Author: Michael Moss
Released 2013
This review follows a previous review of Michael Moss’s follow up to Salt, Sugar, Fat called Hooked. My review can be found in this hyperlink here. This review is to cover part one, unfortunately I had to turn in the audiobook prior to finishing. In an effort to write better reviews I am going to do this in parts while the material is fresher in my memory.
Salt, Sugar Fat was a break out book for Michael Moss about the food industry and how it manipulates people’s psychology and biology to get them addicted to their food. The first part of the book focuses on the first word in the title, sugar. The main focuses of this section is the food industry’s hunt for the bliss point, the amount of sweetness to attract your brain to the product without getting too sweet. The major focuses are on soda and breakfast cereals with a discussion on the ingredients, advertising and research on children. The book begins with a conference of major companies coming together in the light of public outcry around obesity and the industry’s culpability.
There are a lot of factors at play in this battle of health consciousness and the jiu-jitsu performed by major corporations to stay ahead of the concerns. Much of the public’s anger is fleeting and temporary and easily re-routed somewhere else. When trans fat becomes a problem it is reduced but it is replaced with sugar. The industry blames bad parenting for fat kids but puts out boxes of cereal with a greater than 50% sugar content. The major players say that they make healthy options but nobody buys them. However, the ones highest in sugar see the greatest level of advertising and marketing through merchandising at stores. It is an interesting chicken and egg argument whether it is the general public’s fault for their own health or a carefully orchestrated marketing and development campaign to manipulate consumers.
I believe Moss’s strength is his research and interview skills. He goes right to the source and has quotes from industry key players and cites studies and statistics very effectively. He lays his case strongly with a variety of large corporations, different food and beverage products and covers the sodas and cereals over the long haul of their history. Striking is the sit down with the creator of Doctor Pepper Cherry who thought it tasted horrible and did not drink soda “because it is unhealthy”. Another interesting story is the firing of a Chief Operating Officer at Coke who pushed for the creation of Dasani and wanted to shrink soda sales into schools due to obesity. His role was to grow soda sales in Brazil and seeing the striking poverty and other health concerns with the children of that country he had his come to Jesus moment. Jaded and altered he was no longer driven by capitalisms need to grow exponentially regardless of the consequences. Moss does a great job showing parallels between the smoking industry and the food industry and the flawed research they release and their powerful lawyers and lobbyists burying the case against them.
The negative portion of my review stems largely from my reading Hooked first. There is overlap in the two books so going back over the same stories again was a little laborious. While I had given positive marks on the research and examples, there is a lot of repetitiveness. The pudding part was very dull and dragged on and on. While I like to read about issues in the food industry and have reviewed other books and documentaries in that realm, this one gets tedious. I may likely skim the fat and salt sections more than I did the sugar section because I feel the ideas here can be grasped in two or three chapters rather than the six needed to cover the first part on sugar.
This book did make me think a lot about soda. I want to talk to my parents and grandmother about the prevalence of soda in the 1940’s-1960’s. I have questions about its price, availability and whether soda was consumed daily or more of a luxury item that families indulged on occasion. I am pretty libertarian on social issues and do think much of this is a personal choice issue. I don’t believe processed or sugary foods should be banned or anything like that but I do have an issue with the advertising campaigns. Cigarettes and alcohol are not banned but there are limitations on where ads can be shown and how ads can be presented. I think the targeting of children is morally wrong and the industry knows what they are doing as they refer to customers as users. I went to high school at a time when they were experimenting with health intervention. Candy and soda were taken out of vending machines and fat free or reduced fat options were made available like baked chips. The dollar sized plate of fries was removed and larger ice cream items were taken out of the freezers. This helped parents make sure their kids could eat healthy in school. I know it is easy to call this the nanny state which is a term I do not like, but obesity especially with children is a serious problem. Though they are only hurting themselves it is a cost to everyone as it is a drag on our healthcare industry. Anecdotally, I can speak to the power of advertising from my time as a starving high school wrestler. From November to February I would be eating very lean in a world of junk food and holidays. All four years I would create a list midseason of what I was going to eat at the conclusion of the campaign, this list would get as specific as certain items at certain restaurants. This list often got into the twenties and thirties.
Finally, I will discuss some of my relationship with food. My vice is pizza and I am the first to admit that. Pizza and beer are probably my biggest culprit in why I no longer have well defined abs. Soda is not in my fridge and it really only is consumed while drinking alcohol as a mixer. In 2018 I made it a goal to not drink soda and made it to August. My teeth thanked me a lot. Fast Food I did the same attempt and also made it to August. I make an effort to track and reduce both soda and fast food and in the middle of an attempt to get to the end of the year without it. I like ice cream but like soda I do not keep it in my freezer. I rarely buy processed food and make the effort to shop the perimeter of the store. I do keep a canned item or two just in case I need a bridge meal or do not want to cook. I’ve made the assumption that if I am going to eat crap food I will at least get it store bought thinking it is better than Burger King or pizza. Fruit juice I do occasionally store in my fridge but I drink the serving size in the morning once for the vitamins. I think the key is being mindful about what you put in your body. Much like cigarettes and alcohol, people know junk food is bad and know what food is good but it is hard to kick. My main gripe is junk food disguised as health food.
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