I was taught that when grocery shopping to stick to the perimeter of the store because he aisles of the store contain the foods that would make me fat. I have an intermediate understanding of what foods or macros one should consume to remain healthy and a book that delved into the story behind the food seemed very interesting.
The book jumps right into a secret meeting where food companies got together to discuss their products collectively. Right away, one executive declares that he will not be deterred by criticism from health conscious opponents. The author, Michael Moss, begins to describe the importance of each macro- the titular salt, sugar, and fat, to the processed food industry. The book is broken into three sections, one for each ingredient. Moss details the significance of each and how its use became egregious. He uses specific and concrete examples but also includes anecdotal stories to further his claims. The section on sugar has a particularly damning history of the Coke and the effects its products can induce.
Moss is the perfect author for such a book. He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting “for relentless reporting on contaminated hamburger and other food safety issues” while working at the New York Times. This book seems to be a natural extension of that interest.
While I really enjoyed the book, I don’t think that it is particularly life-altering for anyone with knowledge about food and eating healthy. It did encourage me to avoid processed food with greater fervor. A week after finishing the book my wife bought me a snack that I used to enjoy pretty infrequently, a packaged apple pie, and I couldn’t make myself eat it. According to my wife, I actually recoiled in near horror and exclaimed, “EWW!” So I suppose that Salt Sugar Fat did affect me a little. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to know what he/she is eating.
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