Michael Moss Deconstructs the Potato Chip for The Atlantic

During a recent interview with Atlantic journalist Joe Fassler, author Michael Moss discussed “the language of junk-food addiction” and the role of salt, sugar, fat, and texture in snack foods allegedly engineered to promote “mindless eating—where were [sic] not really paying attention to what we’re putting in our mouths.” According to Moss, who spoke with Fassler about why consumers find processed foods like potato chips so appealing, the food industry has invested “a trillion dollars of money” in creating and marketing products that seek “to override the natural checks that keep us from overeating.”

“And I’ve found that the language they use to describe their work and their products and their [sic] striving not just to make us like their products but to make us want more and more of them is absolutely revealing,” opines Moss. “When they talk about the allure of food, they hate the word addiction: but they’ll use the word ‘craveability’ and ‘snackability’ and one of my favorites, ‘moreishness.’ In this context, I think the argument that personal responsibility is [the] main culprit in overeating is to be kind of disingenuous.”

In particular, Moss claims that the food industry as a whole—and not merely individual companies—has created a competitive food environment more attuned to profit than consumer health. “I tend not to see the processed food industry as an ‘evil empire’ that sets out to make us intentionally obese or otherwise ill,” he concludes. “They can rightfully say that no single one of their products is responsible for the obesity—not even soda, not even potato chips. The problem lies in their collective zeal to do what companies do— which is to make as much money as possible by selling as much product as possible.” See The Atlantic, April 30, 2013.