Flamin’ hot addictions: why is America so hooked on ultra-processed foods?

Researchers say that junk food can interact with the brain to make it look like a person is consuming a drug. Photograph: Chicago Tribune/MCT/Getty Images

Richard Montañez knows he’s cracked the code when his son Steven exclaims, “Ow, ow, ow, it burns!”

In the recently released film Flamin’ Hot, which tells Montañez’s account of how he allegedly invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Montañez and his wife ask their son: “Burns good or burns bad?”