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    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
    Unavailable
    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
    Unavailable
    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
    Audiobook14 hours

    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

    Written by Michael Moss

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
    The Atlantic • The Huffington Post • Men's Journal • MSN (U.K.) • Kirkus Reviews • Publishers Weekly

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD FOR WRITING AND LITERATURE

    From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. Michael Moss reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to addict us and, more important, how we can fight back.

    In the spring of 1999 the heads of the world's largest processed food companies-from Coca-Cola to Nabisco-gathered at Pillsbury headquarters in Minneapolis for a secret meeting. On the agenda: the emerging epidemic of obesity, and what to do about it.

    Increasingly, the salt-, sugar-, and fat-laden foods these companies produced were being linked to obesity, and a concerned Kraft executive took the stage to issue a warning: There would be a day of reckoning unless changes were made. This executive then launched into a damning PowerPoint presentation-114 slides in all-making the case that processed food companies could not afford to sit by, idle, as children grew sick and class-action lawyers lurked. To deny the problem, he said, is to court disaster.

    When he was done, the most powerful person in the room-the CEO of General Mills-stood up to speak, clearly annoyed. And by the time he sat down, the meeting was over.

    Since that day, with the industry in pursuit of its win-at-all-costs strategy, the situation has only grown more dire. Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It's no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It's no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.

    In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century-including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more-Moss's explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research.

    Moss takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the "bliss point" of sugary beverages or enhance the "mouthfeel" of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing campaigns designed-in a technique adapted from tobacco companies-to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products: Dial back on one ingredient, pump up the other two, and tout the new line as "fat-free" or "low-salt." He talks to concerned executives who confess that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: The industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat. Just as millions of "heavy users"-as the companies refer to their most ardent customers-are addicted to this seductive trio, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 26, 2013
    ISBN9780449808702
    Unavailable
    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
    Author

    Michael Moss

    Michael Moss works in the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute and/or the Information Services Planning Unit of Glasgow University, UK.

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    Reviews for Salt Sugar Fat

    4/5

    431 ratings67 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Great; I haven't stopped eating Oreo's and Cheez-Its, but this book at least informed me on why I should consider stopping.
    • 5/5
      amazing book, it will change Your life.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting read, and a bit scary. The author details the use of these three substances in our foods and why it has been so difficult to curb their use.
    • 4/5
      Like "Supersize ME" you learn some things you don't really want to know.....
    • 4/5
      Very thought-provoking book that reminded me of some things I knew, but are easily forgotten. It's not a treatise against salt sugar and fat in general -- it's more about the insidious nature of processed food. Seeing inside of these companies, with first-person accounts from current and past staff members, gives this a unique perspective on the issue. The author is very objective, fair and balanced in his narrative.

      I found both the facts about human gastronomy equally as interesting as the history of marketing and the interesting beginnings of our largest food production companies.

      Very recommended -- but in small doses. It's a bit much to take in all at once, but I enjoyed reading one chapter per day over the last few weeks.
    • 3/5
      This was a little breathless in places, but presented a mix of solid research, interview background and narrative that was, I thought, mostly successful. Rather than structure by timeline, Moss splits the book up into the three areas - the sugar, fat and salt - of the title, and introduces a story about their introduction as a key additive for the American diet, and their rise as a superstar. Woven into the story is the tale of our (sometimes treacherous) tastebuds, the drive of big business to make profit and get us hooked on their food, and a tiny amount of social roles of food in shaping and determining food popularity.
      I feel as though the split narrative meant that some parts had to be repeated, and that the emphasis of each component was diminished by the need to make each new section's lead character be portrayed as the biggest problem. This detracted from a nuanced picture of the triple-pronged role of these food components in the overall narrative Moss was constructing.
      Having said that, his discussion of lunchables (which appears in all three sections) is a tour de force of deconstructing the variables that come into play when talking about factors such as consumer repeat buying, offloading cheap and declining-in-popularity foods, the combination of sugar/fat/salt, our desire to 'play' with and control our food (even if packaged) and the need of big business to reduce costs while increasing sales. Worth reading, but you may, like me, get frustrated at the lack of a clear timeline and the occasional repetition.
    • 5/5
      Very good, and accurate,, ALL True
    • 5/5
      What an eye opening book! Everyone in America should read this book and become more aware of what is in the foods we are purchasing in the grocery store. We are fatter because the process foods we eat have increased the amounts of salt, sugar and fats they put in those convenience foods we all buy. It's frightening and I won't be shopping at the grocery the same way again.
    • 5/5
      How did I not get a review of this fantastic book published before today? I had the fantastic good luck to read this book in galley proof and was absolutely blown away by what Michael Moss found out about the processed food industry. In the non-fiction book, Moss uses his investigative reporting skills to detail how the food giants have very skillfully and purposefully manipulated what goes into our food to serve up incredibly unhealthy doses of salt, sugar, and fat. The food industry has known about the dangers of driving people to obesity for decades, Moss reports, and some in the food industry warned -- internally, at least -- that the penalties to the food producers would be significantly greater than the billions the tobacco industry had to pay for its knowing complicity in hiding the dangers of nicotine. In separate sections of the book, Moss outlines how the food giants have manipulated salt, sugar, and fat to find the perfect combination-- the 'bliss point' -- of food that will make consumers crave more and more of their product, regardless of the repurcussions. It's not all gloom and doom, however. Moss shows how some in the industry, along with a few outsiders pushing for reform, have attempted to bring about change. This is an important work that deserves a place on the shelf of books for health classes in schools, and an important read for the larger (in every sense of the word) population.
    • 5/5
      Everyone who is at all concerned about their health and how processed foods contribute to our current health crisis should read this book. It is a real eye opener and I hope it makes us all wiser in the choices we make in the grocery stores of America
    • 5/5
      Excellent! Loads of information presented in a very compelling and interesting fashion. The book holds your inters from start to finish. Several key points that will stick with you, although a second or third reading to remember all of the finer details is probably going to be necessary. Will gladly read again, loved it. Great work!
    • 4/5
      The startling facts that the producers of these salty, sugary, and fatty products eat healthy.
    • 5/5
      My eyes were opened. Never will I EVER look at food the same way again.
    • 5/5
      Well written exposé that should be required reading in high school and everywhere. So it really is true- you are what you eat. Mega corporations profit billions by slowly killing those who eat its products- and causing a monumental health care crisis more serious and more costly than heroin or cigarettes or alcohol. The target is all of us and our children,
    • 5/5
      To sum it up I will never trust anything that is packaged in a grocery store. Thank you for the years of investigation it took to compile this book.
    • 5/5
      The book goes into detail about how the food industry has fooled us into becoming addicted to a very unhealthy diet.
    • 5/5
      a little slow to get into and even boring at first but in the end, Better than the Dorito effect. More hard hitting, less gee whiz admiration for the science behind the machine, and a lot more critical. How did he heart access to some of those doc? Pretty impressive!
    • 5/5
      Incredible book!!! Everyone should read it or listen to the audio version.
    • 2/5
      Unlike Michael Pollan's books, this one didn't leave me with any new insights. I can believe the food industry has tricked us into buying unhealthy stuff, but I already knew that their concoctions were unhealthy, so I didn't gain any actionable insights from reading this.
    • 2/5
      Read just about half of it. Narrative is not particularly interesting to me. Should have been much shorter, in my opinion.
    • 5/5
      This is a must read for anyone concerned about their health and diet.
    • 5/5
      I suspect that if you are a certain age, you can track your life against the foods discussed in this book. Sugary cereals and Hungryman dinners in the 1970s and early 1980s, then giving your kids Lunchables and Capri Sun juice bags. And maybe when you were an adult, you weren't completely sucked in and knew that these things weren't the best options, but "it's only once in a while." (In my case, Capri Sun took over my kids' lives - they had them with their lunches, they had them at soccer practices, after games, at parties ....) And you might expect that you'll be made to feel terrible for how you ate or how you fed your kids. But let's be real - you already feel bad enough about that. This book isn't looking to make you feel worse. It's looking to make you more aware of how exactly you got sucked into using all those foods against your better judgment.It's fascinating, really. The book covers the processes of creating these foods and the advertising that sells it to us, as well as the science behind why we crave them. It was interesting to me to hear how the industry and its scientists started off with non-evil intent (preserving foods to make them more easily available no matter where you lived, and decreasing the amount of labor required to feed a family) and eventually became a monster (cereals that are 70% sugar). I liked that the author kept from demonizing the scientists who worked on these foods, too. Often, their inventions either got away from them or they simply became wrapped up in a scientific problem without seeing where it was leading outside of their lab. I didn't learn anything here to change my eating habits (I did that years ago), but I did learn plenty. You'll never watch a commercial or read the front of a food package the same way again.
    • 4/5
      A sobering examination of commercial food's hyperutilization of sugar, salt and fat, intentionally aimed at increasing the products' addictive hold and increasing sales. Michael Moss compellingly details how corporate bottom lines override the consequences to customers' health and well being. Shocking to learn just how much more sugar, salt and fat has been added over the years to products than what I remembered as a kid. Read this book and you will look at food marketing and processed foods with a jaundiced eye.
    • 3/5
      finally, finished this book.
    • 4/5
      This book is packed with facts.

      At least I think they are facts. All of the authors citations are inconveniently at the end of the book. There isn't any indication while reading that the author is telling facts or opinion....which is annoying (I prefer directive foot or end notes so I can tell exactly what facts are coming from where).

      But in the book is a pretty scary story that I do believe is true. All of our (processed) food is stripped of its nutritional values to increase profit for companies, extend shelf life, and get us to eat more.

    • 4/5
      For me, this was just another booster shot in my efforts to inoculate myself against processed foods. I had stayed pretty far from Michael Pollan's good advice to "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." I can't call this book eye opening because I've read many of its kind, but I will say it's an excellent example of its kind. Now excuse me, I have a batch of homemade granola in the oven.
    • 5/5
      This is a deeply interesting book about how, in order to maximise profits our food has been tailored to be as close to addictive as makes little or no difference and this has caused huge problems with health and other issues. There are also huge problems with research on nutrition and food being mostly conducted or supported by big food conglomerates, making it difficult to get research that is for the well-being of people and not the well-being of a corporation.It made me think a lot about the foods I eat and how I should help myself. It asks more questions than it answers and one of the most interesting things he does is talk about the diets of some of the executives and senior scientists.
    • 3/5
      Some interesting parts, but somewhat boring and repetitive.
    • 4/5
      This book is a guided trip through grocery story and down memory lane of advertising and marketing. It is presented as a straightforward story of how the processed food companies have sold us the goods over the years by designing "food" that we wanted and needed on a psychological level. I read this two years after starting to eat less processed food and sugar ... so this book fits my mindset very well. Just eat real food and forget the processed xxxx that is being marketed to you. Interesting comparison to big tobacco techniques through Kraft, it seems obvious that tobacco isn't good for you. But food should be good for you, right?
    • 5/5
      15. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (Audio CD) by Michael Moss, read by Scott Brick (2012, 480 pages in paper form, listened Jan 29 - Mar 10)A business history covering things like Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, the history of cereal and how it only kicked off by making it unhealthy, the why of processed cheese, the insane marketing involved in all the food success stories and a deep look into the conundrum of the processed industry. Moss has great disturbing stories to tell, and fascinating people to interview. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this (Some readers may be turned off by Scott Brick's tone, so be sure to sample before you commit to audio...but then I liked how he read).That conundrum - sure, all the big food processing companies are out to make money and happy to make the US and the world ill in the process. But what is strange is that whenever some kind of healthy urge sparks up somewhere, and food companies try cutting back on the salt, sugar and fat, the first thing they notice is that they start to lose market share, and quickly revert. Also, it's worth nothing that without salt, fat and sugar, there isn't much left to processed foods - just tasteless, textureless stuff. The most disturbing thing - how food works so much like an addictive drug and how processed food companies survive by making us addicted to their foods - especially the salt and sugar - and how they are able to design foods we can't stop eating - and the irony of the trouble this causes them when consumers start avoiding the foods they know will lead them to overeat. Of course, it's no surprise that none of the corporate, marketing or scientific experts interviewed eat processed food.