Salt Sugar Fat

I only made it through the "sugar" section before giving up. The book is billed as an expose of the food industry's push of unhealthy ingredients in the face of mounting evidence for the impact this is having upon the health of the population. I was expecting something along the lines of the various wonderful things written about the tobacco industry's campaign of deception and distortion.

However, it turned out to be more of a collection of food marketing anecdotes celebrating the unsung heroes of pudding and cereal. For example, a large portion is dedicated to the discovery of the "bliss point" which boils down to the idea that there is a sugar content in any given food where adding sugar makes it taste too sweet and taking sugar away makes it not sweet enough. The way this fascinating nugget is portrayed in the book, you'd think they'd just discovered the Higgs' boson.

Also, there's far too much trust of the sources who seem to come universally from inside big companies with an interest in marketing their foods. Lots of "even though they're paid by the food company, they assure me they're super independent" or "he may have worked at the top of company X but doesn't have any vested interests, honest".

This book is surprisingly not a health rant propped up by pseudo-scientific studies and conspiracy theories. It outlines the effects that each substance -- salt, sugar, and fat -- have on the body, in small amounts, in large amounts, and the different ways they taste to us. Concrete numbers in grams are given for historical consumption versus consumption today, and exceptions are noted, such as when salted fish increased salt consumption to extraordinary levels even when compared with today.

This book outlines the individual motives of consumers, food scientists, C-level executives of food companies, and investors on Wall Street to paint a complex picture of all the factors that cause the food giants to maximize the amounts of salt, sugar, and fat in processed foods, and the endless cycle of blame each one throws to the other for worrisome trends like childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

With no trite solutions offered, this book's best weapon is information about the reality of our publicly-traded, food processing system. Thanks to mandatory nutrition facts labeling started in the 1990s during the Clinton administration, Americans can exercise choice over what they consume, and vote with their dollars about what these companies sell. Even the executives who create new sugary snacks and prepackaged, salty kids meals recognize these things shouldn't be eaten regularly, and personally avoid the foods they make. The real losers in this system are those who, willfully or not, don't know about nutrition and blindly whatever is cheapest at the corner store.