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Our obsession with sugar, salt and fat

(TIME.com) -- In his new book, "Salt Sugar Fat," Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Michael Moss takes readers on a tour of the $1 trillion processed food industry, and the sights aren't pretty.

The average American eats 33 pounds of cheese and 70 pounds of sugar a year, and health experts say those trends triggered the obesity epidemic that has left millions at risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic health conditions.

Based on his interviews with top industry executives from Kraft to Coca-Cola as well as leading food scientists, Moss discusses how we became so dependent on processed food.

How does covering the food industry compare to your other investigative reporting projects?

In some ways the food companies are fortresses. They share so little of what they do with nosy reporters. At the same time, I kind of discovered that food companies are in some ways are like hotels. When you really start meeting the people inside who work [there], there are few precious secrets. People really do love to talk about their work.

I was also incredibly fortunate to come across thousands and thousands of pages of internal documents that shed huge light on the dark corners in the processed food industry and convinced some of the key executives to talk me.

It's pretty widely known that sugary cereals and Cheese Whiz are not good for you. What surprised you?

One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation.

Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became known as the "bliss point." Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the process they've engineered that struck me as really stunning.

Read the rest here.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on March 4, 2013 at 12:08am

I really hate the way processed and canned food is loaded with salt, even low carb bread, because I'm diabetic.

Permalink Reply by Chris Breman on March 4, 2013 at 1:19am

And the more I rely on food I mix myself, the better I feel! It's really very good to read packages in the supermarket and to see what I miss: enormous amounts of sugar, salt, the wrong sorts of fat, carbo hydrates and other things I don't need. I love to escape the food industry!

Permalink Reply by Nerdlass on March 4, 2013 at 2:47am

Hear, hear to both of y'all!

Ruth, I'm diabetic, too, and I ignored it and was blazez(?) about it for the longest time. Now my numbers are sooo good. I'm so happy that I'm eating fresh food. I do allow myself restaurant-made chana masala from time to time, but I am trying to perfect it at home, in the meantime. LOL

Yeah, if I have any processed foods later, it'll be as a rare treat, if anything. I had GOOD food, but food that was higher starch, higher fat, and included meat and dairy... it was amazing how much even that made me sluggish. I don't think I'll stay vegan after my diet, but I am going to trim down what I do partake of animal products, just seeing how my body reacts...

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on March 6, 2013 at 1:04pm

As a diabetic on a low carb diet, I rely on animal products. Along with low carb fresh vegetables and berries, they're the core of a low carb diet. I mostly avoid red meat, butter and cream, and focus on fish, poultry, egg substitute and low fat dairy. I was under the impression it's almost impossible to get enough protein on a vegan low carb diet. Without lots of carbs I need 68 grams of protein a day. Are you counting your protein? Are you sure you're getting enough?

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