Are You a “Heavy User” of Salty, Sugary, Fatty Foods? Let Michael Moss Open Your Eyes

Join the Conversation: Are you a “heavy user” of salty, sugary or fatty foods?
Salt, Sugar, FatAre you hooked on salty, sugary or fatty processed foods?
If you wonder why certain packaged food products call out to you often, you must read the brilliant, eye-opening book, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us from Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Moss, an investigatve reporter for The New York Times.
Lately, while researching and writing my next book, I haven’t been able to put down the fascinating Salt Sugar Fat.. (Mostly, I’ve been listening to the book via CDs while en route to the gym, Whole Foods or bvusiness meetings. This book was so compelling that I’m now listening to all 12 CDs again.)
Frankly, I’m in awe of Moss and his investigative prowess. Over a period of three-and-a-half years, he interviewed hundreds of industry insiders, who revealed jaw-dropping, inside information about what our favorite food companies do to land space on grocery store shelves, crush the competition, boost the bottom line, please Wall Street, and influence our buying habits so we can’t pass up on foods with salt, sugar and fat.
For those of you, who find yourself frequently buying and eating certain processed chips, cookies or cereals, Moss sheds light on why this may be happening.
The captivating processed food substances you find on supermarket shelves “are knowingly designed—engineered is the better word—to maximize their allure,” Moss writes.
Michael-Moss_credit-Tony-Ce._V374823686_ (2)“Their packaging is tailored to excite our kids,” he continues.
“Their advertising uses every psychological trick to overcome any logical arguments we might have for passing the product by.”
Plus, their “taste is so powerful,” he writes, “we remember it from the last time we walked down the aisle and succumbed, snatching them up. And above all else, their formulas are calculated and perfected by scientists who know very well what they are doing.”
Indeed, those of you, who struggle to peel off pounds and hate that you can’t quit over-consuming your favorite sweet soft drinks, salty chips, or fatty cookies, you need to know that food scientists are actually using cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” and enhance the “mouthfeel” of your preferred foods so they’ll sell more, Moss explains.
Oh Goodness! Food Companies Call Big Buyers of Processed Foods “Heavy Users”
Perhaps one of the more scary revelations Moss makes in Salt, Sugar Fat is how the food industry regards its ardent customers.
In their board rooms and science labs, food industry insiders call you, their loyal buyers, “heavy users.”
No, I’m not talking about drugs, but, in light of recent food addiction research, that shows how the brain lights up on sugar as it does on cocaine, the term “user” is certainly apt.
And you wonder why your most intense, all-consuming, wild cravings for unnatural, packaged, sugary, salty, fatty foodstuffs swoop in on you often as if they were ravenous vultures waiting for their next dead prey to disembowel?
Sorry for the gross imagery, but as a former sugar-addicted journalist, my goal is not only to educate you, but to help you become strong, alert, and determined to lift your choose-healthy-food muscles when you’re at your favorite supermarket, as well as at drug stores, movie theaters and even hospitals..
By the way, just as I was about to put this post up on this Sugar Shock Blog, I discovered — while catching up on Dr. Oz Show episodes — that yesterday, Moss was featured in an awesome episode, Supermarket Secrets: How They Fool You Into Buying Foods That Make You Fat.
Watch The Dr. Oz Show episode with Moss now.
And bear in mind, as Moss told Dr. Oz, that “when you walk into the store, there are traps.”
With that in mind, it’s best to be prepared with “that shopping list, commit yourself to stick with it, shop when you’re full, shop with a clear mind,” Moss urges.
Let Michael Moss open your eyes now by buying his intriguing book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
Join the Conversation: Are you a “heavy user” of salty, sugary or fatty foods?

Food Addiction Program Featuring Dr. Robert Lustig, Michael Prager, Etc. Planned

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., whose YouTube video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, hit viral, and Michael Prager, author of the exciting book, Fat Boy, Thin Man, are among the fascinating experts I’ll have the pleasure of meeting and listening to in an exciting program about food addiction at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco next week.
Stay tuned for some compelling points that you’ll get from these amazing speakers.
These are the experts lined up.
Michael Prager, Author, Fat Boy Thin Man
Nicole Avena, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Eric Stice, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Oregon Research Institute
Dr. Vera Ingrid Tarman, MD., MSc., FCEP, CASAM, Medical Director, Renascent
Elissa Epel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, UCSF Department of Psychiatry
Robert H. Lustig, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF
Now read the enticing description:
Addiction is about brains, not just about behaviors. We all have the brain reward circuitry that makes food rewarding; it’s a survival mechanism. In a healthy brain, these rewards have feedback mechanisms for satiety or “‘enough.” For some, the circuitry becomes dysfunctional such that the message becomes “more.”
Michael Prager, author of Fat Boy Thin Man, will begin the discussion telling his very personal story of recognizing and then seeking treatment for his food addiction. Leading researchers and clinicians will discuss many aspects of this important topic.

Beyond Sugar Shock: Why I’ve Been Away a Lot — Coming Soon

You may have noticed that I haven’t been super active on this Sugar Shock Blog during the past few months.
That’s because I’ve been quite busy writing, rewriting, and wrapping up work for my next book Beyond Sugar Shock.
The subtitle is: The 6-Week Plan to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.
This book is the follow up to my first book, Sugar Shock! How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life– and How You Can Get Back on Track.
Earlier, I announced Beyond Sugar Shock here and also here. And here is my my recent post about it.
Hay HouseBeyond Sugar Shock, marks the culmination of more than 13 years of researching and helping sugar addicts. (Of course, I also learned a lot by quitting sugar myself in 1998, on doctor’s orders.)
Beyond Sugar Shock is coming to you, thanks to my publisher, Hay House, which is the international leader in self-help and transformational publishing.
This book is designed to help you if you’re a sugar addict of any size or shape — overweight, obese, or even slim.
It’s also for you if you’ve been plagued by headaches, anxiety, crazy cravings, brain fog, fatigue, low libido, severe PMS, or other unexplained symptoms.
Beyond Sugar Shock will provide you with a simple six-week program, which allows you to release your sugar addiction easily and effortlessly.
For instance, in Beyond Sugar Shock:
You’ll get simple, fun Mind-Body-Spirit techniques to break free of your sugar addiction.
You’ll undertake simple, interactive adventurcises™ (my word for adventurous exercises), which will drive you to important self-discoveries.
You’ll get several dozen ways to stomp out your sugar cravings.
You’ll discover your sugar color code. (Yes, we’re all different in our relationship with sweets, and this knowledge will empower you to make the right choices for you.)
You’ll detox gradually so that your body, mind and spirit won’t go into shock as you move beyond your sugar obsessions and towards a better life.
You’ll get healthy meal plans and tasty recipes from a nutritionist and exercise physiologist.
And much more.
Hay House is releasing Beyond Sugar Shock on May 1, but in the meantime, you can sign up for a pre-recorded Sugar Freedom Now Course, in which you’ll get to learn some amazingly simple techniques to help you break free.
In addition, stay tuned for some special programs.
Stay tuned for a sneak peek at the gorgeous cover! And I invite you to get excited and spread the word to friends.

End-of-Summer Fun – Watch Out for Nature-Loving, Disease-Carrying Ticks

As many of you restless, must-have-time-off vacationers venture out into nature, the wilderness or the beach for one last summer hurrah, I encourage you to be careful.
Don’t lie on the grass, run barefoot in fields or get too affectionate or up close and personal with any trees.
You may think me a nature spoil sport, but, as I discovered much to my shock two years ago, it’s imperative that you’re watchful for those nature-loving, disease-carrying ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease, a confusing malady that may give you mysterious ailments such as mental confusion, fatigue and muscle pains.
Learn about this often-misunderstood disease in my recent AOL News op ed piece.
Unfortunately, many people are ignorant about these freckle-sized dangers that lurk in nature.
In fact, last night, on a conference call for a transformational women’s program that I’m taking, one of the women with whom I was partnered up with in a group literally laughed when recommended that she be careful of ticks when she goes off into the wilds in Holland.
Given that I’d been working on my next book, Beyond Sugar Shock, into the wee hours (shame on me!), I was too tired to plead with her to take me seriously, but lo and behold, I just discovered that Lyme disease is on the rise in Holland.
So I urge you, if you do go out into nature this Labor Day weekend, make sure to carefully inspect yourself for ticks after you return from grassy areas. You do not want to suffer the way millions have, as you can read about in my AOL News op ed piece.
On another matter entirely, if you yearn to let go of your sugar habit, tomorrow is the deadline for the Early Bird End-of-Summer Special for my upcoming Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction in 6 Weeks Program. This is a six-week mind/body/spirit, sugar-releasing program that will give you lectures, coaching, mini-audio messages all 42 days, guest interviews, several bonus audios, some 50 ways to combat sugar cravings, help to disover your Sugar Color Code, access to a private membership website, a shopping list, meal plans and more. (FYI, I’ve been developing this program for years.)
Why bother to kick sugar since it tastes so darn good? Well, as millions can testify, cutting out sweets and simple carbs is a very quick path to weight loss. The extra pounds just peel right off when you not consuming those quickie-carb “treats.” Plus, if you Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction, you may get more energy, better relationships, a better libido and many other benefits.