Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Whether he or anyone else in this thread reads the book is irrelevant. I am amazed that you got past the age of nine without knowing that chips and coke and candy bars and McDonalds and all the processed foods in the grocery store should not be the staples of your diet. Come on, are you really that naive?

What if your daily calorie allotment is 4000 like me, why should i be forced to fill up my other 2500 (based on the average person here intaking 1500 calorie a day) calories with boring *kitten* vegetables? Why cant i have my staple chocolate bar before my workout?

Your belief that the "Food Giants" hooked us is false. You willingly CHOSE to eat the food

Try reading it; you might be surprised. I've just started reading it and the only reason that I am not surprised is that I've been researching nutrition and food politics for a long time. Each one of us is absolutely responsible for our own behaviour, but if you believe that there isn't intense effort put into making food more addictive, you are living in a fantasy world.

Cocoa Puffs et al are labeled heart healthy, and they are anything but. Don't you think food processors should be held accountable when they LIE to consumers and do everything they can to make their franken food as addictive as possible and then market those foods specifically to children? I do. Not to mention the manipilation of government agencies to promote the healthfulness of all this processed garbage.

However, I'm not on board with dietary fat being bad in general, but the fats in processed foods are indeed the worst possible kind: canola, corn and soy.

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.

couldn't agree more. the majority of food companies are about profit - not nutrition. this is not a conspiracy theory, it's simple fact that money is the top goal when a company is in SALES. it seems a little surprising that people are quick to say that this is playing the blame-game. it's not. It's a matter of being responsible to your body. it's a matter of educating yourself about what labels really mean. it's opening your eyes after decades of being told that chemical *kitten*-storms are "part of this balanced breakfast."

we all say that we know that whole foods are best, but why are these multi-million dollar companies still in business? because there are people still buying and eating this garbage. it is a real problem and it needs to be talked about more.

Brian...which is it? Individual responsibility or the food companies making us victims due to their brainwashing and manufacturing processes?

You stated....

"I know what I need to eat to keep my weight under control and how to exercise to stay healthy. I believe it is each person's responsibility to keep themselves healthy,, eat the right foods, exercise regularly, get regular checkups, etc. That's all about the individual."

"But when obesity rates rise across the population of the US and many parts of the world, I think there are causes that go beyond individual people not taking individual responsibility for their health. And I think understanding those reasons is important. This book gives a pretty compelling explanation."

You seem to be contradicting yourself. If you preach " it is each person's responsibility to keep themselves healthy", then it's no longer a matter of what the food companies do. You can't have it both ways. Even if some of the population finds it difficult or even impossible to stop overeating due to food company practices, THEY still bear responsibility for their lifestyle. If they are compulsive eaters they need to figure out why they are compulsive eaters. There always have been outside influences to human behavior and there always will be. Just because something tastes REALLY GOOD doesn't mean that the maker of the food should be found at fault when people actually eat it.

I completely agree- I'm a marketing professor and have studied the persuasive "techniques", the food companies have used. I always argue with my friends who say "We all have free choice, just don't eat the junk food." While I agree, we do have free choice, most of us don't realize what we're up against. Advertisers are now using sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists to study human behavior so closely that we are not even aware of most of the techniques that are being used to persuade us. In my opinion, with all the salt, sugar, and even texture, these foods can be highly addictive.

100% agree. Addiction is part of the problem, and the biggest part in my opinion. I quit eating carbs almost 15 months ago for health reasons. Initially the cravings were hell. I wanted bread, potato's rice, chips, fries and going through the carb flu or withdrawal was horrendous. I persisted for my own sake, and finally got to a place where I didn't want those things.

When I go to the grocery store each week, I see the food items I used to buy each week, baked goods, pizza, frozen ready meals, and thanks to research know what is in them. How many people not on MFP who don't think about nutrition know exactly what is in the ready meal, the cereal box? In the UK advertizing high sugar 'unhealthy' foods are prohibited if aimed at children. Why should our innocent children be subject to all of this? Then of course mom is the next target of the advertisers with the 'nag factor'. Our kids see something high in fat, sugar and chemicals made to look amazing and they nag poor tired, rushed, stressed mom. I know I have been there. My children are teenagers now, but taking them as tots shopping would mean either a fractious child because they were told no, or a shopping cart filled with foods that offer little if any nutrition to a growing child.

I truly wish I knew then what I know now. Guilt is something I think I will always feel. My children can have whatever they choose at school, I have no say in that, but I certainly do have a say at home, and nutrition is top of my agenda. My kids have beautiful clear skin, shiny hair, they are slim and growing well. Maybe if I had the knowledge earlier, they could have been even healthier. I guess that is something I will never know, But I am trying very hard to make it right now, :-)

I read the first chapter of Salt Sugar Fat a while back and look forward to more of it.

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.

You'll be happy to know then that "while most people support nutrition guidelines to help Americans make better choices along with the posting of calorie counts on restaurant menus, nearly six in ten of those surveyed opposed unhealthy food taxes and three-quarters of respondents were against government restrictions on what people can purchase."

Obesity survey suggests many Americans don't know fat can cause cancer, infertility
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57562421/obesity-survey-suggests-many-americans-dont-know-fat-can-cause-cancer-infertility/

It would appear though there is a correlation between people that mind being regulated and people that mind staying informed. "60 percent of those who benefit from the home-mortgage interest deduction didn't think they had ever used a government social program. Fifty-three percent of those with student loans didn't think they had used one. Among Social Security beneficiaries, 44 percent thought themselves unsullied by the touch of government, and among Medicare beneficiaries, 39 percent said the same."

The invisible welfare state of the top one percent
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/the-invisible-welfare-state-of-the-top-one-percent/2011/08/25/gIQANQRemR_blog.html

Again, ""I don't demand that the government does this for me. I don't feel like I need the government," said a Minnesota resident, who counts on an earned-income tax credit and has signed up his children for free meals at school. How about Social Security? And Medicare? Can he imagine retiring without government help? "I don’t think so," he said. "No. I don’t know. Not the way we expect to live as Americans.""

Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Most consumers will not "be demanding changes from food manufacturers". They expect it to be resolved by way of some silver lining, an emotional hope that springs from desperation. These people do not foremost base their outlook on life on "informed choices". And when they acquire knowledge, it may not change their views. That's what motivated reasoning is about. In other words, "rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe."

Motivated reasoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning

Such a scenario is likely not what libertarian optimists and others have in mind when they talk about personal responsibility and the nanny state! This by the way ties in with dealing with the food industry in a review of Robert Lustig's Fat Chance.

"Dr. Lustig closes with specific calls to action in the form of new regulation of bad foods. He defends against critics who call this the “Nanny State”, explaining that other public health menaces are restricted and controlled, such as tobacco and alcohol."

Book review of “Fat Chance” by Robert H. Lustig, MD
http://currentmedicine.tv/2013/other-categories/op-ed/book-review-of-fat-chance-by-robert-h-lustig-md/

Hi again Brian,

You stated.....

"But that an individual has the responsibility to eat right, does not release the food industry from responsibility for deceptive advertising and practices deliberately designed to try to make people fat."

Therein lies my main point of contention. You are saying that food companies are trying to make people fat. I say that they simply are trying to make a profit. The fact that some compulsive eaters in society become fat, is simply a by-product. It's NOT a design of the food companies to "make people fat".

Then you said.....

"I don't have the answers - but at least let's get the "heart healthy" logo off of breakfast cereal. Let's stop advertising designed to get kids to eat and drink sugary foods. And let's increase the knowledge of what the food industry is doing to the food so that people know that the reason they can't stop eating a bag of potato chips is because the chips were created with bliss point methods that are going to make it near impossible to stop even if you are full. Maybe then they'll say no to the first one, which may be the only way to avoid eating too many! "

There have been shysters and hucksters that try to sell people things under false pretenses throughout history just to make a buck. Today is no different. We are not going to stop unethical behavior by the food companies...or anyone else. It's part of the rich fabric of life. The old saying that "There is a sucker born every minute." is what gives fodder to those who would sell us a bill of goods. That includes some food companies. But to try and blame them for those in society that aren't smart enough...or don't care enough...to avoid falling for their schemes is not logical. People believe what they WANT to believe...plain and simple.

There is one place where you and I can find common ground though. I agree that we should try to expose the hucksters any way we can so that people can make informed decisions.

Peace.

Thank you for spreading the word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!