But what is "real food?" Yes we all know that an ear of corn or a piece fruit is real food. Here in the Lehigh Valley you can't go a day without seeing a corn field, and I cannot think of a place in this country where you cannot find some kind of fruit trees. But what about that Mango Fruit Bar? It sounds healthy. It sounds real. Even sounds like it comes from the ground. But ... it doesn't. Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss goes the next step and gives the insight into exactly how processed food is produced.
What Moss does over 264 pages is take you behind the scenes of the corporate food industry and shows the process of how the food they sell to consumers is designed, created, and then marketed to you and me. Based on extensive research and fist hand discussions with big players in the industry, the author paints a picture that is frightening. It is truly eye opening on so many levels. Here are five things that are surprising but that I didn't necessarily find a surprise:1. The increase in obesity coincides with the increase in processed food consumption. This is not a coincidence.
2. The food companies have done extensive research on exactly how much sugar/fat/salt they need to put into a product to get you to the "bliss point," or the point where you will ingest the maximum calories. Essentially, they design foods that make you want to keep eating and eating and eating ... You would be amazed at the amount of sugar that is added to almost everything, and one of the main reasons salt is loaded into many foods (read the book).
3. Chances are you are eating something that you really don't want to eat and probably shouldn't.
4. Marketing: Many of us are looking for the quick, easy solution and they use this to make sales. Also, they will do whatever they can to market a product as "healthy," because we all want to be healthy, right? Of course, what the food companies consider healthy and what actually is health aren't exactly the same thing.
5. Quantity: It is amazing how much of some products we as a people eat compared to what we did a few decades ago. For example, Americans eat 33 pounds of cheese and "cheese products" per year, three times the consumption rate in the 1970s.
6. Many of the people behind the creation of processed food honestly admit that they won't eat their own products. If you read the book this will not come as a surprise.
Needless to say I recommend reading this book ... but there is more to do than just reading. Making better food decisions creates change in a number of different ways. From a health perspective, eating more nutrient dense, high quality foods is better than ingesting man-made foodstuff. The secondary, and just as important change that can result, if the quality of food we are offered by the food manufactures will change if it is in their best interest to do so. And the more people who vote with their pocketbook by not buying their products, the quicker that change can/will occur. The American public has some responsible for what we have available in grocery stores simply because as a people we have bought into their products and marketing.
Please don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of chips (especially Fritos!!!), and have been known to make a bad food decision or two. It has taken time to get to where most of what I ingest is real food. Moss gives a clear understanding of where the products we eat come from, how they were developed, and how they have marketed the products to the American public. If you have even a remote interest in your health Salt Sugar Fat is worth a read.
Train Hard, Stay Focused.
Jon
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