Reading Salt, Sugar,
Fat is like devouring a murder mystery – only you’re the intended
victim. Yes, a book packed with
chemistry and research can be a page-turner.
This book is as addictive as the foods it studies so the paradox is that
readers are essentially learning about their own demise. That may not make it seem an appetizing read
but the book is also similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series you or
your children may have read. Based on
the information the book provides, you can choose which path to follow – that
of allowing the food giants to hook you or of knowing their tricks and how to avoid
them thus choosing a healthier life. This is not a diet book, a fad of the month
self-help tome, nor is it an easy fix.
It is instead the careful reporting of what’s inside the foods we eat.
Some facts presented in the book will probably surprise you:
“On average, we
consume 71 pounds of caloric sweeteners each year. That’s 22 teaspoons of
sugar, per person, per day.” Not me, I said to my sanctimonious self. I rarely eat cookies, cake, pie or dessert. Ha, little did I know of the places that the
big food conglomerates hide sugar. Campbell’s
Prego spaghetti sauce is probably found on the shelves of many American homes. “The Prego sauces – whether cheesy, chunky,
or light – have one feature in common: The largest ingredient, after tomatoes,
is sugar. A mere half cup of Prego Traditional, for instance, has more than two
teaspoons of sugar, as much as three Oreo cookies, a tube of Go-Gurt, or some
of the Pepperidge Farm Apple Turnovers that Campbell also makes. It also delivers one-third of the salt
recommended for a majority of American adults for an entire day. Some of the
meat versions of Prego have even higher amounts of sugar and salt, along with
nearly half a day’s recommended limit for saturated fat.”
I also learned that I can’t rest after ascertaining that a product
is low in fat or salt or whichever of the big three I’m avoiding at the
time. When the public starts clamoring
for less fat, the food giants lower it but to keep us buying, they up the salt
and/or sugar so the product will still taste good. Those labels on our
favorites can change without us ever suspecting because the products taste the same. The food giants use terms that sound good to
make us buy. The “2 percent” labeling (in milk) may lead you to believe that 98 percent of the fat is removed, but in
truth the fat content of whole milk is only a tad higher, at 3 percent.
Consumer groups who urge people to drink 1 percent or nonfat milk have fought
unsuccessfully over the years to have the 2 percent claim barred as deceptive.”
Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, is the
father of two boys ages ten and thirteen so he knows that it isn’t easy to
avoid processed foods. One of the beauties
of this book is that he doesn’t preach and he never makes the reader feel
guilty for consuming salt, sugar, or fat. Instead, Moss provides powerful information
that will allow the busiest of us to make decisions about what we put in our
bodies.
He shows us that the food industry won’t change because
salt, sugar, and fat are cheap, interchangeable, and they make food taste
good. “They are huge, powerful forces of nature in unnatural food... 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. Kirkus
Reviews calls this book “A
shocking, galvanizing manifesto against the corporations manipulating nutrition
to fatten their bottom line—one of the most important books of the year.” I thoroughly agree and urge everyone to read
it and to choose it for your next book club discussion.
Summing it Up: Read this book to save yourself and those you
love from being manipulated by the food giants.
Read it to learn how to avoid the progressively addictive attraction of
the foods at eye level in our grocery stores.
Read it because it’s an addictive treat that reads more like a bag of
potato chips than a bunch of raw kale.
Rating: 5 stars
Category: Nonfiction, Five Stars, Super Nutrition, Book Club
Publication date: February 26, 2013
Author Website: http://michaelmossbooks.com/
New York Times cover story by the author: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?_r=1&
Reading Group Guide: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/219368/benediction-by-kent-haruf#discussionquestions
What Others are Saying:
Interview on PBS NewsHour: http://michaelmossbooks.com/2013/02/watch-michael-on-pbs-newshour/
Interview on National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/26/172969363/how-the-food-industry-manipulates-taste-buds-with-salt-sugar-fat
Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4000-6980-4
Question and Answer with the Author in the New York Times: http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/behind-the-cover-story-michael-moss-on-addictive-foods-and-what-he-eats-for-breakfast/
Question and Answer with the Author in Time Magazine: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/26/salt-sugar-fat-qa-with-author-michael-moss/
Ten Food Secrets You Need to Know:
Ten Food Secrets You Need to Know:
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