Kautsar Ikrami's Key Ideas from Salt Sugar Fat
by Michael Moss

Don't underestimate the amount of sugar in whatever you eat; there might be hidden amounts lurking.

We may have an insatiable hunger for sugar, but we have a limit — a preprogrammed upper limit for when we've had too much sugar. So even though we can't help ourselves, we literally cannot have too much.

Guess who knows this convenient piece of information? The processed foods companies, of course.

There are products that don't even need sugars but have them anyway. This means, even if you avoid the obvious processed foods or drinks with sugar, your bowl of pasta might contain even more sugar.

Even in pasta sauce, after tomatoes, the main ingredient is sugar. These odd combinations are wrong and immoral; sugar has no place in specific meal options.

Did you know? The average tomato paste contains at least 12 grams of sugar; that's about six cubes of sugar.

Research showed that cereals contained insane amounts of sugar, which caused widespread tooth decay (in children) and risk of diabetes (in adult).

In the 1970s, Americans were plagued with staggering cases of health troubles directly linked to sales of processed foods and quick meals.

Surprisingly enough, these concerns and studies didn't deter the sales nor the demand, for that matter.

Even though people knew these meals were unhealthy and were the leading cause of most life–threatening conditions that were plaguing them, they still purchased well–packaged poisons.

Fat had two times the amount of calories sugar would. That's a lot of calories considering we can't taste or tell when fat is too much. We can't taste it when it's alongside sugar or tell when it's in excess.

This glitch meant that these processed food companies could put a ridiculous amount of it into the foods, and we'd not even notice it.

Sugar and fat work hand in hand to deliver the consumer with potential health risks in tasty snacks.

Fat makes the processed foods last longer on the shelf, meaning you'd have more than enough time to eventually purchase them, while the sugar makes it pleasurable to eat more and more of the unhealthy cuisine.

So how come we eat healthily but still add excess weight and turn out like those who indulge in unhealthy meals?

Two foods have been at the helm of this debacle; milk and cheese.

Milk and cheese is quite fatty in its original production recipe, but then when it's processed cheese, it contains more fat.

With the increase in sugars in the meals, the government moved to regulate the amounts, causing the consumers to complain and demand things go back to normal.

The regulatory bodies try their best, but you must be willing to take responsibility for your well–being and self–regulate your intake of processed foods.

Salt isn’t entirely harmless. It has an essential mineral for the human body; sodium.

But an increase of sodium in the blood causes the blood to lose its thickness and move much quicker.

This condition can deteriorate to a much worse condition known as hypertension.

Processed foods contained at least double the daily required (safe) amount of salt in the average canned or packaged processed food.

Was this an intentional attempt to kill the consumers? Certainly not; so why was there so much salt in these foods?

They taste better with salt in them, so the more, the merrier. But that's not the only reason. The real reason is the same as that of excess fat; shelf life.