Two Mildly Depressing Non-Fiction Books: Part 1

Salt Sugar Fat: Michael Moss

It's no secret North America might be packing on an extra couple pounds. Somewhere around one in four Canadians are obese, with Americans even higher. Mind you, that's one of those statistics that's somewhat misleading; the literal definition of obese is much lower than what we'd think, with obese closer to what we'd call "pretty fat". Nevertheless, it's one of the largest risks to our collective chubby hearts and souls. "Salt Sugar Fat" details the rise of the processed food industry, and just why it's so common for us to be struggling with our ever increasing bellies. But that in itself isn't what's so distressing; throughout the book you realize just how stacked against you the odds are, from how they make it so irresistible to the cravings that are there naturally to the convenience of it all.

First: our bodies really, really enjoy the taste of sugar, which should feel like a freebie but it's even more than you would think. We love it from literally the very first moments of our lives, as when we put a tiny amount of sugar on the tongue of an infant they'll light up right away. It's hardwired in our system. How much we enjoy is a bit of a different story, and finding the point where we feel something is too sweet is a science in and of itself. The major food companies have shocking numbers of scientists working on this, to find what they describe as the "bliss point", the peak level of enjoyment of sugar that doesn't cross over to being too sweet. That's why sugary treats taste as incredible as they do - they know exactly what you want, and they'll cater it directly for you. They'll even know how much you want according to your age and race, as well. It's not only a science, but they've worked it down to an exact one, and it's up to you to take those perfect, designed for pleasure pieces of sugar and deny your access to them.

But it's not just sugar.

Fat works in much the same way, and we crave it about as strongly as we do sweets. The "bliss point" for fat is also staggeringly high, allowing food producers to really amp it up to make their wares all the more attractive. Eventually it gets to the point where we won't want to eat it if it becomes too fatty (maybe it's a shame and not a taste thing) but there's a wonderful way that they've fixed that problem. If you pair sugar with the fat, that fatty "bliss point" moves on up, allowing it to become this unholy concoction of artery clogging, blood-pressure surging, beauty-reducing bites of pure joy. Sugar, for whatever reason, has this strange capability of masking how much fat is in foods and making it harder to detect for the consumer. So not only are your fatty foods fatty, but it's more fat than ever because they can add sugar on top of it all. It's like a wolf not in sheep's clothing, but a bear's.

Salt works slightly differently; we don't really have a natural taste for it (the same test with babies with the sugar produces the opposite reaction). We develop that liking, and if we go off salt for long enough we don't really crave it as strongly. However, a small amount of sodium is healthy (actually, necessary) but we're not talking small amounts. Some of pre-packaged dinners have as much as three and a half days worth of salt in one single sodium bomb that tastes pretty awful anyways. For those of you who have had those Michelina's Frozen Entrees, you know exactly what I mean.

So what happens when we remove some of the salt, sugar or fat? It's more than just the taste. The chemical composition of the food changes, and unfortunately, much of the food becomes unpalatable. This can mean colour, consistency, texture, or any number of things that makes food great other than the obvious. At least that happens a lot of the time; sometimes we just don't like it.

Low-fat foods often fail miserably in the stores, and even when they don't it can lead to overeating anyways. The food companies have a history of drawing people in with the low-fat foods, having them find a lack of satisfaction in them, and eventually having them head on back and pick up the same full-fat version of the thing the consumer was avoiding in the first place. They use healthier foods to lead you back to the worst versions. Ultimately, it's the consumer (as in the consumer, not an individual) that's simply too cheap or too lazy to change it. Making your own food is one way of fixing it, but that's inconvenient; better ingredients become too expensive, and people wouldn't buy it. The food being deprived of nutrients isn't even necessarily the producers' fault. Take soup, for example. It's higher in salt than pretty much anything you're going to find, but that can easily be changed without losing the flavour by replacing it with herbs and spices. However, salt is astoundingly cheap, so it's kept in the process. But here's the thing; if consumers collectively purchased the higher cost, higher health foods, the food companies would be the first to accommodate that desire. But that's ultimately not what we want.

Lastly, even if we're trying for health, it doesn't quite pan out (and here's where those same producers I just defended turn really scummy). Tang is a notable example, as it was marketed as an orange (the fruit) drink - but really it's just an orange (the colour) drink. They tried adding the same nutrients and vitamins from oranges to Tang, but every time they did so it would alter the colour and the taste, and suddenly it would turn to a horrible mess. Fortunately for them, they discovered if they strip it absolutely bare of anything healthy, and add the one part of oranges that the average consumer knows is healthy (vitamin C) and add just that, then it still tastes fine and they can market it with oranges on the front as if deep down it's not quietly helping to put you in an early grave. The grocery store is littered with stuff like this, and while it used to be worse (lawsuits by consumer advocacy groups really helped here) it's been going on for ages with no signs of stopping.

So maybe at this point you're thinking "well, I'm going to be a better consumer, and stop eating all this garbage." Good! But don't forget that you're fighting companies that are throwing millions and millions of dollars of advertising against exactly that. But it's not only advertising - they go all out on making these treats perfect in every way, right down to the obnoxiously described "mouthfeel", which focuses on exactly what it sounds like. This excerpt from the book pretty well sums up what I mean.

"[Frito Lay employed nearly five hundred chemists, psychologists, and their technicians conducted research that cost up to $30 million a year. Their tools included a $40,000 device that simulated a chewing mouth to test and perfect the chips that snaps with about four pounds of pressure, no more or less."

We're all fighting giants. Every time we hit the store we have to actively choose over convenience,  taste and cost, and opt for the healthier option, all the while resisting the enticing manner in which the companies draw you in with their near limitless marketing power. But that's not easy to do. Not everyone has the money, the time, or even the desire to do so. "Salt Sugar Fat" shows us just how massive and often terrible the processed food industry is, and suddenly it seems like that one in four number for those that are obese is surprisingly low, if anything. But don't worry. They're not lonely. Much like our waistlines, their numbers are growing.