This is the story of how the food industry have used three essential ingredients to control much of the world's diet.

In "Salt, Sugar, Fat" Michael Moss uncovers the truth about the food giants that dominate our supermarket shelves and reveals how the makers of processed foods have chosen, time and again, to increase consumption and profits, gambling that consumers and regulators wouldn't figure them out. With access to confidential files and memos, relentless and original reporting, and numerous sources from deep inside the industry, Michael Moss shows how some of the worlds biggeset food companies have pushed ahead, despite their own misgivings (never aired publicly) and in spite of the meteoric rise of obesity in the western world. The truth about what's in your shopping basket: a hunk of cheddar cheese is one-third fat, along with protein, salt and a little sugar; the human brain lights up for sugar the same way it does for cocaine; in nutrition circles, there is no single product - among the 50,000 items sold in the grocery store - that is considered more evil, or more directly responsible for the obesity crisis than soda; and, in the world of processed foods, salt is the great fixer. It corrects a myriad of problems that arise as a matter of course in the factory. Cornflakes, for example, taste metallic without it and crackers become bitter and soggy and stick to the roof of your mouth.