annieb123's Review of Hooked

by Michael Moss

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt Sugar Fat comes a "gripping" (The Wall Street Journal) exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health.

"The processed food industry has managed to avoid being lumped in with Big Tobacco-which is why Michael Moss's new book is so important."-Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions and to find the true peril in our food.

Moss uses the latest research on addiction to uncover the shocking ways that food, in some cases, is even more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Our bodies are hardwired for sweets, so food giants have developed fifty-six types of sugar to add to their products and ways to exploit our evolutionary preference for fast, ready-to-eat foods. Moss goes on to show how the processed food industry -- including major companies like Nestlé, Mars, and Kellogg's -- has not only tried to hide the addictiveness of food but to actually exploit it. As obesity rates continue to climb, manufacturers are now claiming to add ingredients that can effortlessly cure our compulsive eating habits.

A gripping account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns, and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis, Hooked lays out all that the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and shows us why what we eat has never mattered more.

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Hooked is a thought provoking (and at times distressing) expository look at the food industry and its effects on our eating habits by Michael Moss. Due out 2nd March 2021 from Random House, it's 304 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The author has a casual academic style of writing; accessible and careful, but not overly convoluted or impenetrably difficult to read. He manages to convey a wealth of information without being pedantic or preachy. He writes clearly and concisely with a logical progression and a clear threads to follow which interweave the reality of the modern model of food production and processing, backed by a plethora of sources. Where actual contemporaneous sources shade into speculation, he says so clearly and unambiguously.

I found myself shocked at several points in the narrative. I was unaware of the connection between major agribusiness and tobacco (I shouldn't have been - it seems obvious in retrospect). I've been harping on processed food and food safety and security for *years*. I've combated it in part by growing as much of our food as practical, and trying to choose our other foods responsibly. I was also unaware of the psychological conditioning which happens subtly and inexorably.

This book definitely gave me a lot of information to think about. The author/publisher have also included chapter notes and a solid bibliography for further reading.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Hooked

by Michael Moss

Reviewed by annieb123 on Feb 23, 2021

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