Incidentally this same man is also responsible for the infinite number of varieties we have of each food in the grocery store.

What are you going to call it, the 'optimum sensory liking?'' Moskowitz asks. So the maker of say, Coca-Cola needs to find this cutoff point the tip of the curve where sales will be the maximum. There is a dropoff point, however, where the addition of more sugar will actually make a consumer eat less. When it comes to sugar, for example, the food scientist Howard Moskowitz discovered that the more sugar a food has, the more of it the consumer will eat. So while the fact that food companies crave only profits overlooking everything else is hardly revelatory, the many insidious ways in which our taste buds are actually manipulated is quite a surprise. The very existence of corporations depends on their balance sheets, the healthier, the better. Should we be surprised that companies lust after profits? Of course not. Contrary to the title, the book is arranged as Sugar, Fat, and then Salt, and in each section Moss shows us how the food giants manipulate their products to achieve one primary goal above all else: profits. The result of all this work and extensive research is a penetrating insight into the mechanics of customer manipulation.

Moss spent more than three years interviewing top executives, food scientists, government employees, packaging technicians, and many bright, talented people who give their best to the food companies they work at. It shows us how the food giants play the game and in doing so, it's a masterful work of high-quality reporting. But what is especially fascinating about Michael Moss's new book is its strict adherence to its subtitle. To be fair, though, the groundwork does need to be laid, and the basics have to be stated again, in order for Salt Sugar Fat to work. Mostly I was afraid it would regurgitate material I had heard many times before and initially it does. The absolutely brilliant Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us is a well-researched and well-reported book that despite its loaded subject, doesn't sound preachy and never wags its finger at you, the end-consumer.Īs someone who has read all of Michael Pollan's books and religiously followed Mark Bittman's food columns in The New York Times, I picked up this book rather hesitantly. Mostly plants.' You don't really need to read another killjoy volume, you think. 'Yes,' you say, 'I know that too much salt, sugar and fat are bad for me.' After all, you've probably at least come across Michael Pollan's commandment: 'Eat food. What is especially fascinating about Michael Moss' new book is its strict adherence to its subtitle.

Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss