Michael Moss

Kraft, other companies defeat test lawsuit over ultra-processed foods Kraft , Mondelez , Coca-Cola and several other major food companies on Monday succeeded in winning the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused them of designing harmful "ultra-processed" foods addictive to children.

Big Food squashes lawsuit seeking to hold it accountable for our trouble with food. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Opinion | Stop Freaking Out About Seed Oils

The reader comments on this are so interesting. “Stop Freaking Out About Seed Oils” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/o...

As Consumers Lose Their Appetite, Food Brands Fight to Keep Wall St. Happy

When Warren Buffett bought Kraft/Heinz, he deflected concern about people avoiding processed food for better health by saying there will always be lots of folks who need/want these products. Is that no longer true? Is there data on this? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/b...

The Real Reason Our Food System Is Broken Ingredient swaps won’t change a food system engineered to maximize profit, not health.

From one of the smartest thinkers on food that I know: The Real Reason Our Food System Is Broken open.substack.com/pub/drjessic...

This Is Your Body on Sugar (Gift Article) Excessive consumption of sugar can increase the risk of health problems. Here's what that looks like in the body.

4 in 10 people have fatty liver disease, and other things you might not know about sugar. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Don’t let the b roll of me on my cello put you off. This is a quite good examination by PBS of some of the hijinks at play in your grocery store, including one of my favorites to parse: the outsized role that tobacco played in creating icons like Lunchables.

www.instagram.com/reel/DLU4-1p...

The contractor fixing our house is so good he gets the best lunches I can make, the least I can do.

Opinion | Brad Lander Doesn’t Belong in Jail. Does He Belong in City Hall?

Brad Lander Doesn’t Belong in Jail. Does He Belong in City Hall? Yes, says Ezra Klein www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/o...

The Dizzying Rise of MAHA Warrior Calley Means, RFK Jr.’s Right-Hand Man One of the primary architects of the Make America Healthy Again takeover of the federal health apparatus, Means has risen to power in part on the strength of his personal narrative: he was a Big Food ...

A devastating take down of the man driving RFK Jr on processed food: Says his former boss:” He is an opportunist, peddling junk science to make millions.” www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

I’ve given this talk in London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and now Bavaria where the kids are alright and bracing themselves for the onslaught of the American junk diet and its health consequences.

Baltimore Banner wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of overdose crisis The Baltimore Banner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for groundbreaking local journalism that exposed Baltimore as the deadliest large city in the nation for drug overdoses.

Congratulations to the @baltimorebanner.com in my wife’s hometown for this superb and important journalism www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

Gov. Hobbs vetoes Arizona's SNAP soda bill Gov. Katie Hobbs rejected the proposed ban on food stamp recipients using their benefits to buy soda a week after Republican lawmakers brought Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new head

Arizona governor vetoes GOP push to bar buying sodas with food stamps, calling it punitive, misguided and a distraction from real ways to improve public health. tucson.com/news/state-r...

Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers (Gift Article) By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.

These are the people who grow our food, process our meat, care for our sick, repair our homes, pay huge amounts into Social Security knowing they’ll never get it back …… www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Is More Protein Better for You? Fact-Checking Claims on Social Media (Gift Article) It’s a common refrain on social media. We fact-checked this and five other big protein claims circulating online.

Tempted by the wellness gurus pushing you to eat more protein? ⁦‪@alicegcallahan‬⁩ probes the science and finds it less than convincing.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/w...

Big Food has much bigger worries than RFK Jr’s focus on food dyes: snacking is down from what could be a perfect storm for them, the WSJ reports.

This month in history, my investigation of processed food hit the #1 NYTimes rankings for all nonfiction with these words: “In their hands, salt. sugar, and fat … are not nutrients as much as weapons — weapons they deploy to defeat competitors, certainly, but also to keep us coming back for more.”

Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief.

It’s always their attempted coverup that sinks pols: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food (Gift Article) Inside the hyperengineered, savagely marketed, addiction-creating battle for American “stomach share.”

A quarter century ago, Big Food met secretly to weigh its culpability in chronic disease and here’s my inside reporting on why any big reforms will be very difficult to pull off: www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/m...

What musicians did after an executive order on DEI led to the cancellation of U.S. Marine Band collaboration After an executive order ending DEI initiatives, the U.S. Marine Band canceled a concert featuring young musicians of color. Veterans stepped in to mentor the aspiring musicians.

www.cbsnews.com/news/concert...

Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories In a recent interview, the health secretary also suggested that the measles vaccine had harmed children in West Texas, center of an outbreak.

Kennedy blames poor eating for measles death, refuted by local authorities: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/h...

RFK Jr. promised transparency and and an ambitious effort to rid America of chronic disease. Instead, strife and a measles outbreak have dominated his first weeks as health secretary.

BIRD FLU AND THE USDA — The Lunatic Farmer By now many of you may know that Sec. of Ag Brooke Rollins rolled out a 5-point plan to reduce egg prices yesterday.  It's pretty much the same old same old, except for…

It’s worth reading the comments, for a look at the deep skepticism on things USDA. www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog/2/27/20...

A fast-spreading mystery illness linked to bats has killed scores of people in Congo, with nearly half dying within 48 hours of showing symptoms, the WHO says

17-Year-Old Basement Sushi Restaurant Is Done in Tribeca — and More Closings All the city’s shuttered restaurants in February

Just in case you were thinking of opening a restaurant, this reminder of how fragile an enterprise that is.

My sister was born in Fairbanks, before AK was a state. So maybe I’m an honorary local, ha.

Sorry, but this will always be Mt. Denali to me (skirting a storm off Windy Corner, 2021)

What MAHA’s crusade against seed oils reveals about flaws in America’s food system Fears about corn, canola, and similar oils have taken root amid rising concerns about links between industrial food processes and chronic disease.

Are seed oils bad for you? Statnews does a typically terrific job diagnosing the MAHA crusade and its anti-government anti-authority crush www.statnews.com/2025/02/12/a...

PepsiCo sounds alarm on major change in consumer behavior The food and beverage giant is shining a light on a blossoming consumer trend that is impacting sales.

Crashing sales spurs the biggest Food giant PepsiCo to sound alarm over consumers getting scared of its product.

Steal this book: I was so excited when Salt Sugar Fat made the library listing as a bestseller. And it’s still free. Check it out!

As D.E.I. Programs Come Under Attack, Companies Like Costco and Microsoft Forge Ahead (Gift Article) As racial and gender equity programs come under attack, many companies have scaled back. But Costco, Microsoft and others have forged ahead.

I know Costco for doing really smart things on food safety, so I pay attention to its other policies