Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions by Michael Moss

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions Reviews

• 
  Petra X is stressed over a misbehaving laptop

  Pre-prepared foods, snacks and candies are, as far as government regulation is concerned, Just like with the drugs trade with the not-yet-illegal drugs, government regulation is always challenged by new research and new products. Doesn't matter what you ban, use PR against, insist on full disclosure, the urge and virtue of making money in a capitalist society and our own sheep-like behaviour will ensure that we will go on eating unhealthy food we enjoy and begging the government to be our nanny and regulate the naughty companies who tempt us beyond all endurance. Except for those self-disciplined people who can make a chocolate bar last a month, one square at a time. (I do not know any of these people personally, but I have heard of them).
  
  There are only two things that can conquer this unhealthy, obesity-making state of affairs: a gene or homone treatment so that those of us put on weight will cease to do so and this is probably a long way off. Or learning self-control which is here with us right now. But it's very difficult and most of us will wait for the treatment and continue munching on crisps, chips, Mars bars, and sugary sweet breakfast cereals with our pancakes, maple syrup and morning doughnut.
  
  It occurs to me that teaching self control from kindergarten age might work.
  ____________________
  
  Notes on reading This is a bad-news book. Two points - one is that if you are fat, you are going to be fat, and if you have a gastric band or other stomach-size limiting operation, you are almost certainly going to be fat again at some point. The ability to control one's food intake lies in the brain and has a related hormone, grelin. This has been known (and ignored) for a long time.
  
  I have a huge appetite and am bigger than my son, we might eat the same meals but he eats less, doesn't need to finish the bar of chocolate and can go through the day without snacking. I can't. So I'm 20lb overweight.
  
  Humans have more fat because we evolved to have long pregnancies and downtime raising babies, the fat is our the energy resource for that time. As such, fat itself is an organ and will fight losing weight, will do it's best - by lowering metabolism - to retain and regain fat. It will use less and store more, for example, after a successful diet. Our own bodies are against us!
  
  The other point is that all food products are designed to make you want more of them and to eat them more often. The design, marketing and entire business of snack foods and sodas is designed to get you hooked. Some are even designed to get very young children hooked - McDonald's et al with their toys. Oreo little packets with their tiny little cookies designed 'for little hands to hold'.
  
  Any legal action against the big companies like Nabisco and Pepsico to force them to declare nutrition, to stop using transfats, to actually make their products less desirable in the interest of people's health is never going to work. No company is going to accept a downturn in profits, they are always going to look at legal technicalities and to stay one step ahead in product development. Now they are using neuroscience....
  
  Their business is to get the consumer addicted to their product and the technicalities are usually about what is addiction, habituation and just plain free will. Not all of us are ignorant about nutrition and not habituated to any particular food, but will still choose to eat badly because we like it. Should we be protected from ourselves?
  
  But does it matter if the thin are destined to be thin and the fat,fat?
• 
  Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤

  
  
  ~~~An eye-opening and fascinating look at how the processed food industry hooks us... and keeps us hooked~~~
  
  If you've ever eaten a peanut butter M&M, you know the thrilling sensation they give: The invigoration as the sugary coating meets your taste buds, the satisfying crunch as you bite into it, followed by the burst of saltiness as the creamy insides melt on your tongue, mixing salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth.
  
  I don't know anyone who can stop at just one. I used to eat bags of those things. Every couple weeks, Walgreens would have them on sale, and I'd traipse across the road and load up my basket, a modern day hunter gatherer thrilled to find this cheap and tasty source of calories. I bought so many of them that the employees knew to expect me.
  
  I ate those M&Ms throughout the day. I ate them before bed. I would wake up in the middle of the night, several times, and toss a handful into my mouth.
  
  I couldn't stop eating them and knew I shouldn't be, but like everyone with an addiction, my brain found a way to rationalize and insist it wasn't a problem.
  
  I'm so thin, maybe they'll help me gain weight, my brain suggested. I must need something in them or I wouldn't crave them, it then assured me. I don't eat meat, or fast food, or anything greasy, it continued; a bit of sugar won't hurt. I can stop whenever I want!
  
  Looking back now, I see I had an addiction. My overconsumption of those peanut buttery, saccharine bites of fat and salt and sugar makes sense in the light of evolution, but it wasn't a good thing.
  
  In Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, author Michael Moss breaks down the nature of addiction, showing how and why our brains get addicted. He discusses our brain chemistry and the hormones it releases when we eat, do drugs, smoke tobacco -- or any other thing we get addicted to, including those M&Ms.
  
  He shows how we evolved to crave calories and how our brains reward us when we eat a lot of fat or sugar. Natural selection favored those of our ancestors who enjoyed high caloric foods when they were limited.  Eating extra calories helped them survive in a world where food might at any time become scarce. Now, with cheap calories almost always within hand's reach, our evolved love of sweets, salts, and fats is killing us. 
  
  After looking into the nature of addiction, Mr. Moss turns to the fast- and processed food industries, exposing how they exploit our emotions and instincts. They know how to hook us by taking control of our senses - our ability to smell as we eat, the manner in which our eyes delight at colorful packaging, the way sugar reaches and ignites the brain in half a second. 
  
  It was fascinating to learn their tricks of the trade.... and infuriating! Mr Moss tells how they study psychology to figure out how to make the most sales. How they use fMRI scans to learn the exact amounts of sugar that will give our brains the most reward and thus keep us coming back for more. How the food industry funds studies to "prove" their products are good for us (no wonder there is so much conflicting information on whether or not eggs or Corn Flakes or low-fat ice cream is good for us). How they design nutrition labels to confuse us and how they pretend to make our foods healthier when we demand it. (Hint: that Velveeta Light you ate with lunch had only ten fewer calories per serving than the regular.)
  
  This is my favourite type of book to read, with facts galore. I made 52 highlights, and shared at least twice as much with my partner as I was reading. There is so much I could share but if you're interested in this topic, you should read the book. 
  
  You will learn things like:
  • How our stomachs have taste receptors that recognize sweetness and how our guts signal to our brains whether we should keep eating or stop. 
  • How both rats and human babies make the same facial expressions upon tasting something sweet or sour.
  • How the more we eat of a certain food, the more our brains crave it.
  • How an estimated three-fourths of our food contains added sugar and the average American eats seventy-three pounds of it a year.
  • How epigenetics might play a role in whether or not someone is driven to overeat and how much their body stores food as fat.
  
  Mr Moss shares the history of fast and processed foods as well as the latest research on obesity. He interviewed scientists and people in the food industry and brought together everything he learned about food and food addiction in this interesting and informative book.
  
  And lest you think you are at the mercy of your genes and the food industry's slick tricks, I want to assure you that it's possible to break food addiction. 
  
  Those peanut butter M&Ms I used to scarf down by the bagful and didn't think I could live without? Imagining them now makes my mouth twist in disgust. A few years ago my partner and I decided to switch to a whole food plant-based lifestyle. Though I craved (that's putting it lightly) M&Ms and other candy for a couple weeks, my brain eventually stopped demanding them. 
  
  A month or two after changing the way we ate, I saw an ad for M&Ms and decided I wanted needed them. I was shocked to discover I not only didn't like them anymore, I thought they were revolting.
  
  It might be difficult but we can take control of our habits and change the way we eat. Having more information about our food and our proclivity to overeat and become addicted makes it easier. Hooked is an entertaining way to get that information. 
  
  
  *************************************
  (For those of you who saw my original gripe/review - I was wrong. It's embarrassing to admit but I don't want anyone being put off this book because I claimed the author's description of the hypothalamus was incorrect.
  
  It turns out he was right, and I'm thankful he reached out to let me know or I would have missed out on reading this excellent book. The hypothalamus is the size of an almond (not a pea as I thought) and some do describe it as almond-shaped. Others describe it as conical (which is what I thought) or diamond-shaped. It is awkwardly-shaped, defying an easy description.
  
  My apologies to the author and to all of you for not doing my homework (tip: Don't accept Google's first answer, especially if it conforms to what you already think). Facts are important and, much as I hate being wrong, it's better to learn that I am rather than letting my ego cling to misinformation.) 
• 
  Roz

  There was something particularly surreal and disturbing about reading the majority of this book in a grocery store. I work as a grocery stock clerk and I mostly read this on my breaks or when I had down time covering the liquor store attached to the grocery store. I would read about the tricks the food industry uses to draw us in and keep us hooked, and then I'd go back to work and watch a man and his small daughter pick out four packs of family-sized Oreos in different flavors for each member of the family. Walking the aisles and noticing anew the bright packaging and all the big eye-catching "new look!" and "limited edition" and boasts of added protein or fiber was sobering. Recognizing the degree to which capitalism's demand for constant growth has motivated manufacturers to disregard the physical toll their products can have on us is disheartening and infuriating. Especially because, for so many of us, we simply don't have the time and resources necessary to slow down and take the time to be more deliberate with our food choices. Until the foundational forces that leave many of us wotking multiple jobs and still struggling to make ends meet are dealt with, fast, convenient, and cheap foods are going to continue to be our go-to items. In the conclusion, Moss focuses on some solutions for individuals to take more control over their eating, but I would be very interested in seeing this topic treated more holistically, by examining not just how the food industry exploits our biological preference for speed and efficiency, but also the social forces that make it necessary for us to lean so heavily on those preferences.
• 
  Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell

  
  
  
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  HOOKED started out strong but ended up becoming a kind of pale shadow of SALT SUGAR FAT. It starts out talking about the seeming addictive qualities of fast food and the lack of success people had trying to hold the food industries accountable for them the way the cigarette industry eventually was. From there, it talks about the various mechanisms in our brains and bodies that make salt, sugar, and fat so addictive, and how the changes in the way we obtain and consume food has led to an increase in obesity and heart problems.
  
  
  
  I'm kind of surprised the author mentioned Ancel Keys but not John Yudkin. John Yudkin (correctly) stated that sugar was most likely the cause of obesity and heart problems all the way back in the 1950s, but Keys, an agent of Big Sugar, discredited and mocked his research, claiming that it was fat that made people fat, even though fat has been a dietary staple of humans since, basically, forever, whereas sugar-- especially refined sugar-- has only really come about into the food supply in high quantity in the latter half of the 20th century.
  
  
  
  This book could have been better but it felt kind of disorganized and incomplete.
  
  
  
  2.5 to 3 stars
• 
  Rennie

  I liked this a lot, enough to read it in a day, but I’m struggling to put my finger on what I didn’t love. I think it’s just that so much of it wasn’t new to me, and I read everything in this genre always hoping something in this will be as much of a beautifully written narrative illumination as Fast Food Nation.
  
  I’m also a bit bugged by the very casual use of “processed” food - in general, not in this book alone - because I know what people mean, but there are degrees of processing. Whole wheat pasta is a processed food, for example. Do we consider no-salt-added peeled, canned tomatoes processed? I would. You can roll your eyes and say OBVIOUSLY it’s all the ingredient-laden junky colorfully packaged stuff with a cartoon character selling it, but I think it can be quite confusing for people. From reading this you get the impression that the general public is just whiplashing back and forth as food company-funded studies churn out different findings and then react to avoid bad publicity or litigation. First it’s fat, then it’s sugar, then it’s fake sugar, back to fat but now trans fat, and so on. When in reality, which he does state very well here, for most people it’s all a lot more complicated than whatever the demon of the moment is and there’s a lot of evolutionary biology and psychology at play too (and to be fair trans fats are still pretty much just bad).
  
  Anyway, what’s processed is a minor point I guess but I always think there needs to be clearer delineation between highly processed foods (Cotton Candy Cap’n Crunch, a heave-inducing example used in this book) and understanding what good things processing has done for the global food supply. It’s not realistic to get most people to only eat things that have been yanked from the ground or grow on trees, so we need to get a bit more realistic about our relationship with processing. (I’ll get off my soapbox now.)
  
  I still haven’t read his other book but I’m hoping it goes more into salt, this one was very sugar-focused and I felt like most of that is well known, or maybe I read too much of this stuff, having been a former disordered eater for a decade or so myself. But the big basic takeaway is that some foods can be addictive, some people are more susceptible than others, and there are a lot of nasty gnarly factors involved, mostly involving money from Big Food’s side and human biology and psychology from consumers.
  
  It’s kind of a bummer but I think a worthwhile read for anyone who feels obsessed with food or diet or the like. There’s some good info here and slowing down, learning to cook, and avoiding anything that jacks up your pleasure and reward mechanism will fix it. He says it more eloquently than that but that’s the gist.
• 
  Morgan Blackledge

  This book might top my list for 2021.
  
  Author Michael Moss is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. If you haven’t read his game changing 2013 book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, start there and come back to this one.
  
  As you may infer from the title, Salt Sugar Fat is a deep dive into how the food industry pumped up (you guessed it) the salt, sugar and fat content of processed foods, making them them artificially reinforcing and subsequently not only awful for you, but extremely hard to resist.
  
  Hooked expands on this theme by exposing how recent insights into addiction science have further enabled the makers of processed foods to hack our brains, and make junk food LITERALLY addictive.
  
  Not figuratively, but very very literally addictive.
  
  What we call ‘addiction’ is most effectively conceptualized as a malfunction of our otherwise adaptive, evolutionarily conditioned motivational system and learning capabilities.
  
  Context sensitive motivational and behavioral adaptation enabled our ancestors to survive and reproduce in conditions of abrupt change, intense competition and extreme scarcity.
  
  Unfortunately these same motivational and learning processes can become hijacked and pathological with prolonged and repeated exposure to reinforcing stimuli of extreme salience, novelty and convenience.
  
  Chemically enhancing food products to be ridiculously stimulating, super cheap, and easily available in endless variety means that they operate on our brains in much the same way as drugs of abuse liability.
  
  Before you dismiss this claim.
  
  Imagine quitting processed foods and snacks.
  
  No more Chunky Monkeys, no more Frappuccinos, no more Cinnabons, no more Chips, no more Sodas, no exceptions!!!!
  
  You can include all those artificially sweetened diet foods too.
  
  Because they may be as bad or even be worse in terms of addiction liability.
  
  Anyhow.
  
  If all of this conjures lonely, painful feelings you’d rather avoid, than you’re starting to feel me.
  
  If you’re still not convinced, than go ahead, try it out bro, quit you’re yakin and stop snakin.
  
  Then comeback and talk to me in a week or two.
  
  Some of y’all (lucky people) could do it no problem.
  
  Most of y’all (normal people) will have some amount (probably a lot) of difficulty, but you could also do it.
  
  But some of us (unlucky bastards) couldn’t do it even if our lives depended on it.
  
  And by the way.
  
  Our lives totally depend on it.
  
  One of the crazy convincing arguments Moss makes is embedded in his retelling of the Philip Morris acquisition of Kraft Foods corporation in 1985.
  
  To make a long story short.
  
  Philip Morris funded research on addiction and essentially utilized it to make their snacks act like crack.
  
  And obesity (defined as 35 pounds or more overweight) progressively skyrocketed to their current epidemic proportions (about 40% of US adults).
  
  This is a really engaging, really informative book.
  
  If it sounds at all interesting.
  
  Definitely pick it up.
  
  But be warned.
  
  You may not be able to put it down.
  
  Five Cupcakes 🧁 🧁🧁 🧁🧁
• 
  Bam cooks the books ;-)

  This new book from Michael Moss continues his look at how fast food and processed foods are affecting all of us by exploiting our addiction to sugar, salt and fat. He gets much more into the science of how these ingredients trigger desires and cravings in our brain.
  
  But the good news is that about 50% of grocery shoppers are turning away from processed foods with undesirable ingredients and are shopping the periphery of the store for fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, meat, seafood, whole grains, etc.
  
  "We are seeing an explosion of interest in fresh foods, dramatically increased focus by consumers on the effect of food on their health and well-being, and mounting demands for transparency from food companies about where and how their products were made, what ingredients were in them, and how these ingredients are produced. And along with this, as all of you know, has come mounting distrust of so-called Big Food, the large food companies and legacy brands on which millions of consumers have relied for so long."
  
  Quote from speech given by Denise Morrison, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, in February, 2015.
  
  Hopefully as more people change their shopping habits, the food processors will have to respond with healthier choices.
  
  BTW, if you need help making the transition to clean, healthy eating, I can highly recommend EatRealAmerica.com for delicious recipes and coaching tips. My husband has lost over 40 pounds by Eating Real and his doctors are all saying: Whatever you are doing, keep it up!
• 
  Lisa Konet

  I was surprised how good this was and enjoyed a different take on food addiction. Food is meant to nourish us and keep us full so our bodies and organs function properly. However, the manufacturers of processed food (including fast food) do a fantastic job of making unhealthy food appealing, alluring and the only option. How? Labeling, marketing, mascots of companies; just for a few examples. It is scary to think food addiction to the wrong items is just as harmful as drug and alcohol abuse. This author definitely did some solid research.
  
  And can we talk about the cover? Very appealing. Definitely recommend this book if you are into reading about food addiction or wanting to make a positive change in your body.
  
  Thanks to Netgalley, Michael Moss, and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Available: 3/2/21
• 
  Srikanth

  I got interested in this book to find out more about addiction and how we get hooked to things, especially food, and if there are ways to break that addiction. After having read 'Salt, Sugar and Fat' by the same author, my expectations were set high, but I don't think I learned a whole lot from this new book as a lot of this information was known earlier.
  
  This book has lot of information about the experiments that were conducted and how the smell, sight or indication or hint of food releases pleasure hormones which lead us to behave in certain ways.
  Stress also leads us to binge on food. The book delves into how advertising induces us to get hooked onto processed foods. Overall, a good insight on addiction.
• 
  Sara Broad

  "Hooked" by Michael Moss is an expose about how the food industry uses research and careful marketing schemes to get us addicted to food. This book highlights how sugar and processed foods are just as addictive as tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, which is scary considering that most people are exposed to fast, easy, and processed food at a much younger age. This book also provides a really interesting analysis about the evolution of eating habits since the beginning of human life and how the food industry shapes our food habits in the current day. "Hooked" definitely made me think about grabbing that second handful of candy! This book is scary but important.
• 
  Jeanette (Ms. Feisty)

  
  I enjoyed the audio version of this book. Now I'm waiting for the print version from the library so I can linger over and absorb the information, which is hard to do when listening rather than reading.
• 
  Annie

  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.
• 
  Donna

  This is Nonfiction Science on food addiction and it is by no accident that this is happening. And not just in the the US. Foods have been specifically designed for this.
  
  First, I found this book highly entertaining. I listened to the audio and Scott Brick did the narration and I loved it. This was a fun "listen". Sobering, but entertaining too.
  
  Now, I did feel like I had to read between the lines at times with this one, as well as trying to hear what wasn't being said. But the author made many valid points. I really liked this one. So 4 stars.
• 
  Srikanth

  I got interested in this book to find out more about addiction and how we get hooked to things, especially food, and if there are ways to break that addiction. After having read 'Salt, Sugar and Fat' by the same author, my expectations were set high, but I don't think I learned a whole lot from this new book as a lot of this information was known earlier.
  
  This book has lot of information about the experiments that were conducted and how the smell, sight or indication or hint of food releases pleasure hormones which lead us to behave in certain ways.
  Stress also leads us to binge on food. The book delves into how advertising induces us to get hooked onto processed foods. Overall, a good insight on addiction.
• 
  Laura Freed

  This is an eye opening book on how food companies exploit and manipulate us, leading to health problems. Hooked is an engaging book, telling personal stories as well as facts about the food industry.
  Covid isn't the real killer here in the USA, Obesity is: leading to many different diseases from diabetes, heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, and a host of other problems.
  Very well told! Thanks to NetGalley for gifting me this ARC.
• 
  Felicia Harris

  I am a huge fan of books about food and I really enjoyed Moss's previous work so I was very excited to read this one. I was not disappointed at all. This book was really fascinating both for its food aspects as well as its information on addiction. This book is definitely going to be added to my Non-fiction shelf.
• 
  Renee (itsbooktalk)

  Very interesting! I listened to this one and recommend the audio, the narration was really good. There were times the science got a bit much but I found the in depth info on how big food uses marketing, advertising, and psychology to get us addicted and KEEP us addicted to processed food insanely interesting....I had no idea how much we were being manipulated
• 
  Alexandra

  Superbă. Împreună cu "Stăpânii hranei" face un duo extraordinar pentru a înțelege mai nuanțat relația noastră cu mâncarea, dincolo de ideile de suprafață.
• 
  Thats another story

  Say no to pumpkin spice
  
  This book asks can food be addictive.  The most telling quote was by a researcher Dana Small, "It`s not so much that food is addictive, but rather that we by nature are drawn to eating, and the companies have changed the food."
  
  The first part of this book did a good job showing extreme cases of addiction and how humans have evolved.  The second half of this book for me is where the magic happens.  The processed food companies are working day and night not just to make a better product but to create foods that humans can`t stop eating.  I think it can be easy to forget that.  Its easy to know on an intellectual level that processed food is unhealthy and created in a way to be cheap and tasty, not necessarily nutritious or even filling.  Even knowing that, hearing about specific details in the creation of processed foods can be a eye opener: "In our kitchen cabinets, pumpkin spice is made of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and maybe ginger.  Not so in processed food.  Its pumpkin spice is simulated through deployment of as many as eighty elements."
  
  I think most people are aware that processed food is bad for you and that most companies selling anything are focused on selling a product, not so much what happens after.  Reading this book can put that at the forefront of all of minds. The only person who has the best interest of your family at heart is you.  Just because processed food is sold doesn`t mean we should buy it.
  
  I particularly enjoyed the discussion on personal responsibility. How accountable should food corporations be for selling creating products that have the potential to cause this much harm?
• 
  Andrew Breza

  Hooked offers a book-length rant about the dangers of processed food and the bad actions of the food industry. The topic is important, but the book lacks nuance and doesn't cover any new ground. There are already so many books on this topic that I was hoping to find something new. Instead of reading Hooked, I suggest
  Pandora's Lunchbox,
  Fast Food Nation,
  The Case Against Sugar, or other books that have already been written about the negative effects of the modern food industry.
• 
  Heather

  This was a depressing read. It laid out all the ways in which food companies are scheming to get you to buy more of the food they design to make you want more of it and the ways in which they evade accountability for the sugary, artificial crap they’ve modified. (Not really news.)
  
  If you’re unlucky enough to have been born with “thrifty genes,” or foolish enough to have become addicted to their sugary mess, you’re probably fat. (Also not news.)
  
  And guess what? All those very same companies have their hands in all those trendy diet plans and are manufacturing those Slimfast shakes and Weight Watchers meals (Maybe not news, but should be.)
  
  If you manage to follow one of these plans to lose weight, like as not, you’ll gain it right back and more, because all those fat cells that you managed to shrink are still lying there, deflated, waiting....
  
  Came away with nothing terribly new or useful beyond an increased desire to shop only around the edges of the supermarket.
• 
  Ariel ✨

  I did not expect this book to hold my attention as much as it did. To my surprise, Michael Moss did not shame people for their eating habits or spotlight diet and nutrition "experts" who made a career out of shaming people for their behavior. Ultimately, I learned that shifting eating habits is more difficult than I realized. The section about trauma and impulse-control was particularly interesting. I feel compelled to read papers by the researchers Moss mentioned. Dana Smalls stands out in my mind for her research on brain waves cravings, and the body'sresponse to liquid sugar consumption. It is frustrating to know that real education about nutrition is almost non-existent in the United States, even for people who attend medical school! Moss has crafted a palettable combination of nutrition education, media literacy, and policy regarding food development and consumption. I want to read more about this.
• 
  Jerry Smith

  Evidently if you win a Pulitzer you don't require editing for your subsequent book.
  
  A large chunk of this book has very little to do with "How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions" It talks about tobacco, human physiology (which I get but doesn't quite get the "exploit part" early humans, etc etc.
  It desperately needs an editor and if it got one, this would be an article, which it should be.
  
  Research was good and some of the writing was but damn the meandering thesis..
  
  Also a pet peeve of mine is this book had a long ass prologue, just call it Chapter one already. It was 40 pages before anything relevant. Also the book is way shorter than 308, it has acknowledgments and notes so it's a super fast read but I wouldn't bother with it.
  
• 
  Chris Selin

  We are interesting creatures whose biology has not evolved fast enough to outrun technology. As much as I have read about how our brain and bodies function, it’s still so difficult to fight against my body and brain. I’ll continue to try, though...and fail, and try again. For instance, next to me is a mostly empty sleeve of Thin Mints. Don’t eat while engaged with reading; it will lead to mindless eating. Yet that’s exactly what I chose to do while finishing this book! Derrrrr.... I have tracked those empty calories with an app; I’m aware and owning up to my monkey brain.
  
  This book is a good reminder to shop the perimeter of grocery stores (which I mainly do), cook from scratch as much as you can, do not trust marketing and fads, and that the food industry will adapt as necessary to keep profits soaring but with only that in mind. If they truly cared about health, most would go out of business. The complexity humans, culture, politics and the incomplete knowledge of physiology will continue to protect big food from any responsibility to decreasing world health.
  
  Best of luck out there, folks! The struggle is real.
  
• 
  Carol Bakker

  The thesis: ditch processed foods if you know what's good for you.
  
  Big Food has screwed us. :: exhale :: In their quest for profit, they've done all they can to make us addicted (<-- soft definition) to their products. Their labs constantly labor towards 'the optimum bliss point for sweetness, the mouthfeel for fat, and the flavor burst of salt.'
  
  In addition, Big Food has purchased and controls the diet industry (Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, Jenny Craig, Healthy choice, Slim Fast, and Atkins). Yet another way to profit. Sigh...
  
  There is much in MM's book about the problem, not so much about the solution. But it makes sense to slow down, eschew convenience, cook whole foods, chew and savor.
  
  I feel so blessed. I had a mom who rejoiced in making everything from scratch. This was my normal. Several hurdles other people face about cooking at home don't exist for me. They need to make some mental shifts, but I do believe that this is necessary if we are to regain our health.
• 
  Kathy

  Basically the same information as his previous book: Salt Sugar Fat as well as Marion Nestle's: Unsavory Truth: How the Food Industry Skews the Science of What We Eat.
  
  Suing fast food chains and blaming obesity on food choices which are designed to keep you buying and eating negates the free will individuals possess to walk past the vending machine, to walk 30 minutes a day and to rely on basic intelligence .
  
  Food Giant chemists exploit our vulnerabilities and make us feel hardwired to grab the chip or cookie or beer but my feeling is that we use the word 'addiction' too quickly thereby avoiding responsibility for our choices in food.
  
  
• 
  Joanne Kelleher

  When Jazlyn Bradley sued McDonald’s for making her overweight, people were incredulous. How could it be McDonald’s fault that she ate too much? Hooked makes the case that McDonald’s and the entire food industry is conspiring against us.
  
  The book starts out by talking about drug and nicotine addiction, then compares the similarities of those addictions to food addiction.
  
  Here’s what stuck with me from this book:
  -We are biologically predetermined to seek out more fuel for the least amount of work.
  -“If our energy output is viewed as the cost of obtaining food, then we learned to love the cheap and easy.”
  -Our brain and stomachs can be manipulated to think we are full/satisfied.
  -The food industry is using science against us, constantly redesigning products to keep us eating processed foods that are not healthy for us.
  
  It would take a reread to absorb all of the information in the book, but I learned quite a lot the first time through.
  
• 
  Angie Boyter

  There is a lot of good and really fascinating material in this book. I am interested in food and nutrition and am already fairly well-informed, but I picked up some good information. It should be a 4 and almost was, but there were too many annoying things about it.
  There is too much related but not really necessary background, so it took too long to get to what it is supposed to be about: the food industry. This part does not begin until about a third into the book Moss has excellent background from his book Salt, Sugar, Fat, so he threw a lot of that information into this one.
  He was also annoying in his rather disparaging attitude towards the food industry. The purpose of a business is to make products customers will like and will buy. That is what you EXPECT them to do and they should not be criticized for it.
  I think what finally tipped me over into the lower rating, though, is that the writing should be better. A copy editor would help, e.g., occasionally a preposition like "of" would be left out or a verb would not agree with the noun. Worse, though, some of the sentences are not well crafted. Maybe the two most important sentences in a book are the first and the last. The last sentence in the book is this somewhat awkwardly phrased one with two "that"s: "When we change what we eat, and the companies change what they make to address that, we have to be ready to see through that."
• 
  Rita Marie

  I really liked "Salt, Sugar, Fat," and this book is even better. I especially enjoyed the description of how our ancient ape-like ancestor came down from the trees and entered into a different relationship with food.
  
  "Hooked" is definitely a must-read for anyone under 50. We older folk grew up eating and preparing real food, so are less likely to become addicted. This is a good explainer, though, for all the garbage that lines the aisles in the supermarket. I still can't believe there is an entire aisle devoted to potato chips and pretzels. And another one for soda!