I got this book on amazon.com.
Over the past few days I've read a book that I haven't been able to put down. Salt Sugar Fat, How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. I heard a little about the book from Michael's press tour and it piqued my interest. Especially for me, someone who likes to eat clean but still has cravings for "food" that I know is just horrible for me.
The book is a quick read under 400 pages and I got through it in a few days. The book starts out talking about the spring of 1999 when the heads of the food giants (Coca-Cola, Nabisco, Kraft, General Mills & Pillsbury etc) all came together for a secret meeting about the national obesity epidemic. James Behnke a chemist and top official from Pillsbury lead the presentation. He felt that they were (himself included) responsible for the obesity problem and could no longer turn a blind eye. By the end of the meeting it was obvious they didn't feel the same, they all walked out. 14 years later the problem has ballooned.
I feel I know a fair bit about the process food industry but I still learned more from this book. I'm also sure there is plenty they will never share with the public... I do feel better knowing that the scientists in the beginning (of this era) did not know what adding insane amounts of salt, fat and sugar to our food would do to our health. They set out trying to solve a problem, moms working outside the home, wanting convenience food and they solved that problem. In the book all of the scientists interviewed for the book stay away from the very products they created.
Oh man there is so much information in this book I don't know where to start.... After reading this book I will say that I am even more unwilling to depend on the FDA & USDA to protect me and my family's interest. I now understand my craving more. Our bodies become addicted to these high salt, sugary, fatty foods and those cravings can be treated with the same drugs used to help heroin addicts with withdraw symptoms and cravings- crazy!
I have always had a distrust/dislike towards companies trying to gain personal information for marketing purposes. Which is ironic because I got my degree in Marketing. After reading this book I know I'm right in my distrust, they use the information we give them to zero in on ways *not* to help us, but they exploit our weaknesses. Mom's looking for a quick healthy (guilt free) snack, boom "Carpri-Sun, Made with real fruit juice"-- 100% not true. The fruit is put through a process where everything nutritious is removed and all that's left is high levels of sugar (they have since changed the wording). But that doesn't matter because they already got kids hooked.
Every food product made is introduced, then if it takes off it is always reformulated to cost less to increase profits. Lunchables contain no real foods, meat flavor, cheese flavor. It has been said the most nutritious thing in the lunch is the napkin, that has been removed (it cost $.01). With annual sales of a *billion*, that penny adds up fast. The amount of sugar in that is equal to a 12 ounce can of coke. Sodium in these is almost a third of a days recommended maximum. As of 2009, 1 in 4 American kids are on the verge of developing type 2 diabetes or already have it.
How do we (Kraft) get more Americans to eat more Philadelphia Cream Cheese (sales are declining)? Let's have Paula Deen run a contest with "real women" creating their own recipes and send those in with a chance to win $25,000. It worked, sales went up and in three months they (real women) came up with 5,000 recipes to use cream cheese in comparison to Kraft's test kitchen that took a decade to come up with 500. And Kraft got us to eat more cream cheese, giving them a part of the $7.3 billion shoppers where spending on fat-laden additives such as, sour cream, shredded cheese and sauces. Paula Deen was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Hmmm....
A section of this book speaks about Coca-Cola's CEO and his experience at Coke (my soft spot). He spend a good part of his life there, his father invented "entertainment advertising" and Jeffrey Dunn followed in his fathers footsteps. Until, he went to Brazil, a place where opportunity was knocking. Coke had planned on going to barrios (where many Brazilians live) sell small sodas, 6.7 ounces so they are more affordable... As Jeffrey Dunn walked through "an impoverished barrios in Rio de Janeiro, he had an epiphany... These people needed a lot of things, but they don't need a Coke. I almost threw up." ... Jeffery was later fired from Coke and is now doing work to "makeup for all the bad karma". He recently introduce the packaging and selling of "snack size baby carrots" to our grocery stores.
This sounds crazy but it's true, think of a convenient store as a drug dealer or more importantly your child's drug dealer. They are set up to grab your kids get them hooked on the big three, Salt, Sugar & Fat. Our children are known to be more important to their business than any adult walking in their door. The more they eat the more they want and the point in all the food mixtures. Cheetos are a prime example of, "vanishing caloric density" a food that melts in your mouth telling your brain their are no calories and it needs more a never ending of more.
I could go on and on... It's a great book, it covers our body's natural reaction, government intervention, food science, sales (at all costs), obesity and our LOVE of cheap food. Even if it doesn't change your eating habits overnight, it's worth knowing about and understanding how our bodies react. For me realizing that the salt, sugar and fat in a lot of foods isn't in them to help with flavoring or naturally occurring in foods, like when I cook from scratch. The big three are included to manipulate our bodies to wanting more, therefore buying more and driving up prices- at any cost. I think after you read this book like many of the scientists in the book, you can't unknow something. Knowledge is king. If there is anything you walk away with, know that the food on the shelf today is 100% not the food we were raised on.