said.
Fry emphasized that our bodies are finely tuned through millions of years of evolution to recognize and signal when we’ve fulfilled our nutritional needs. Whole foods naturally trigger these fullness hormones, but highly processed snacks like Pringles do not. Instead, the snack’s composition—essentially pre-digested and reconstructed in laboratories—allows it to bypass the body’s natural satiety mechanisms, encouraging overconsumption.
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Supporting this view, renowned food scientist Tim Spector admitted to once being addicted to Pringles due to their “chemical” taste and addictive texture. He pointed out that the food industry has cultivated a snack culture driven by hyper-palatable products combining fat, sugar, and salt, along with textures that melt quickly on the tongue. This combination makes snacks like Pringles and Cheetos especially hard to resist.
Spector also highlighted how these fast-dissolving snacks enter the bloodstream swiftly, further undermining the body’s ability to register fullness. The BBC Good Food website classifies Pringles among the most harmful ultra-processed snacks, listing ingredients such as dehydrated processed potato, refined oils, emulsifiers, and flavor enhancers like monosodium glutamate. The manufacturing process, which involves frying the shaped “dough” at high temperatures, may also produce acrylamide—a potentially carcinogenic compound, though human study results remain inconclusive.
As these insights reveal, eating Pringles isn’t just about enjoying a tasty snack—it’s also a complex interaction with a food engineered to be irresistibly consumable yet nutritionally unfulfilling. Understanding this can help consumers make more informed decisions about their snacking habits.