Every one of our 10,000 taste buds is wired for sugar. But we aren’t born liking salt – we develop a taste for it at about 6 months. Michael Moss Read Quote
Sugar was an issue in the ’80s, so you would see low-sugar products; fat was an issue in the ’90s, so you’d see low-fat products. Michael Moss Read Quote
The growing attention Americans are paying to what they put into their mouths has touched off a new scramble by the processed-food companies to address health concerns. Michael Moss Read Quote
Many of the Prego sauces – whether cheesy, chunky or light – have one feature in common: The largest ingredient, after tomatoes, is sugar. A mere half-cup of Prego Traditional, for instance, has the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar: as much as two-plus Oreo cookies. Michael Moss Read Quote
Every year, the average American eats as much as 33 pounds of cheese. That’s up to 60,000 calories and 3,100 grams of saturated fat. So why do we eat so much cheese? Mainly it’s because the government is in cahoots with the processed food industry. Michael Moss Read Quote
The optimum amount of sugar in a product became known as the ‘bliss point.’ Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us over the moon and send products flying off the shelves. Michael Moss Read Quote
When it comes to salt, what was really staggering to me is that the industry itself is totally hooked on salt. It is this miracle ingredient that solves all of their problems. There is the flavor burst to the salt itself, but it also serves as a preservative, so foods can stay on the shelves for months. Michael Moss Read Quote
It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort… to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. Michael Moss Read Quote
The biggest hits – be they Coca-Cola or Doritos – owe their success to complex formulas that pique the taste buds enough to be alluring but don’t have a distinct, overriding single flavor that tells the brain to stop eating. Michael Moss Read Quote
