Investigative Author Believes Convenience Foods Are Designed To Hook People
DENVER (CBS4) - Sure they taste good, but are convenience foods specially designed to hook us? A new book makes the case.
Michael Moss, the author of "Salt Sugar Fat: How The Food Giants Hooked Us," believes the food companies manipulate their products to get people to buy more and eat more.
"Salt, sugar, fat are the Holy Grail for the processed food industry," Moss said on CBS This Morning.
Moss is an investigative reporter as well as an author.
"They have really smart scientists on staff who know how to formulate these three ingredients to the precise moment," Moss said.
He went inside the food companies and learned about products formulated for maximum "bliss."
"They're not just getting us to like their products, they're getting us to eat more and more," Moss said.
"I don't see it as a, 'Oh, we want to intentionally addict the public.' I think it's, 'We want to make food that tastes good,' " Dr. James Hill said.
Hill heads the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center and is an expert on weight loss and weight management.
"This is going to be a shock to your readers, but people like sugar, fat and salt," Hill said.
He does believe food giants are part of the obesity problem.
"Automobiles and computers and all that are part of the problem too. To me, it's how do we work with them to try to look at a solution?" Hill said.
Hill points out there is plenty of good food in grocery stores -- vegetables and fruit. Companies may make the junk food, but people make the choices.
