The first parts of the book deal with what you might call the neurochemistry of food and eating and the notion of what Kessler calls "hyperpalatable" foods. Hyperpalatable foods have particular combinations of fat, sugar, and salt that essentially make the pleasure centers of our brains light up and, for many people trigger an appetite well in excess of biological needs.
What is interesting here too is the detail that roughly 15-20% of our population is basically immune to this effect. For them, then, overeating is not the fault of the food but the absence of willpower in the eaters. Though I do not completely reject the idea that willpower has a significant role in overeating, it is not a productive or helpful attitude when it concerns forming public policies to deal with the growing obesity problem. Imagine trying to deal with smoking, drinking, or drug abuse with nothing more than just a "okay, just stop it" approach.
The second part of the book addresses how the food and restaurant industries exploit our own biology in their food design. As an amateur chef, it was interesting to me to see just how far "Food Inc" will deviate from traditional notions in order to create recipes that they know will trigger those biochemical reactions in our brain and have has coming back for more. Not only does this involve simple combinations of sugar, salt, and fat, but also a lot of other manipulations of food to make it softer, more moist, and in other ways easier to eat in unhealthy quantities.
This too is where the book had arguable the most influence on my thinking. I have largely been against government attempts to bully Food Inc. into making healthier food and/or using taxes to discourage consumption. After considering just how far Food Inc goes towards manipulating our own biology against us to eat more, I am no longer so opposed to the notion. Much like the tobacco companies were hammered for deliberately altering the ingredients of cigarettes to make them even more stimulating and addictive, I think Food Inc. does deserve criticism for manipulating food. If you are going to, in effect, exploit human biology to make bigger profits, you should expect some of those exploited humans to strike back.
The last section of the book mostly addresses how to use information about our weaknesses to hyperpalatable food to more effectively limit our intake of it and eat a little more healthily. Here too he discusses the need to find rewards apart from eating and to change our view of restaurant meals and processed food.
I suspect that there will be a segment of the reader base who just will not see much of value here. Given that roughly 15-20% of the population does not seem to develop these cravings to hyperpalatable foods, overeating to them will always simply be a matter of discipline and willpower. For them, then, this book is just a long apologist screed against an industry serving the public's demands. Also, I do have to admit that the author repeats himself many times over throughout the book. That makes it seem as though you are being bludgeoned into submission at some points rather than persuaded to the author's viewpoint with novel arguments.
I doubt that the book will ultimately change any policy or change the national dialogue about the obesity problem, but I think that has more to do with the fact that the circumstances supporting Food Inc are just that powerful as opposed to any real deficiency in the book. In any case, if you are interested in reading about the intersections of human behavior, industry, and public health policy, this is an excellent book to read.
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