Michael Moss is one hell of an investigative reporter and Salt Sugar Fatis a great book, exposing the processed foods industry for the money printing business it is and always will be. Food-related health problems it turns out didn’t spring from the salt shaker on your table, the sugar in your pantry or the butter in your fridge.

While many of these dishes were comforting blasts of protein, fat, and flavor like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fried pork chops, homemade macaroni and cheese, or white rice loaded with butter, the fat and salt loads in these homemade dinners, while substantial, were minuscule compared to the modern, precooked versions which appear in boxes or bags in your local market. The calories that went in were burned pretty quickly.īut I also learned the value of a good meal prepared at home (thanks, mom!).

But like most kids at the time, I was very active, walking and biking everywhere before I could drive, spending lots of time outdoors (including gardening), and later, a runner and occasional gym rat. I poured whatever tasted good into my always hungry self. I was no stranger to the occasional foil-wrapped TV dinner, fish sticks, Tater Tots, orange soda, cream soda, birch beer, root beer, bologna, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Tastykake, Ding Dongs, Tang, Jiffy Pop, salted pretzels, Sno Balls, Wonder Bread, Pixy Stix, Cheez Whiz, Fritos, Doritos, or Hershey bars. I grew up in the 1970s when processed foods were making their full-frontal assault on America’s dinner table. In his new book, Salt Sugar Fat – How The Food Giants Hooked Us, he shows us how processed food company science and clever marketing have made it all but impossible to stop eating their “food-like” products.īuy on Amazon: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Moss is the New York Times writer who injected the phrase “pink slime” into the public consciousness with his 2009 article on beef safety.

Books by michael moss