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.

Healthy Or Not Sure?

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.

Sugar And Fat Are Best Friend

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.

In the 1950s, the TV made its debut, and more women were getting jobs that gave them less time to cook meals for families.That’s where the processed food is commercialized. Home economics teachers tought kids growing up how to make these meals.There was no dependency on processed foods since kids could as well make their meals. It got instant success, garnering enough support to oust home–cooked meals, thanks to the presence of sugar, fat, and salt.

The History

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

Know Your Sugar

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.

Fat Is Another One

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.

Too Much Sugar, We Don’t Care

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.

What About Salt?

If sugar is the methamphetamine of processed food ingredients, with its high–speed, blunt assault on our brains, then fat is the opiate, a smooth operator whose effects are less obvious but no less powerful.

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.

You Decide What You Eat

They may have salt, sugar, and fat on their side — but we — ultimately have the power to make choice. After all, we decide what to buy. We choose how much to eat.

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.

Sugar Is Everywhere

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.

High Sugar = Severe Health

Your most favorite food might be harmful. Learn how salt, sugar, and fat is dangerous when you consume irresponsibly.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the troubling story of the rise of the processed food industry -- and how it used salt, sugar, and fat to addict us.  Salt Sugar Fat is a journey into the highly secretive world of the processed food giants, and the story of how they have deployed these three essential ingredients, over the past five decades, to dominate the North American diet. This is an eye-opening book that demonstrates how the makers of these foods have chosen, time and again, to double down on their efforts to increase consumption and profits, gambling that consumers and regulators would never figure them out. With meticulous original reporting, access to confidential files and memos, and numerous sources from deep inside the industry, it shows how these companies have pushed ahead, despite their own misgivings (never aired publicly). Salt Sugar Fat is the story of how we got here, and it will hold the food giants accountable for the social costs that keep climbing even as some of the industry's own say, "Enough already."

MICHAEL MOSS

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