If you think you’re the only person who can’t have just one potato chip and that you are compelled to eat half the bag (or even the entire bag), you’re not alone.
For several years, New York Times investigative reporter, Michael Moss, has been blowing the lid off the tricks used by the processed food industry to hook us into eating the excessive amounts of salt, sugar and fat which they load into most of the food products they manufacture.
Moss was in Winnipeg on Thursday and Friday, at the invitation of The Winnipeg Foundation and Food Matters Manitoba, to speak about the tactics used by multinational corporations to entice people to eat processed foods.
“Knowing everything food companies are doing to get you to do their bidding when you walk in the front door of a grocery store is an incredible field leveler.”
And leveling the field is just what Moss did when he spoke to an audience of 330 people on Thursday evening at the Masonic Conference Centre on Corydon Avenue at Confusion Corner.
During his 45-minute presentation, and 20-minute question and answer session, Moss revealed many of the tricks used by the processed food industry to hook us into eating their products; he also explained many of the negative health impacts, such as obesity and heart disease, that this is having on our population.
Some of the stories and investigations he has done have been published in the New York Times in the past few years, and can be found in his new book, Salt Sugar Fat — How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
On hand to introduce the evening was Richard Frost, CEO of The Winnipeg Foundation, and Kreesta Doucette, executive director of Food Matters Manitoba. The event was presented by The Winnipeg Foundation and Food Matters Manitoba as part of the Growing Local Conference and in support of Nourishing Potential.
CBC Radio’s Marcy Markusa introduced Michael Moss and moderated the question and answer segment of the program.
All photos by Noah Erenberg