The book Salt, Sugar, Fat was written by investigative reporter and Pulitzer prize winner, Michael Moss. The book is the result of Moss’ outrage and curiosity; why are Americans succumbing to diabetes (26 million Americans)? why are 1 in 5 children in the USA considered obese? why is the “health crisis” costing our country 300 billion dollars a year?
With his nose to the grindstone, his head buried beneath copious stacks of paper, and his ears buzzing from interviews with food industry higher-ups (to the likes of Coca-cola, Nabisco, Kraft, Kellogg, Nestle and more), Moss exposes the machinations of the industry that processes hard-to-resist foods and thus has bought bulging American bellies.
According to Moss, these companies use manipulative advertising as well as scientific research–hundreds of scientists are paid to study the mechanisms of digestion and food selection–in order to addict us to our food. He relates food addiction and people’s inability to stop eating to the powerlessness of drug addicts and alcoholics over drugs and alcohol.
Even after people fearing diseased bodies demanded healthier alternatives to many processed foods be made available, the food industry continued to produce harmful, processed. In fact, the industry began to manipulate foods by changing the ratios of fat, sugar, and salt. For instance, on the freezer-aisle of your local grocery store, you can happily pick what you think is a No Sugar ice cream and never realize that in the process of reaching the “bliss point”–the perfect balance of taste that makes us crave something–the fat and salt have been increased to make up the difference in the loss of sugar.
The “bliss point” is merely the highest delectibility of a food, the point at which we reach the highest pleasure. The term is one coined by the industry and is a very important point for sales. Taste buds are not isolated to the mouth; they go all the way down, through the esophagus and the stomach. That is a big audience for food to please, and by altering their products, the food industry seeks to sing to them all.
Toward the beginning of the book, we meet a young medical student John Harvey Kellogg in the 1890’s who recognized the relationship between food and health. He founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium near Detroit to provide health-treatments for health-conscious people. The facility was comprised of a gymnasium, a solarium, an exotic enclosed garden where a staff of 1000 per 400 “guests” provided purging enemas, exercise regimens, soaks and strict diets. No sugar was allowed in the sanitarium. Meat and fat were practically non-existent. “He served wheat gluten mush, oatmeal crackers, graham rolls and a tea made from a South African grass.” He crowned whole grains as the ultimate healthy prince of all foods. His intentions were good.
However, a Kellogg brother joined the business and things began to change. This Kellogg, Will, was the money maker and he dreamed up some new grain foods that were enticing. One day while John Harvey was in Europe minding his business, Will bought some sugar and threw it in a corn flake the two had created. The sanitarium guests went wild, their bliss points excited, and thus began Kellogg’s Toasted Cornflakes. Moss goes on to describe how the food industry progressed through the next century.
Fast forward to the now generation. In the 21st century our country is getting fatter and suffering from diabetes, clogged arteries, fluid retention, and is just, plain nutritionally sick. Moss relates a story of concerned parents in Philadelphia teaming-up on a cold, blustery day to detain schoolchildren going to buy their breakfast in the convenience stores lining the path to school. Rather than boycotting or coercing the students, the parents sought to educate the kids: nothing in those stores will substitute a nutritious, balanced breakfast at home.
Some of the kids were convinced not to go into the stores, but some went anyway. One of the men on the team saw his wife coming down the street with their two kids. She rushed into one of the stores in search of a healthy snack. They had been in such a rush to get to school on time, they had skipped their breakfast. She came out with fruit and yogurt breakfast bars, thinking they were a healthy alternative since the label claimed they were high in calcium. However, the so-called calcium enhanced bar “had more sugar, and less fiber, than an Oreo.”
Moss is such a superb writer. Much like Curtis Wilkie’s The Fall of the House of Zeus, this expose reads like a fast paced thriller. The book is eye-opening; peppered (not salted) with stories that are as vivid as those a parent tells a child before lights-out at bedtime.
Moss concludes that we need to become more conscious of what we put in our mouths, outraged that our diets can be manipulated by industry, and educated to make better choices of the food we eat. Perhaps with a big enough percentage of concerned people who want to live healthy, long lives, our choices will begin to turn the industry around, i.e. better products as well as a profit.
In the meantime, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and stay away from the inner aisles of the grocery store.
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