263. Why We’re Hooked on Processed Foods with Michael Moss #WellnessWednesdays
Be Well by Kelly Leveque
Kelly Leveque
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's episode, I welcome Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Michael Moss, author of two New York times bestselling books on the processed food industry: Salt, Sugar, and Fat and Hooked. He's a frequent guest of newscasts from the CBS This Morning to the BBC, and he spent his career as an investigative reporter with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Michael helps us pull back the curtain on the big business of food to understand how chemists are getting you hooked on processed products. We talk about the “blisspoint”, the power of food memory, why our biology is mismatched to our current food environment, how the food industry has controlled the diet industry, and how we can flip the switch on food giants for better health and more appreciation for the food we eat. Let's welcome Michael Moss to the show.
We also cover…
00:02:00 — How Processed Foods Are Engineered for Addiction
• Michael’s work with the investigations group at the New York Times during 9/11
• The story behind his Pulitzer Prize winning reporting on the food system and food safety
• Uncovering engineering of the “bliss point” and “flavor burst” in food
• Devious aspects of convenient processed food and the science behind habit
• Read: Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss
• The impact of food memories
00:16:00 — Exploring Food Chemistry & Diet Industry Deception
• Explaining how processed foods don’t have a satiety backing
• Understanding the term vanishing caloric density
• Read: Hooked by Michael Moss
• What’s going on in flavor labs in the food industry?
• The mismatch between our biology and the food environment
• How Michael believes we can bring about change in the food industry
• Tristan Harris of Social Dilemma: tristanharris.com
• Ways that the food industry has taken control of the dieting industry
00:31:00 — Changing Our Food Story: Tips for Parents & Consuming Responsibly
• Michael’s advice on engaging with processed foods and their addictive nature
• Get ahead of mid-day cravings
• How to get kids to enjoy vegetables
• Communicating and setting boundaries with kids around junk food
• Creative ways to show kids that good food is slow food
• Pasturebird: pasturebird.com (use code “BEWELLBYKELLY” for a discount)
Resources:
• Website: mossbooks.us
• Twitter: @MichaelMossC
Connect with Kelly:
• Instagram: @bewellbykelly
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bewellbykelly
Be Well By Kelly is produced by Crate Media.
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you talk to nutritionists, the problem from their standpoint isn't that this industry |
| 0:05.3 | engineers bliss points for things like cookies and ice cream and soda. |
| 0:10.6 | Things we know are sweet and we're naturally worried if they marched around the grocery |
| 0:16.9 | store adding sugar, engineering bliss points to things that didn't used to be sweet. |
| 0:24.0 | So bread came to have added sugar and a bliss point for sweetness. |
| 0:27.4 | Some yogurts came to have as much sugar per serving as ice cream. |
| 0:31.6 | Spaghetti sauce, aisle, oh my god, I mean, there were some brands that had the equivalent |
| 0:35.9 | of a couple of Oreo cookies with a sweetness and a tiny half cup serving. |
| 0:40.8 | So what that did arguably is taught us to expect everything we eat to be sweet. |
| 0:52.2 | In today's episode, I welcome Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Moss. |
| 0:56.2 | Michael Moss is the author of Two New York Times Best Selling Books on the Process Food |
| 1:00.2 | Industry, Salt Sugar and Fat, and hooked. |
| 1:03.4 | He's a frequent guest of newscasts from the CBS this morning to the BBC, and he spent |
| 1:08.6 | his career as an investigative reporter with The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. |
| 1:12.8 | In today's episode, we're going to pull back the curtain on big business of food and |
| 1:16.6 | understand how the chemists are making you clucked on processed foods. |
| 1:21.0 | Let's welcome Michael Moss to the show. |
| 1:25.4 | Michael Moss, I'm so excited to have you on the show. |
| 1:28.2 | I think that the books that you've written and just you're reporting on what's happening |
| 1:34.6 | in our food system is so critically important, not only for all of us, but especially for parents |
| 1:40.1 | with young kids who can be derailed by the dopamine explosion in their brains from these |
| 1:46.6 | highly processed and palatable foods. |
... |
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