Staff Recommendation #25: "Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" by Michael Moss

Here are some food facts:

-- The average person consumes 71 pounds of caloric sweeteners each year. (That's 22 teaspoons of sugar, per person, per day.)

-- In 2011, the average American drank 32 gallons of soda throughout the year. (With an additional 14 yearly gallons of other sugar-rich drinks, like teas, sports drinks, vitamin waters, and energy drinks.)

-- Our tongues' taste buds contain no taste receptors for fat. Despite this, fat is a key component of most processed foods for the way it interacts with taste and textures. On average, Americans are exceeding our recommended daily allotment of fat by over 50 percent.

-- Americans are eating 33 pounds of cheese and "cheese products" every year -- three times as much as we were in the early 70s. Since 2001, our rate of cheese consumption has gone up by 3 pounds per person every year.

-- Food companies use five billion pounds of salt every year in processed foods.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss is the author behind Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. The book's story opens in April of 1999, in Minneapolis, with a gathering of CEOs and company presidents from eleven of America's biggest food companies. (Between them, they oversaw 700,000 employees and $280 billion in annual sales.) Hosted at Pillsbury's headquarters, company reps in attendance included those from Nestlé, Kraft, Nabisco, General Mills, Coca-Cola, and Mars. The topic of conversation: America's growing weight problem, and what the processed food industry could and should do about it.

The initial topic of conversation was led by Michael Mudd, a vice president of Kraft, and his point was simple: their processed foods were a leading factor in the rising obesity rates of America. To correct the problem, the companies needed to start seriously working to cut out the massive amounts of salt, sugar, and fat in their products.

But according to several of the participants (reporters had not been invited to the meeting), when Mudd's presentation was over, someone rose to immediately and forcefully protest. The head of General Mills stepped in to wave off health concerns. Consumers had been worrying for years about salt, sugar, and fat, but their concerns seemed to wax and wane. It didn't stop people, in the end, from buying what tasted good. "Don't talk to me about nutrition," he said, imitating his idea of the typical consumer. "Talk to me about taste, and if this stuff tastes better, don't run around trying to sell me stuff that doesn't taste good."

That ended the meeting.

What follows in Moss's book is a look into the philosophies, practices, and histories of the processed food industry. The industry has been shaped by far more than cooks and company owners, with scientists (who determine the correct chemical composition to make food taste good) and marketing experts (who request specific products to target consumers) determining the tastes ... and the products' contents.

Moss's research led him to delve into the worlds of the three weapons most commonly wielded by the processed food industry: salt, sugar, and fat. In each of the book's three sections, Moss interviews nutritionists, scientists, researches, and businesspeople as he uncovers the truth of how these three key substances are used to alter the appearance, textures, and flavors of food -- and hook the consumer on coming back for more. From the acquisition of Kraft by the Philip Morris company (leader of the tobacco industry) to the marketing of sugary foods to kids, from Kraft's fight to use up dairies' surplus milkfat to the Pepsi/Coca-Cola "wars" -- the processed food industry has a long-standing history of doing whatever it takes to hook repeat consumers.

The book never offers a single solution, however. Moss makes it clear that the key to better food choices is to show consumers the marketing ploys and salt/sugar/fat strategy of the companies behind processed food. By knowing the ploys, after all, it becomes easier to combat them. His book is a fascinating look into the history, science, and effects of the processed food industry -- and a window into what we can do to become "unhooked."

"Knowing all this can be empowering. 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. They may have salt, sugar, and fat on their side, but we, ultimately, have the power to make choices. After all, we decide what to buy. We decide how much to eat."

- Request Salt, Sugar, Fat from the Catalog

- Request the audiobook on CD version of Salt, Sugar, Fat from the Catalog


Also try:

- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser -- a look behind the making of our processed foods.

- Supersize Me [DVD] -- This documentary follows filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as he spends thirty days on a McDonald's-only diet.

- Five Myths About Obesity [article] - from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

- Sugar Vs Fat: Twin Brothers Take Radical Steps to Show the Real Impact of Our Fad Diets [article] - from the UK Express.

"I feel so sorry for the public."

-- Robert Lin, former chief scientist for Frito-Lay

-- Post by Ms. B