Episode 213: Michael Moss
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How the Food Giants Hooked Us
It’s no secret that the nature of our food has been changed quite dramatically by big food companies in the last 50 years. This is just one of the things that has contributed to a nation of overeaters.
Michael Moss is the author of “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” and “Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions.” He is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
So what has changed in those 50 years? Listen as Michael and Greg talk about the evolution of processed foods, the biological science behind addiction, how food memories develop, Lunchables, and the business of cigarettes and smoking.
Episode Quotes:
Memory as a tool in food industry
25:26: What the food companies have realized is that the more we experience something, the deeper those memory channels are. And so the easier it is for them to use what psychologists call cues to get us excited. I mean, two people driving down the road, right, see the golden arches. And they could have completely different reactions to seeing those arches depending on what their memory bank is, what their experience is from eating. t a person's been eating there a lot and has deep memory channels for McDonald's is going to get all excited and pull off the highway as soon as they can to, to go there where the other person's going to, they're not even like seeing the golden arches if they're not somebody who eats there, doesn't have that memory for it. So, besides speed, memory is hugely powerful for the food industry to us to kind of keep coming back to its products.
Speed is the hallmark of addiction
8:42: Speed is a hallmark of addiction, so the faster a substance can hit the brain, the more apt we are to lose control, react, and act compulsively to that substance.
Educating the young about eating habits
12:21: I would love to see going back to prioritizing children, focusing on them to help them develop good eating habits before they can develop bad ones. Teaching them how to cook and schools would be a fabulous sort of thing to do, and you could do it, and you could do it in a way that's not preachy too.
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Guest Profile:
Professional Profile at New York Times
Professional Profile at Pulitzer Prize
Professional Profile at Food Future Co
Speaker’s Profile at Harry Walker Agency