Salt Sugar Fat

Salt Sugar Fat

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Moss' Salt Sugar Fat: How The
Food Giants Hooked Us is not for the faint of heart. Many of the
insights in this fascinating book will be inconvenient dietary
truths, especially for those of us who are raising children. And then
there's the size. It's over three hundred pages densely packed with
information. But if you eat food and care what you are putting in
your mouth it's a must read.
Moss spent years researching this book. He had access to
industry insiders and documents most of us would not have even
imagined existed. It shows. The man knows his stuff. He gives us
quite the comprehensive history of processed food and the dangers it
poses.
The people who engineer these foods are not villains. However,
they're earning their livings in a dog eat dog (yes, they also are in
charge of what we put in Rover and Fluffy's bowls) industry with
stockholders who demand to see profits. Knowing that their
competitors are always poised to strike (think Pepsi and Coke), they
have legions of scientists studying soda's bliss point and fat's
mouthfeel to design food items we can't resist and marketing divisions
striving to bring them to marketplaces we can't avoid. When it comes
to consumers the big companies know exactly what buttons to push.
This has a very big down side. The ingredients they pack food
with to increase its allure are those we get way too much of. This
fuels the rapidly growing epidemic of obesity and the rise of life
style diseases such as heart disease and Type II (formerly called
adult onset) diabetes--even in young children.
This is not going to change any time soon. The food industry is
as addicted to its processes as consumers are to their products. At
one point Moss compares the grocery store to "...a battlefield, dotted
with landmines itching to go off." But he leaves us with a message of
hope. Knowledge truly is power. "You can walk through the grocery
store and, while the brightly colored packaging and empty promises are
still mesmerizing, you can see the products for what they are. You
can see everything that goes on behind the image they project on the
shelf: the formulas, the psychology, and the marketing that compels
us to toss them into the cart. They may have salt, fat, and sugar on
their side, but we, ultimately, have the power to make choices."
That's why you really should read the book. Consider it an
investment in your future.
On a personal note, since I started reading this book I have developed
a compulsion to go through cupboards and fridges (my home, the in
laws, my church...basically wherever I am allowed into a kitchen) and
study processed food labels. I feel like an anthropologist studying a
very strange and fascinating culture. I have even watched a little tv
with the hubby to catch the food ads. In a normal year I can use my
fingers to count the times I do this. I'm about ready to pass over
the offerings of Little Debbie, the Pillsbury Dough Boy and their
peers except in moments of weakness. Too bad I can't sat the same for
candy and ice cream.
A great big shout out goes out to Center for Science in the Public
Interest, our David battling the formidable processed foods Goliath.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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