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Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us Audiobook
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Synopsis
In Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, Michael Moss, writes a chilling account of how fast food giants put a great deal of thought into producing the exact product that will reach the maximum number of consumers, with no regard for their health. He interviews chemists, behavioral biologists, nutrition scientists, food technologists, package designers, marketing executives, and everyone else who is concerned with putting a certain product on the market. His information comes from insiders within the food industry who reveal that, to these conglomerates, human beings are just potential "heavy users." Salt, sugar and fat are the three ingredients used most by big companies to draw consumers in. These ingredients work like narcotics, dulling our senses and encouraging us to try just a little more. Sugar gives you a rush like methamphetamine while fat is like an opiate which makes you feel content. Salt is used instead of healthier herbs and spices to give some taste to food which would otherwise be completely bland.
Since the 70s, people have been trying to cut down on their consumption of milk, to reduce chances of weight gain. However, the industry has responded by producing more and more products full of cheese. There is pizza crust filled with cheese, cheesy chips and crackers, as well as frozen food with a lot of cheese. No matter how hard consumers try to stay away from dairy, the industry keeps producing more and more ways to bring you back to it.
Overall, this is a book that will make you rethink your food choices no matter how healthy you may think you are. Everyone eats some sugar, fat and salt in their diet and a healthy amount of each won't hurt you. However, it's important to stay aware of exactly how much you eat of each of these, something which many of us don't bother to do. We may not be able to change what the food giants throw our way but we can choose not to eat it if it's unhealthy for us.
Michael Moss was born in Eureka, CA and went to school at San Francisco State University. He worked as a journalist at The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other places before finally ending up at The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for a number of articles on the topic of the food industry in 2010. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Eve Heyn, also a writer, and their two children.
"This book put a lot of new thoughts in my head when I went grocery shopping. You look at labels a whole different way. Am I deciding this or is some big company just making more money from my ignorance. I did not buy my usual processed, boxed meals. It is a real eye-opener that anyone that eats shouldread"
— Sue (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“This book should be read by anyone who tears a shiny wrapper and opens wide. That’s all of us.”
— Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize–winning author -
“Vital reading for the discerning food consumer.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“As a feat of reporting and public service.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“If you had any doubt as to the food industry’s complicity in our obesity epidemic, it will evaporate when you read this book.”
— Washington Post -
“Deftly lays out the complicated marriage of science and marketing that got us where we are…This is inside stuff, and the book is all the stronger for it.”
— New York Times -
“Propulsively written [and] persuasively argued…an exactingly researched, deeply reported work of advocacy journalism.”
— Boston Globe -
“A shocking, galvanizing manifesto against the corporations manipulating nutrition to fatten their bottom line—one of the most important books of the year.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“[An] eye-popping exposé of the processed food industry...[A] gut-wrenching look at the food we hate to love.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Through exhaustive research and insider information, Moss achieves his goal of shining a light on the insidious tactics of the food industry.”
— Library Journal -
“This is a truly important book, and anyone reading it will understand why food corporations cannot be trusted to value health over profits and why we all need to recognize and resist food marketing every time we grocery shop or vote.”
— Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to Eat -
As a feat of reporting and a public service, Salt Sugar Fat is a remarkable accomplishment.
— The New York Times Book Review -
[Michael] Moss has written a Fast Food Nation for the processed food industry. Burrowing deep inside the big food manufacturers, he discovered how junk food is formulated to make us eat more of it and, he argues persuasively, actually to addict us.
— Michael Pollan -
If you had any doubt as to the food industry’s complicity in our obesity epidemic, it will evaporate when you read this book.
— The Washington Post -
Vital reading for the discerning food consumer.
— The Wall Street Journal -
Propulsively written [and] persuasively argued . . . an exactingly researched, deeply reported work of advocacy journalism.
— The Boston Globe -
[An] eye-popping exposé . . . Moss’s vivid reportage remains alive to the pleasures of junk—‘the heated fat swims over the tongue to send signals of joy to the brain
— while shrewdly analyzing the manipulative profiteering behind them. The result is a mouth-watering, gut-wrenching look at the food we hate to love. -
Revelatory . . . a shocking, galvanizing manifesto against the corporations manipulating nutrition to fatten their bottom line—one of the most important books of the year.
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
What happens when one of the country’s great investigative reporters infiltrates the most disastrous cartel of modern times: a processed food industry that’s making a fortune by slowly poisoning an unwitting population? You get this terrific, powerfully written book, jammed with startling disclosures, jaw-dropping confessions and, importantly, the charting of a path to a better, healthier future. This book should be read by anyone who tears a shiny wrapper and opens wide. That’s all of us.
— Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President -
In this meticulously researched book, Michael Moss tells the chilling story of how the food giants have seduced everyone in this country. He understands a vital and terrifying truth: that we are not just eating fast food when we succumb to the siren song of sugar, fat, and salt. We are fundamentally changing our lives—and the world around us.
— Alice Waters -
Salt Sugar Fat is a breathtaking feat of reporting. Michael Moss was able to get executives of the world’s largest food companies to admit that they have only one job—to maximize sales and profits—and to reveal how they deliberately entice customers by stuffing their products with salt, sugar, and fat. This is a truly important book, and anyone reading it will understand why food corporations cannot be trusted to value health over profits and why we all need to recognize and resist food marketing every time we grocery shop or vote.
— Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to Eat
Awards
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A #1 New York Times bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
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An Atlantic Best Book of the Year
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A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year
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A Men’s Journal Pick of the Year's Best Books
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A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
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One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of the Year
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Winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Writing & Literature
Salt Sugar Fat Listener Reviews
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" I can't claim to be surprised by anything here, but it has made me even more averse to processed food and troubled by the food companies' aggressive marketing in the developing world. I'm more interested in the nutrition aspects than the food marketing angle, but I can read other writers for that. With regard to the writing: I suspect that the book's structure presented challenges. Arbitrarily dividing it into "Sugar," "Fat" and "Salt" (in that order) required a sort of spiraling structure with overlaps and a good deal of doubling-back. This led to an overall sense of redundancy (I feel like I've been here before .....) and 4-5 incidents of near-verbatim sentence repetition. That could have been edited out, so I take point off for sloppy editing. Audio version: the reader made everything sound scandalous - even transition sentences. That was grating. "
— Holly, 2/19/2014 -
" As if the grocery store wasn't already ruined in my mind....HOLY CRAP I hate our food industry so much more now...Fantastic read... "
— Nicole, 1/27/2014 -
" Very, very informative. No more Doritos for me (even baked ones ). What shocked me the most was learning that fruit and yogurt bars, which I had been conned into thinking were healthy, have more sugar and less fiber than Oreos! They got me! "
— Angela, 1/22/2014 -
" Good information, but a little too technical for my taste. It's always interesting to see how the corporate food giants purposely try to get us addicted to foods and could care less about our health. "
— Jhawks3, 1/14/2014 -
" Great, great book for anyone interested in nutrition, obesity, or the processed food industry. Well researched and engaging, though a bit long at times on some of the history. It all relates to how our food system got to be the way it is today though, so worth it. "
— sleeps9hours, 1/12/2014 -
" Overall, I really enjoyed the insight provided by Michael Moss. It's always good to question big marketing and big brands, with the understanding that they don't always have your best interest in mind. However, Michael paints a very bleak picture, in which these companies care ONLY about building shareholder value with total disregard to the effects on consumers' lives. While this may hold true in some or most cases, I don't believe it's always true. You must take his writing with a grain of salt. Use it as a source for thinking critically about your life and health, but understand that not everyone is out to get you. Ultimately, "you" are the one who controls your life and your eating habits. "
— Laura, 12/8/2013 -
" Interesting look at the history of the junk food industry and how the sweet/fatty/salty foods are marketed: how the consumers' and government's want for healthy food was/is pitted against the consumers' desire for tasty, cheap, convenient treats and the industries desire for profit. "
— Christy, 12/5/2013 -
" VERY enlightening book! Has made me re think everything I buy at the store - Do I really NEED 2 tsp of sugar in the spaghetti sauce I eat? "
— Lori, 8/17/2013 -
" This book will dispel any notions that the food industry is at all interested in the nutrition or health of the American populace. An enlightening but frustrating read. "
— Kitty, 6/1/2013 -
" Everyone should be reading this book... Really good reporting & research. "
— Tegan, 5/15/2013 -
" I liked this book but it really lost momentum for me as the pages turned. There didn't feel like there was a plot line to speak of . . . which I still think is important even in non-fiction. "
— Jennifer, 5/12/2013 -
" excellent insights into the engineering of processed food "
— Ty, 4/16/2013 -
" This was surprisingly interesting. Makes me never want to buy a lunchable again. "
— Erin, 4/4/2013 -
" Be careful. This book can be depressing, but it is a must read if we are going to understand how the food industry is manipulating us. "
— Patti, 3/20/2013 -
" A fascinating account of how the food industry manipulates process foods in order to make us eat more of them. Not sure I will ever eat non-artisan cheese again. "
— Sandy, 3/17/2013 -
" Loved it. It will make you afraid to eat just about anything for a couple days, but it was wonderfully well researched and written. Definitely recommend it! "
— Michelle, 3/5/2013
About Michael Moss
Michael Moss is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter formerly with the New York Times, a keynote speaker, and an occasional guest on shows like CBS This Morning, The Dr. Oz Show, CNN’s The Lead, All Things Considered, and The Daily Show. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2010 and was a nominee for the prize in 1999 and 2006. He is also the recipient of a Loeb Award and an Overseas Press Club citation. Before joining the New York Times, he was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
About Scott Brick
Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks. winning won more than fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.