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Das Salz-Zucker-Fett-Komplott: Wie Die Lebensmittelkonzerne Uns Süchtig Machen (2013)

by Michael Moss(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Ludwig Buchverlag

review 1: What this book did best was provide an insight into, just as the title promises, "how the food giants hooked us." The awareness I got from this book has armed me beyond the degree of preparedness I already thought I possessed in the battle against the manipulative marketing techniques of big food. I am very thankful to have read this book. I had no idea how mischievous they really were. I had no idea whatsoever, either, of how much of a force they are. They are not simply a mass of money (billions!) and are genius tricksters, but they are a force. That is, a corpus of considerable influence that could shift many variables in the direction of their choosing. I strongly disagreed with the angle of his reporting on sugar, salt, and fat. Sugar is, as we all know, is best avoid... moreed. But that is simply not the case with fat and salt. I gave him four stars despite this because he did such an excellent job by letting me peer in on big food's thought process. That said, he kept with the outdated, mainstream advice of low-fat and such and made, what looks like, a concerted effort to interview people who preached the same unhelpful sermon. Surely his book would have been better if he were to have founded it upon solid nutrition advice. But even though he didn't, this book remains a valuable read for those who know the truth of the benefits of a high-fat, wholesome, real food diet. As for those who don't, well, maybe this book is best read after updating their understanding.
review 2: This was a really interesting read. I listened to it as an audiobook on my drive to and from Virginia this weekend. It definitely made me think about the food choices that we have and don't have, and it was especially thought-provoking as I stopped at rest stops along the highway and had to choose what to buy to eat. When I got home on Monday night and went immediately to do groceries, I began to realize just how much power the food companies hold over us. Besides the fruit and vegetables in the produce section of the store, pretty much everything else in the grocery store has been processed. The book is divided into three sections: sugar, fat, and salt. The author discusses how these things, in their various forms, are added to the food we eat in vast quantities to improve convenience, shelf life, crunch, mouth feel, flavour, and addictiveness. Something that I definitely take for granted, like the concept of instant pudding (not that it's something I ever make or eat but grew up with for sure!) and how it was developed along with the rise of the working mother who wouldn't have time to prepare cooked pudding for dessert on a weeknight. While the idea of developing time-saving food products doesn't seem bad in and of itself, the natural extensions of this movement result in what we have today: a grocery store that contains very little "real" food and instead is stocked with pre-prepared entrees and chemically-modified products. He dives into marketing strategies, including the "up and down the street" model that soda and chip companies like Pepsi, Coke and Frito-Lay use to wield power over convenience stores by keeping their products well stocked and at the forefront of the customer's view. He explores the idea of line extensions - increasing sales by adding more, new versions of products customers already buy. And he discusses the meager efforts of the big food companies to develop healthier versions of products, to respond to consumer concerns about whatever the big issue of the day is, but of the usual result, which is to replace the salt/sugar/fat with one of the other things, to compensate. One thing I found really interesting was the concept of how humans' taste for salt is not a natural like. Babies are not born with a liking for salt; it is developed by exposure and it has become a real health problem. Studies have shown that most of the sodium that we consume at problem levels is not due to the salt we add to our food via the salt shaker, but instead from the salt that is added to EVERYTHING in its processing. These same studies have shown that people who are put on a no-salt diet for a while begin to lose their taste for salt, to the point that once they are permitted to use it again, they end up using only 20% of the original amount they used to. So the salt addiction is overcomeable. Overall, this is just a really fascinating read about how almost all of the food we eat is the product of massive, billion+ dollar companies whose main priority is to make money for their shareholders. I certainly think that it will have a lasting impact on my shopping and eating habits. It makes the "real food" movement really come into perspective for me. less

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