The book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by a New York Times investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigation into the dangers of contaminated meat, has been selected as A&T's "Text in Community" book for the 2013-14 academic year. A National Public Radio (NPR) review of Salt Sugar Fat says that author Michael Moss "goes inside the world of processed and packaged foods," and "details how those three ingredients [salt, sugar and fat] became key to the success of processed and packaged foods — and how they are fueling the nationwide obesity epidemic...." NPR also says that Moss makes a case that the processed food industry is "Employing scientists to dissect elements of the palate and tweak ratios of salt, sugar and fat to optimize taste, [and has] hooked consumers on their products the same way the cigarette industry hooked smokers on nicotine."
A&T faculty, staff and students will be reading and discussing Salt Sugar Fat during the 2013-14 academic year, and the book will be incorporated into coursework and extracurricular activities. SAES faculty, staff and students will have added incentives to pick up a copy for summer reading so they'll be ready next fall. On other campuses that have made the equivalent of a "Text in Community" selection, researchers, instructors and students specializing in foods and nutrition have been frequently called upon to moderate group and panel discussions.
