Author Michael Moss depicts how the food industry has wielded its way to hook and keep its hold over us while maximizing profitability. Fat and sugar combinations, smells, textures, and flavor enhancers hit our brain at lightning speeds, interacting with memories that stimulate and compel further cravings. The reader gets a complete sense of what companies have done to exploit our addiction (“a repetitive behavior that some people find difficult to quit” p. 10). Just as consumers figure out one way of Big Food’s maneuvering, they change it up and go a different way, e.g., altering serving sizes, adding protein, “healthy” marketing on labels, etc.
The hope in exposing these manipulations is to help us to navigate a more healthful path forward. This book is recommended to all, and to especially those who consume anything from a package.
Michael, M. (2021). Hooked: Food, free will, and how the food giants exploit our addictions. New York: Random House.
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