67 pages • 2 hours read
Michael MossSalt Sugar Fat
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Key Ingredients in Processed Food
The book focuses on the importance of core ingredients. In the food industry, the three ingredients of salt, sugar, and fat account for many products, and the resulting health problems.
Sugar in particular accounts for addictive eating and resulting health problems. In candies and breakfast cereals and other sweet foods, it appeals especially to children. In liquid form, such as sodas, sugar can escape the notice of the body, leading to large amounts of consumption.
Fat adds flavor and texture to foods including ice cream and pizza. It complements the other key ingredients, and could cause its own health problems. Fat is the key ingredient with the most notorious reputation. According to Salt Sugar Fat, Americans consume dangerous amounts of saturated fat from cheese and red meat.
Salt makes snacks and other foods tastier, crunchier, and longer-lasting. It has a long history in food preparation and preservation. However, recent alarm over its possible role in high blood pressure and accompanying diseases has introduced questions about the role of dietary salt.
Bliss Points
A bliss point is the balance of an ingredient at which a consumer finds it ideally appealing. For example, just the appropriate amount of sugar makes a soda taste best. Fat does not have a measurable bliss point. People can continue to eat fat beyond the amount in heavy cream.
Foods as Drugs
Moss often likens unhealthy foods to drugs. Both cause addiction and result in serious health consequences. He compares each key ingredient to a different drug; for example, sugar as methamphetamine and fat as opiates. He also likens the food industry to drug dealers, targeting children and hooking consumers. Convenience stores in poor neighborhoods are likened to crack dens.
The Food Market as War
Moss often compares the battle for consumers of food and beverages to warfare. He also often portrays the competition among food companies as war. For example, Jeffrey Dunn, while at Coca-Cola, pushes his team for “body bags,” referring to fired Pepsi personnel. Moss describes Salt Sugar Fat as defending innocent consumers against the militant food companies, which are out to conquer. Grocery stores are described as battlegrounds, with food products as landmines.
Obesity and the Health Crisis
The result of all the engineering and marketing of food for the sake of money is a public health crisis, Moss contends. Obesity, globally, is at epidemic proportions, as are major diseases.
Moss describes the American diet, often critically, in terms of health effects. He includes the stories behind popular foods, such as breakfast cereals and convenience foods. The modern American diet includes large amounts of the key ingredients: salt, sugar, and fat. Each of these is suspected of contributing to diseases.
Responsibility for Public Health
Most of the people who produce and distribute unhealthy foods disclaim responsibility for the obesity epidemic and its health problems. They often say that consumers are responsible for the foods and beverages that they buy.
The scientists and marketers at food manufacturers often say that they produce what consumers demand. Some have second thoughts; for example, Jeffrey Dunn rejects the sales of Coke in Brazil, then develops Dasani water and vegetable products.
The author often blames the food industry directly, absolving consumers of responsibility. The consumers quoted in the book also often deny responsibility, and on occasion sue a food company. Different government departments react separately; some hold food companies more responsible for revealing health information, while others assist food companies in selling unhealthy ingredients.
Millions of Americans have consumed processed foods throughout the recent spike in obesity and disease. Food companies have for a longer time researched how to develop and market appealing products. The question of who should bear responsibility for the health issues recurs throughout Salt Sugar Fat.
