Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

 by Michael Moss

Reviewed by Gerti

“Salt Sugar Fat” is the second book this year I’ve read by journalists, and the second non-fiction “issue” book that has impressed me. It’s penned by Pulitzer-prize winning writer Michael Moss, and is impressive on many levels. This work is thoroughly researched and Moss did an amazing job compiling this information and laying it out for readers in a form that doesn’t leave us asleep! There are facts aplenty, and interviews galore, but some of the most interesting parts of the book are where he talks to the scientists who did the studies on sugar, for example, and the folks who came up with the terminology needed to describe taste perfection, like “bliss point” or “mouth feel”. These are wild things to me – that there are labs and office buildings filled with people who study what amount of sugar, salt or fat in a certain food product will best satisfy a hungry public.

But what I find life-altering about the text is the conclusion that I reached, more than Moss. That every household which buys processed food, and has done so since the ‘50s, has been manipulated to some extent by those scientists, by those admen, and by the corporations behind all of it which fight for every consumer dollar. I never understood how I gained weight without being a snacker, and without drinking soft drinks. Now having read Moss’ book, I get it. Everything I buy has more carbs, sodium and fat in it than I think.

I do have several issues with the text, however. I quibble over the sequence of nouns in the title, since the sequence of items described in the book itself goes in the order sugar first, then fat and salt. Still, that is my problem and not his. But unfortunately, the level of in-depth data also peaks with Sugar, then lessens and gets even trimmer at salt. I understand how this can happen, as I’ve seen it many times with student term papers. They start strong on a topic, but if several subjects are being compared, the work falls off over time. I always attribute it (in student papers) to their getting tired as the evening goes on. (Is there a student alive who doesn’t write a 5-page paper with research the night before its due?) However, I’m sure with Moss that wasn’t the case, since there is no way he wrote a 347-page book in one day! Still, less research done on the second two items leaves me with the same feeling – that there was a deadline involved and Moss just rushed through the second two items, since the first had taken so long!

I am not by any means casting aspersions on Moss for this. I never read a book without reading its end notes, and Moss has an impressive collection of them. He’s researched all kinds of corporate archives, including info from meeting notes and unpublished studies. The research time spent must have been astonishing and the depth of study reveals his commitment to the truth. A brilliant text despite it’s small flaws, “Salt Sugar Fat” will leave you thinking about every item you put in your shopping cart, and every bite you put in your mouth. This book will change how you feed your family and yourself, if you let it.