The Snack Spectrum and The Digestible Texture Table
- May 20, 2025
- 5 min read
Written by Jack Rasmussen, American Author and Actor
Jack Rasmussen is a leader in the worlds of performance science, the food industry, religion, education, and entertainment. Growing up in Silicon Valley and studying Business, Cinema, and Journalism at the University of Southern California has allowed him to explore creative pathways to raise people's vibration and meta-awareness within their respective fields.
We all have cravings. I often choose Oreos because I have a sweet tooth or perhaps many sweet teeth. I was pleasantly surprised when Oreo released Post Malone’s Taste Twist, featuring swirled salted caramel and shortbread flavor crème, earlier this year. The Oreo’s crispy cocoa black cookie and creamy sweet white filling create an immaculate one-two punch that makes them “milk’s favorite cookie.”
Color mood board
While mixing 10 ounces of Honda Crystal Black Pearl automotive paint one day for Efrain Body Shop with powdered Sunfire PRO White Pearl (SP208) that almost resembles cocaine or powdered sugar, I realized that color and texture intersect directly with feeling and emotion. We often describe emotions using colors, such as having a blue day or being red with anger. This feeling correlates closely with texture. A blue day may be slow and wet, while a red day can be filled with friction and grit. A mellow yellow paint may be soft and gentle, almost like a furry stuffed animal.
A mood latches onto a color, and even an aura matches colors. The association of color with mood is fascinating because it strongly engages all five senses, with sight being the most prominent as it amplifies color. On November 21st, 1975, The Daily Register from Red Bank, New Jersey, stated: “Mood rings are to fingers in 1975 what hula-hoops were to hips in the 1950's. In great numbers, both go 'round and 'round.” According to History.com, by the end of 1975, the ring invented by Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats had sold over $20 million. The ring contains thermotropic crystals that change colors based on body heat, relying on body temperature to determine mood (Wakeman, 2025).
This is why marketing through colors is so intricate. A vibe is attached to a color, and a texture is also connected to a color. Sometimes, we like to simplify the spectrum of colors as we streamline the texture profiles of furniture, paint, or food. The world has infinite colors, created by adding black to produce shades, white to create tints, and gray to generate tones. Tones make us think of sound, and colors often emit sounds. That is perhaps why so much music is named after a color. Even "Blues" is a genre of music that originated in the Deep South, a melancholic and soulful genre with African American roots.
Primary textures: Chewy, crispy, creamy
I have tried to simplify texture as we streamline colors through a color wheel with three primary textures: chewy, crispy, and creamy. When considering a dish satisfactory in flavor and texture, I often categorize the starch as chewy, the protein or ripe fruit as typically crispy, and the sauce or dip as creamy. For my Original Japanese Jack Oatmeal that features Quaker Oats, Sriracha bean & nut mix, peanut butter, Ube Halaya Purple Yam Jam, red bean paste, and soy sauce, the oats are chewy, the bean and nut mix is crispy, and the peanut butter, jam, paste, and soy sauce are creamy. It fulfills all three primary necessities: chewy, crispy, and creamy.
Now, other texture tones can be applied under the chewy umbrella. Chewy textures are often chunky. Oatmeal can be chewy and chunky, especially steel-cut or rolled oats that are not overcooked. Crispy is similar to crunchy, as they belong to the pleasingly hard family; crispy is more delicate and cracks with a higher-pitched sound, while crunchy foods are denser and break with a lower-pitched sound. Of course, one of my favorite primary textures is creamy, which encompasses gooey, silky, soft, sticky, and buttery. My theory is that, like the color wheel helps define the relationship of colors, the C-cubed formula can help bridge the texture gap between food groups and simplify the texture profiles of dishes and foods to maintain simple sophistication and sensational satisfaction with every bite.
Snack cravings: Crack, Crave, Cave
According to The Nutrition Source, the brain's reward system underlies the science of craving. Eating “hyper-palatable” foods, often sweet, salty, or rich, can stimulate the release of metabolic and stress hormones such as insulin, cortisol, dopamine, leptin, and ghrelin. Consuming too many hyper-palatable foods can turn off the brain’s sensor for these hormonal signals, meaning that cravings may persist even when the stomach is full. Comfort foods high in sugar and fat may trigger hormones that alleviate stressful emotions, leading to a potential habitual desire for these comfort foods. Even artificial sweeteners produce the same effects as real sugar. I often succumb to this, craving Diet Coke, Diet Dr Pepper, or sweetened water (Harvard T.H. Chan, 2024).
With snacking becoming a habit for many, snacks have become “crave-able” hyper-palatable foods: potato chips, crackers, ice cream, soda, candy, and fast-food meals. In America, the faster, the better: hyper-palatable meets hyper-speed. Fast food serves as a convenient snack. The fast-food industry spends $10 billion yearly on snack food advertising (Harvard T.H. Chan, 2024). Do we know what we are eating?
Embrace the craving. Maintain equilibrium through stress, sleep, exercise, hormonal changes, and medication management. Hydrate and focus on texture. By appreciating texture, you will naturally eat slower and enjoy the full spectrum of what the dish offers in tone, composition, and balance.
Jack Rasmussen, American Author and Actor
Jack Rasmussen is a leader in the worlds of performance science, the food industry, religion, education, and entertainment. Growing up in Silicon Valley and studying Business, Cinema, and Journalism at the University of Southern California has allowed him to explore creative pathways to raise people's vibration and meta-awareness within their respective fields. He is the award-winning author of Fine Dining: The Secrets Behind the Restaurant Industry (2022) and Yin Yang: The Elusive Symbol That Explains the World (2023). He has worked with the National Science Foundation, California food banks, and international directors to help alleviate food waste and teach cultural literacy, among other expressions of his storytelling interests. He wants to continue to help serve and inspire global citizens to explore the unexplored and become more cognizant of and comfortable with their authentic presence through sharing his own. His artistic aim stays true: spread thought-provoking peanut butter and connective jelly.
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