A BBC scientist has issued a chilling warning about Pringles and the reason people eat so many. Appearing on the Table Manners podcast, Professor Hannah Fry explained why the popular crisp has been specifically manufactured so people don’t feel full.

The salty snack has previously been described as one of the ‘worst’ ultra processed foods you can eat. And Prof Fry told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware ‘You will never get full on them’.

Prof Fry, who is Professorof the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications told the paid: “Let me tell you this one thing about Pringles, okay? Our bodies are so perfectly tuned to what we’re eating through literally millions of years of evolution, right? When you’re craving something, if you’re like, “Oh, I really fancy some chocolate today,” it’s probably like some tiny little molecule in the chocolate that your body knows that it needs, right? You’re incredibly good at knowing.

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“And the thing about the way that we eat is that once it gets to a certain point in our intestinal system, it releases a hormone that tells us that we’re full. And if you eat whole foods from scratch, you will know when you’re full.

“The thing about Pringles is thatthey are so processed, they’re basically pre-digested. They’re like macerated in a... in a lab and then reconstructed. So once you pop, you can’t stop, quite literally. So what happens is when you eat them, they literally dissolve before they reach the part in your body where your body sends out hormones saying, “Thank you very much, I’m full.” You will never get full on them. “

“And like the thing is, is that there’s very clever people, very clever scientists over many, many years who’ve like, had people coming in and testing their products. And the thing that they care most about when you like, go in for a taste test is not like, “What’s more delicious? Which did you enjoy more?” It’s literally, “How much did you eat?” It’s kind of like hacking our bodies against us, optimizing for volume.”

Food scientist Tim Spector has previously said that at one point he loved pringles. He said: “I could taste the chemicals on them, but at the same time there was something that made me addicted to eating them.”

Now he’s managed to wean himself off and explained: “It’s the food industry that’s pushed us into this snack culture.” Many ultra-processed snack foods are “hyper-palatable,” he adds, which make them easy to overeat.

The mixture of fat, sugars, and salt combined with a texture that almost dissolves in your mouth can make it hard to stop eating, not to mention their overly processed nature that can potentially threaten your health. That rapidly dissolving texture also disperses something like a Pringle or a Cheeto into the bloodstream much quicker, avoiding the body’s mechanisms that make you feel full, Spector says.

The BBC Good Food site described Pringles as one of the worst ultraprocessed foods you can eat. It said: “Reformulated potato snacks, such as Pringles, are made from dehydrated processed potato, refined vegetable oils, rice and wheat flour, emulsifiers, salt and colouring. Depending on their flavour, they may also include monosodium glutamate, hydrolysed protein powders and glucose syrup.

“During manufacture the ‘dough’ is rolled, pressed and cut into stackable shapes; these are then fried in hot oil and coated with flavourings. The high temperature potentially generates a substance called acrylamide, exposure to which may be carcinogenic, although the findings from human studies is inconsistent.”

To listen to the full podcast click here.