Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

There once was a thread that asked what our bad eating habits were, and after thinking about it for a while, the answer for me was all of them. I'm not a purist, but have come to realize that there is very little produced by processed food manufacturers that helps me attain reasonable health and fitness goals. I read an article by the author (though not the book) and he makes a compelling case that this is not an accident--foods are engineered for profit maximization rather than public health benefits.

We can disagree about politics, but a primary role of the government is to represent the public interest. The epidemic of obesity in the US and other first world countries is at least partly (and I would contend significantly) due to an ethically abhorrent manipulation of the food supply by corporate interests that is contrary to the public interest. We as consumers should be demanding changes from food manufacturers and the government should assist in this effort by sponsoring and publicizing solid scientific and medical research. I believe in individual freedom and am not in favor of government mandating a reduction in choices, but it is important for us both as individuals and as a society that we are able to make informed choices.

But the foods are addictive like any drug and you can not avoid eating as easily as you can avoid using recreational drugs.

Sure you can. Every couple of days I go to one of the 5 or 6 grocery stores by my house and buy real food. How is that hard?

I seriously doubt that companies sit around contemplating ways to destroy it's customers by making them obese. They are out to make a profit...plain and simple.

When I read things like the OP, it's just another example of people looking for something to fear. The producers of books and "documentaries" that promote mass hysteria are guilty of playing on the natural tendency of people to find something to worry about.

Sigh.

Really?

Clearly the food industry makes a profit by selling more food. And they sell more food by making the nation fat. The too are too closely linked.

I DO think they sit around all day trying to figure out a way to get us to buy more of their product because I can't resist it.

The nation is getting fat at an alarming rate. The food industry acknowledged their contribution in 1999 and portions tried to self-regulate, but failed due to the huge profit motive on the other side. Read the first chapter.

No one that has commented has even addressed the fact that it is the kids that are targeted first - it is hard to preach a healthy lifestyle to them. And to anyone that says that parents can dictate what their kids eat, especially once they go into school, is being overly idealistic.

Yes...really.

Oh...by the way...the sky is falling.

But the foods are addictive like any drug and you can not avoid eating as easily as you can avoid using recreational drugs.

You don't need the extra large popcorn and the extra large coke at the theater.

Try bringing your own snacks, or at least stop buying the coke. Even better, eat before you go to the theater.

The less of that crap you eat, the less of it you'll crave.

But the foods are addictive like any drug and you can not avoid eating as easily as you can avoid using recreational drugs.

You don't need the extra large popcorn and the extra large coke at the theater.

Try bringing your own snacks, or at least stop buying the coke. Even better, eat before you go to the theater.

The less of that crap you eat, the less of it you'll crave.

Are you allowed to bring in your own snacks to the movie theater?

They don't want you to, but do you have pockets or a backpack?

Where I live (in the U.S.) they haven't started searching people to go in the theater...



Yet :laugh:

Another reason why the food industry pushes crap over whole foods is because whole foods take a lot of time to produce/grow. They only need a bunch of man made chemicals to produce a lot of the crap food like coke, so they are limited to the amount of whole foods that can be produced.

All you need are you and a few million of your closest friends to demand only sugar free tomato sauce and bam, some evil corporation will be glad to produce it and sell it to you.
In the mean time, they know people buy what tastes good to them and they'd go out of business selling tomato sauce without sugar if that isn't what the market wants.

I agree. The food industry is just feeding you what you think you want (brainwashed).

Another reason why the food industry pushes crap over whole foods is because whole foods take a lot of time to produce/grow. They only need a bunch of man made chemicals to produce a lot of the crap food like coke, so they are limited to the amount of whole foods that can be produced.

All you need are you and a few million of your closest friends to demand only sugar free tomato sauce and bam, some evil corporation will be glad to produce it and sell it to you.
In the mean time, they know people buy what tastes good to them and they'd go out of business selling tomato sauce without sugar if that isn't what the market wants.

I agree. The food industry is just feeding you what you think you want (brainwashed).

I assure you, my mind is about as dirty as they come. I am not a puppet. I do not fear being made in to a puppet.

It is a good book. I am not done but reading it. As I said, anyone interested in reading it will certainly bolster their own weight loss by better understanding the enemy.

There are too many people here that say I am doing great, I know how to control myself, I know what to buy at the grocery, I am not influenced by the processed foods and what the food industry does. Pat yourselves on the back and then take yourself out of the discussion. The nation is getting fatter and fatter. Our kids are getting fatter and fatter. Even us, the success stories on MFP, 90% of us will regain our weight.

I don't have a solution but acknowledging that the cause is largely due to the food industry manipulating bad for your food to taste irresistible is a step in the right direction.

The only way you could do stop the current system would be to give control of food production to the government. The government would have to dictate acceptable and unacceptable ingredients and the ratios in which ingredients could be used. The the government would have to inspect all food production for compliance.
Doesn't sound like a good deal to me.

I seriously doubt that companies sit around contemplating ways to destroy it's customers by making them obese. They are out to make a profit...plain and simple.

When I read things like the OP, it's just another example of people looking for something to fear. The producers of books and "documentaries" that promote mass hysteria are guilty of playing on the natural tendency of people to find something to worry about.

Sigh.

I agree. Didn't Kessler already write this book?