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Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food--when a handful of chips leads to an empty bag. But it's harder to understand why we can't seem to stop eating, even when we know better. Dr. David Kessler, the dynamic former FDA commissioner who reinvented the food label and tackled the tobacco industry, now cracks the code of overeating by explaining how our bodies and minds are changed when we consume foods that contain sugar, fat, and salt. Food manufacturers create products by manipulating these ingredients to stimulate our appetites, setting in motion a cycle of desire and consumption that ends with a nation of overeaters. This book explains for the first time why it is exceptionally difficult to resist certain foods and why it's so easy to overindulge. Dr. Kessler's cutting-edge investigation offers new insights and helpful tools to help us find a solution.--From publisher description.… (more)
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I think if we take into
Kessler’s book is well-researched. He cites numerous studies, experts, and restaurant nutritional information (I swear, I’ll never eat at Chilis again). While technical in nature, Kessler’s writing style is informal, and makes the book easily accessible to any audience.
In brief, I highly recommend this book. I know that I won’t be able to look at French fries or a chocolate bar in the same way after having read “The End of Overeating”
Kessler lays out the facts and the scientific arguments and their implications in a clear and readable way, although he sometimes repeats things more than he really has to. And I could have done without the many detailed descriptions of how various restaurants cook up their various yummy dishes with remarkably similar salt-and-fat-infusing techniques, if only because they made me really, really hungry. Which undoubtedly helps to prove his point, but is nevertheless somewhat unkind. I also think he leaves out or downplays some of the more complex social factors that help determine how we relate to food. But his points all seem pretty good, as far as they go.
Then, in the last few sections, he addresses the question of what can be done about overeating, offering up some suggestions for those seeking to lose weight, including some that have worked for him. They're all very sane and sensible suggestions, offered up in a tone that is encouraging without downplaying the difficulty. And yet, I cannot help but come away with the depressing feeling that for those of us conditioned towards unhealthy eating, real change and lasting weight loss require such Herculean effort and the sacrifice of so many sources of joy and satisfaction that even the first step of convincing ourselves it's truly worth it may be insurmountably hard.
Also, I want some pizza now. And a chocolate chip cookie. Sigh.
A lot of the focus is on how
There were some parts that surprised me, like when the author was surprised by the inclusion of HFCS in bread (hello, it's on the label--which makes me wonder, if doctors aren't reading food labels, who besides me is?). I'm also curious about the process of how fast food became so ubiquitous. The author interviews a Japanese food industry exec who thinks American fast food is a sort of bland, over-sweetened goo (my words, not his), yet it's a global phenomenon. How did that happen?
It also doesn't go into how people acquire tastes for certain types of junk foods, but not others. For example, I can go to town on a bag of Cheetos, but the smell of Krispy Kreme donuts makes me want to vomit. What influences which forms of junk foods we find appealing, which foods will become our trigger foods?
The last few chapters provide advice about re-training your brain and becoming aware of and in control over your own eating habits. Once again, nothing terribly new, but it all makes sense.
I have a lot of friends who've done Weight Watchers, and this seems like it would be a nice complement to that program. Even if you're not trying to lose weight or don't have overeating issues of your own, this sort of practical information seems like it would increase empathy and awareness when dealing with friends and loved ones who are struggling with their eating.
Kessler's thesis, in one sentence, is that sugar fat and salt make us want to eat more sugar salt and fat. Whether they understand the science or not, the food industry has cracked this truth and does its best to offer what Kessler calls hyper-palatable food, which means irresistible.
I came away from the book with the conviction that the only food one should eat is unprocessed food. As an acquaintance of mine (who hasn't read the book but gets the message) has been saying all along: I never eat anything that was created in a factory.
Near the end of the book Kessler tries to offer ways to free oneself from the tyranny of industrial sugar-salt-fat. He recommends formulating and applying counter-commands, that will block the imperatives of the enticing food we see all around us. It occurs to me that this really may work. I eat only kosher food, so all those yummy-looking extravagances I see all around me when I'm in America: I've never had them, I have no chemically inbuilt memories of how much I crave them, and were I to reach for one of them, my own repulsion would be stronger. I'll bet they taste heavenly, but I have no urge to eat them. On the contrary.
The second half of the book is just dumb. Having spent all of those pages citing behavioral studies in rats, industry studies of humans, and all sorts of information about the neurochemistry of certain salt-sugar-fat combinations, the author then spends the last third of the book basically telling people it's a matter of willpower. (After specifically saying that it's not a willpower issue in the introduction, at that.) Not once does he suggest, you know, eating whole, unprocessed food, fewer carbs, or any of the not-all-that-controversial ideas that seem eminently supported by his research.
To be fair, the hefty end-notes suggest that he had an editor with a machete handy, and the copious industry-insider interviews make me think that perhaps he softened his stance in order to retain their cooperation in future books, but it means that this book is pretty much a waste of dead trees. If you want to drool over the Chili's menu, go to Chili's. At least there you'll have pictures.
Interesting food for thought.
Dominating with psychological investigation, I had hoped for a bit more physiological analysis. A good read for someone who wants to understand why you feel less control over your food choices and eating behaviors.
Based upon other reviews, it doesn't look like this book gets much better, either.