Salt Sugar Fat
How the Food Giants Hooked Us
by Michael Moss · first published 2013
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Reported look inside the processed food industry, drawing on food scientists and executives, showing how salt, sugar and fat are engineered for craving (bliss point). Suits readers wanting to understand food marketing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The author explores his theory that the food industry's used three essential ingredients to control much of the world's diet. Traces the rise of the processed food industry and how addictive salt, sugar, and fat have enabled its dominance in the past half century, revealing deliberate corporate practices behind current trends in obesity, diabetes, and other health challenges. Features examples from some of the most recognizable and profitable companies and brands of the last half century, including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Frito-Lay, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many mo
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"Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00985E3UG/) by Michael Moss is highly recommended if you want to learn about the prevalence of sugar in processed food.
on “Is Sugar Killing Us?” ↗Salt, Sugar, Fat is a great book about this: http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/081298... That might be linked in the article, but even clicking thru via a google search it is locked down now so I…
on “Data-Crunching Indian Recipes” ↗The Michael Moss book "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us"[1] really opened my eyes to how the cereal giants hooked kids and their parents on sugar. It's eerily similar to the tobacco companies manipulation of nicotine. It explains…
on “Are Honey Nut Cheerios Healthy?” ↗For me two books have been a bit of a game changer, Salt Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss (See also the 'bliss point' [1]) and The omnivore's dilemma by Michael Pollan. What pisses me off the most is the skill and vigilance you need nowadays to find out how healthy a product…
on “Exercise alone doesn't make you lose weight” ↗…foods manufactured to be extremely palatable by hitting just the right combination of fat and sugar, entered the market. For references, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_(food) and the book "Salt, Sugar, Fat" by Michael Moss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moss
on “Nestlé Wants to Sell You Both Sugary Snacks and Diabetes Pills” ↗And it doesn't help that the industry specifically designs foods to not fill you up, so you continue to eat more. Check out Salt Sugar Fat if you haven't read it yet. Good stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/08129...
on “New explanation for middle-age weight gain” ↗"Salt Sugar Fat" by Michael Moss is a great book around using the trifecta to manufacture addictive "food".
on “Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study” ↗> Finally, sweets and junk food in America are like crack. They are literally engineered this way and companies spend billions on the process. Everyone should read the book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (2014) https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/08129...
on “U.S. Adult Obesity Rate Tops 42 Percent; Highest Ever Recorded” ↗> I wonder if there's a relationship to the obesity epidemic You don't have to wonder. Read the inside story of that epidemic in this beautifully researched history by Michael Moss: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giats Hooked Us by Michael Moss https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797397-salt-sugar-fat
on “Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status” ↗…literally cannot be compared to either of them. Caffeine has more of a case, frankly. While sugar has an incredible amount of health problems related to it, and is highly addictive (highly recommend “Salt Sugar Fat” by Michael Moss), it is not in the same league as alcohol or heroin. You are not holding up a gas station for sugar money, nor assaulting someone because your drunken brain thought they laughed at you.…
on “'Incredibly noticeable': alcohol ban cut family violence, crime in Alice Springs” ↗The article is basis a precis of the book refereed to at the end of the article: "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" by Michael Moss [1]. It's well worth reading. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Sugar_Fat:_How_the_Food_G...
on “Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco” ↗…to regulators, rewire our basic desires to make us buy more of their sugary slop. And now, we have medical companies, who also pay out heavily, trying to cash in even more. I highly suggest reading “ Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us“ by Michael Moss, and “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” by David A. Kessler, former head of the FDA.
on “Older Americans Are About to Lose a Lot of Weight” ↗If you want it from an industrial perspective, I suggest checking out “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us“ by Michael Moss, and “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” by David A. Kessler, former head of the FDA.
on “How a scientist is pushing to supersize research into ultra-processed foods” ↗There’s a bunch of books that cover how the food industry exploits your primate brain and tries to make you eat more. Salt Sugar Fat [1] is one. Not a traditional weight loss guide. But, learning about all the tricks they play made me so angry that I lost eighty pounds… worth a try [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797397-salt-sugar-fat
on “Ask HN: Books that helped you lose weight?” ↗…found in combination with other sugars and nutrients that lessen the impact; in processed foods, fructose is shoveled in to mask manufacturing defects and make the food more "marketable" i.e. addictive. "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" by Michael Moss [1] goes into greater detail how scientists tweak foods such as cereal to make it as addictive as possible, using whatever chemicals aren't outright banned.…
on “Bill to put health warnings on soda and sugary drinks advances in California” ↗