Hooked audiobook cover - Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

Hooked

Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

Michael Moss

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Categories:
Health & Nutrition

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Hooked
Neuroscience of Food Addiction+
Psychological & Evolutionary Traps+
Industry Manipulation+
The Calorie Deception+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7
According to Yale researcher Ashley Gearhardt's findings, how does the brain respond to tasting favorite fast foods in some individuals?
  • A. It shows activity patterns typically associated with taking cocaine.
  • B. It releases endorphins similar to those produced after intense cardiovascular exercise.
  • C. It triggers the stomach to expand in preparation for a high-calorie meal.
  • D. It temporarily disables the frontal lobe, reducing rational decision-making.
Question 2 of 7
What does the long-term behavior of some bariatric surgery patients reveal about human appetite?
  • A. Appetite is permanently reduced when the physical size of the stomach is decreased.
  • B. The stomach requires at least five years to adapt to new dietary restrictions.
  • C. Appetite is primarily controlled by the brain rather than the physical emptiness of the stomach.
  • D. Physical cravings for sugar bypass the stomach and go directly into the bloodstream.
Question 3 of 7
Why do sugar, salt, and fat have such a highly addictive effect on the brain compared to substances like tobacco?
  • A. They contain chemical compounds that mimic naturally occurring dopamine.
  • B. They are consumed in much larger physical quantities than tobacco or alcohol.
  • C. They remain in the bloodstream for several days, causing prolonged cravings.
  • D. They take only about half a second to start affecting the brain's chemistry.
Question 4 of 7
How does the book explain the lifelong impact of eating processed foods during childhood?
  • A. It permanently alters the taste buds, making natural foods taste bitter.
  • B. It establishes deep neural pathways that make it easy to trigger cravings later in life.
  • C. It causes the stomach to stretch, requiring more food to feel full in adulthood.
  • D. It slows down the childhood metabolism, leading to inevitable adult obesity.
Question 5 of 7
How does our evolutionary history contribute to our modern overconsumption of snack foods like potato chips?
  • A. We evolved to enjoy a wide variety of foods to survive extreme climates, making it hard to resist the massive array of flavors available today.
  • B. Our ancestors survived by developing a preference for highly salted foods to retain water.
  • C. We evolved to seek out foods with a crunchy texture because they were generally safer to eat.
  • D. Our ancestors needed to consume large amounts of carbohydrates before periods of hibernation.
Question 6 of 7
In the context of the processed food industry, what is the 'bliss point'?
  • A. The specific time of day when consumers are most susceptible to fast-food advertising.
  • B. The perfect combination of salt and fat that extends a product's shelf life indefinitely.
  • C. The psychological state achieved when eating convenience meals with family members.
  • D. The exact level of sugar that excites the brain enough to disable our appetite's 'stop' system.
Question 7 of 7
According to a 2019 study, why might eating highly-processed foods cause weight gain even if the calorie count is identical to an unprocessed diet?
  • A. Processed foods contain synthetic fats that the liver cannot filter out.
  • B. The digestive system struggles to calculate the calories in processed foods, causing the metabolism to store too many as fat.
  • C. The body burns significantly fewer calories chewing and digesting processed foods.
  • D. Processed foods cause severe water retention, leading to a permanent increase in weight.

Hooked — Full Chapter Overview

Hooked Summary & Overview

Hooked (2021) explores our complex relationship with processed food. It explains why certain foods leave us wanting more, and reveals how our brain chemistry and our evolutionary biology are exploited by the fast-food industry.

Who Should Listen to Hooked?

  • Parents wanting to give their children a healthy start
  • Anyone struggling to lose weight
  • Psychology buffs looking for fresh insights

About the Author: Michael Moss

Michael Moss is an investigative journalist and author. In 2010, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on contaminated hamburgers. His previous book Salt, Sugar, Fat, was a New York Times best seller.

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