salt sugar fat

I am reading Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss and am not outraged. As someone who has preached against processed food for the past 25 years, I expected to read this book and be madder than a wet hornet. I am not. I am thinking there are two reasons for this. One, I used to be in the music industry and am no stranger to doing the morally wrong thing in order to make a buck. Second, this is not really news to me. Yes, the specific details are a revelation, but anyone with even a little understanding of economics knows that a business is in business to make money. The larger the business, the further away they are from their customers and the balance those interactions bring to the money making side of things. Corporations are about making money. Do they do at at the expense of the consumer? Sure. All the time. Name one that does not.

The business practices of the processed food industry are no different than those of tobacco or the NRA or alcohol manufacturers or baby formula producers... Maybe this book is getting such attention because people thought food companies were suppose to be above the fray? What the food processors are doing is not right and Salt Sugar Fat will open the eyes for many people. Will it matter? Only your health can answer that question.

In the words is Michael Pollan, "Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants". That is really all you need. The food processors hate this.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Comments

[kate]

I love that Michael Pollen quote.

I haven't heard of the book, I'll have to look into it.

[kristieinbc]

I just started reading this book. I am enjoying it so far. Some of the information is new - enough to make it interesting. For instance, I hadn't realized that when a food is advertised as being lower in one of the bad ingredients, that means they have added extra of another one of them to compensate. I have always made our food from scratch, so very little processed food has entered our house. I am happy to see my grown kids following that example.