Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

This book is surprisingly not a health rant propped up by pseudo-scientific studies and conspiracy theories. It outlines the effects that each substance -- salt, sugar, and fat -- have on the body, in small amounts, in large amounts, and the different ways they taste to us. Concrete numbers in grams are given for historical consumption versus consumption today, and exceptions are noted, such as when salted fish increased salt consumption to extraordinary levels even when compared with today.

This book outlines the individual motives of consumers, food scientists, C-level executives of food companies, and investors on Wall Street to paint a complex picture of all the factors that cause the food giants to maximize the amounts of salt, sugar, and fat in processed foods, and the endless cycle of blame each one throws to the other for worrisome trends like childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

With no trite solutions offered, this book's best weapon is information about the reality of our publicly-traded, food processing system. Thanks to mandatory nutrition facts labeling started in the 1990s during the Clinton administration, Americans can exercise choice over what they consume, and vote with their dollars about what these companies sell. Even the executives who create new sugary snacks and prepackaged, salty kids meals recognize these things shouldn't be eaten regularly, and personally avoid the foods they make. The real losers in this system are those who, willfully or not, don't know about nutrition and blindly whatever is cheapest at the corner store.

This is not a health food guide; this is not a diet book. This is an in-depth report into the origins and current state of the processed food business, covering everything from the origins and various twists of the Coke/Pepsi rivalry to the acquisition of Kraft by tobacco empire Philip Morris and how they applied lessons learned from tobacco to increase food sales. Along the way the author discusses the three key ingredients in processed food: salt, sugar, and fat; what each does for food; and how the big food companies use them to find the "bliss point" to get our tastebuds completely hooked.

This book is not a demonization of the food industry; Moss goes to some trouble to illustrate the reasons why processed foods have arrived at where they are now, how the people working in these companies are in many ways between a rock and a hard place, and even some of the things they have done or are doing to try and make their products healthier. However, he also illustrates clearly the problems with this model of food production in general, and nobody who reads this book is likely to look at a hot pocket calzone in quite the same way again.

As an audiobook, this was a fascinating listen that was hard to put down. It should be required reading (or listening) in high schools. Actually, it should be required reading for everyone. Whether you are a devotee of hot pockets and froot loops cereal, or whether you consider Michael Pollan to be the last word on food health, this book is certain to entertain and enlighten.