If you can't stop eating junk food, it's not just poor willpower that's to blame.

Food companies do whatever they can in formulating processed foods to make them as addictive as possible. There's profit — a lot of it — in getting Americans hooked on snack foods.

So says Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the New York Times in his new book, “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” (Random House, $28).

He spent four years researching the book, which explores the science of manufacturing processed foods so we just can't get enough. I spoke with him by phone. Some excerpts:

Q: As tempting as it is to think of these food companies as purely evil, you make the case they're not.

A: No, absolutely not. And moreover, these companies make a convincing argument that they never intended to make us obese and/or otherwise ill and that they consider nutrition to be among their responsibilities and charges along with making food very convenient and very low-priced. That said, as I got my hands on this treasure trove of internal documents, which helped me convince top scientists and executives of these companies to talk to me, it's very clear just how much incredible effort they put into maximizing their usage of salt, sugar, fat to send us over the moon. Because they know when they hit the right amount, their products will fly off the shelves, and being companies, they will make more money. But there's no conspiracy theory.

Q: You write that you hope this information you present in the book will empower consumers in the grocery store to make better choices. How realistic is that when the food industry is so powerful?

A: A few things have to happen beyond our control as consumers. There has to be a leveling of the playing field when it comes to the economics and pricing of food. The White House is now thinking about ways to shift some of the huge subsidies that go into highly processed foods to what everyone knows we should be eating more of, fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods, which inherently today are more expensive than the highly processed foods.

Q: What are your predictions for future attempts to regulate the food industry? The first lady has made healthful eating a priority during this administration.

A: Hats off to her for making food and health part of the public conversation again, but she's up against a very powerful and in some ways scared industry, because these food companies are caught between a rock and a hard place. You've got increasing consumer concern demanding healthier products. You've got Wall Street demanding continuing profits and you've got this situation where these companies are as hooked on these three — salt, sugar, fat — as much if not more so than we are. I talk about the experience of going to Kellogg and having them make for me these saltless versions of their products, and it's the most god-awful experience you've ever had. It showed me that salt, for them, is more than just the flavor burst that they talk about. It lets them avoid using more costly ingredients like fresh herbs and spices, and it covers up the off notes, sometimes nasty flavors, that are inherent to processed foods. ... So these companies are going, “OK, we hear you people, we want to cut back, but how do we do it?” It's going to be a struggle. Hopefully they can use these great scientists that they've had on board to, instead of making heavy salt, sugar, fat products more alluring, making healthier products more alluring.