Michael Moss Salt Sugar Fat Summary

Company vs Consumer

Food has become such a big complicated mess because of the involvement in sciences and politics in food production and distribution. They have all of the power to say and do whatever they want with food and somehow it has ended in obesity epidemic rates and the rates are drastically increasing as the years go on. Michael Moss in his book titled Salt, Sugar, Fat spends three years finding out how food companies manipulated the system and used their products to worsen the health of the public and rack up the money at the same time. He unfolds this situation and dives deep into the problem while giving his feedback on the issue itself. Throughout his book Michael Moss in a complex way, proves to readers by observing the

issue himself that the consumers buying the food and the companies making the food are both at fault with the amount of sugar that’s involved.
Sugar has become a major issue that most people do not even recognize because it is in everything therefore it is often looked passed.

Sadly enough is it affecting America and it is affecting America fast. The health of Americans is declining at a rapid pace Moss commented, “More than half of American adults were now considered overweight, with nearly one- quarter of the population- 40 million adults- carrying so many extra pounds that they were clinically defined as obese” (xvi). Children specifically are immensely impacted by the unhealthy epidemic. With commercials/ads, availability, and media in general, eating healthy would be a tough choice as a kid. In fact, “The typical American child in 1979 would watch more than twenty thousand commercials between the ages of two and eleven--and more than half of those ads were pitching sweetened cereals, candies, snacks, and soft drinks”(Moss 80). “When each cereal brand was cross referenced with TV advertising records, the sweetest brands were found to be the ones most heavily marketed to kids during Saturday morning cartoons” (Moss 73-74). All of those factors go into the buying and selling of each product and are well thought out to trick the kids into thinking that the food is something way more than it actually is. The parents of these children are the ones buying the sugary foods and giving into the media advertising. It doesn’t just affect children, adults are addicted to the sweet taste of sugar as well and also fall for

the commercials and advertisements that fill their minds with false conceptions which ultimately fills their body with garbage food and that is why Americans are increasingly becoming obese.
Food companies and really any company in general competes for one thing and that is who can make the most money.

Food companies make up false studies, false commercials, and advertisements to attract and bring in consumers. This is true for all foods, but especially when all of the new brands of cereals were coming out, major food companies such as Kellogg's and Post were not only making cereal upon cereal but adding more and more sugar into the cereal to attract consumers (specifically kids). They would use commercials, ads, bright colors, and characters on their boxes to catch the eyes of consumers. Moss stated while observing these companies, “Instead of having the food technicians toil away in their labs experimenting with tastes and textures, the marketing folks hunted for ideas that suited the advertising needs at Kellogg first and worried about pleasing the palates of consumers second” (Moss 85). It isn’t entirely the company's fault though, the buyers share a role as

well.
Although they don’t want to admit it, consumers are the main reason why the companies keep adding sugar to everything. They ask for the companies for good tasting food and the company's go wild with the sugar and all of the other processed ingredients that are added to junk food. Moss continued, “Consumer advocates were asking only that the commission go after the marketing of sugary foods to children” (Moss 77). The consumers said it themselves. They want their money to be used to market processed, sugar filled, junk. People are constantly demanding for food that is going to hurt them yet they keep asking for it because they think someone else will eventually force them to stop and remove the food that is hurting them. The companies realize what they’re doing but are just satisfying the demands of the consumers because that’s what they’re supposed to do, right? Well sometime, somebody is going to have to break it off and either the consumer puts an end to it or the companies do because the obesity epidemic is just going to keep increasing and getting worse if nothing is done about this problem. Sure individuals are making healthier choices for themselves, but there is still a huge portion of Americans making poor food choices every day and something needs to be done. Now with this being said, both the buyers and the companies are at equal fault but Kellogg and Post may be going a little too crazy with the demands of consumers.
Companies should take public health and obesity into consideration and stop letting consumers get what they want because in the end it is hurting the consumer tremendously. Michael Moss is trying to inform his readers of this concern so that buyers can start to realize that they have a strong impact on the sugar in foods and that they can also have a voice in changing that. Companies do not make decisions for anyone and they certainly do not force poor choices, it is the individual's decision to make the right choices. Moss obviously has a growing concern for this difficult situation and does a great job convincing his readers of this situation so that more individuals can step up with him and put an end to obesity. In conclusion, next time in the store, take a look at the ingredient labels on the backs of the products and see what exactly is in them and try to make healthier choices. Don’t let the companies fool you, there is a lot out there that is harming the people in America.

Works Cited
Moss, Michael. Salt, Sugar, Fat: how the food giants hooked us. New York, Random House, 2014