A team of international scientists appear to have discovered why hot chips are so tasty.
Simply put, the brain gets 'hijacked' by the combination of high-fat and high-carbohydrates - making hot chips and similar food highly attractive.
Vicki Gouvatsos from Cuba Street's Wellington Sea Market says they're very popular.
"Extremely. Even for us when we're working here, we still love to have a pick at a chip."
She says the key to a good chip is to keep it simple with clean, hot oils.
But according to a new study from Yale University, there's another reason why we these golden morsels are so good.
Their research found that our brains love foods high in both fat and carbs.
The scientists wired 200 people up to brain scanners, and then showed them images of fatty, carby and so-called 'combo' snacks like hot chips - which are high in both carbs and fat.
Every time an image of a combo snack came on the screen, the reward centres in the subjects' brains lit up - regardless of whether they said they liked it or not.
Auckland University of Technology Professor of Public Health Grant Schofield says these foods are rarely found in nature, so our brain has not evolved to deal with them.
"You're basically hacking the brain - providing signals that the brain was not meant to see. And it can't deal with them."
Hot chips: a different kind of brain food.
Newshub.
