Review: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The majority of the world realise that three major ingredients in processed foods today (namely sugar, salt and fat) are not good for you. What they do not know is the plans, strategies and approaches that large food organisations have funded over the years to ensure that our consumption of these ingredients continues to increase. Michael Moss takes you on a journey of each ingredient’s history and how it has evolved in our daily diets. He explains how your brain reacts to each ingredient and how the staggering statistics of today’s sugar, salt and fat consumption have become the norm.
Moss provides plenty of statistics and anecdotes from scientists, marketing professionals and former executives of companies such as Coca Cola, Kraft and Cargill shedding light on the industry and nutrition. Worth a read to expose yourself to what sugar, salt and fat really does to your system and the food that you think you’re eating isn’t really the food you should be eating.
Three key takeaways from the book:
1. The processed food industry in the US accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales
2. Process food companies have coined the term “bliss point”. This is the process of maximising of mouthfeel when you consume sugary beverages and salty / fatty foods. This is achieved by manipulating the chemical structure of the ingredients in these foods
3. Philip Morris International, one of the major tobacco / cigarette organisastions over the years has acquired food companies such as General Foods and Kraft Foods.
