The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
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Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food -- when one slice of pizza turns into half a pie, or 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. When we want so badly to say "no," why do we continue to reach for food?Dr. David Kessler, the dynamic former FDA commissioner who reinvented the food label and tackled the tobacco industry, 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. The End of Overeating explains for the first time why it is exceptionally difficult to resist certain foods and why it's so easy to overindulge.Dr. Kessler presents groundbreaking research, along with what is... Publishers Weekly "Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw," says Kessler, former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler (A Question of Intent) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating. Through the evidence of research, personal stories (including candid accounts of his own struggles) and examinations of specific foods produced by giant food corporations and restaurant chains, Kessler explains how the desire to eat-as distinct from eating itself-is stimulated in the brain by an almost infinite variety of diabolical combinations of salt, fat and sugar. Although not everyone succumbs, more people of all ages are being set up for a lifetime of food obsession due to the ever-present availability of foods laden with salt, fat and sugar. A gentle though urgent plea for reform, Kessler's book provides a simple "food rehab" program to fight back against the industry's relentless quest for profits while an entire country of people gain weight and get sick. According to Kessler, persistence is all that is needed to make the perceptual shifts and find new sources of rewards to regain control. (May)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Foreword xiIntroduction: You Are the Target xvPart 1 Sugar, Fat, Salt1 Something Changed … America Gained Weight 32 Overriding the Wisdom of the Body 73 Sugar, Fat, and Salt Make Us Eat More Sugar, Fat, and Salt 124 The Business of Food: Creating Highly Rewarding Stimuli 185 Pushing Up Our Settling Points 226 Sugar, Fat, and Salt Are Reinforcing 297 Amping Up the Neurons 358 We Are Wired to Focus Attention on the Most Salient Stimuli 419 Rewarding Foods Become Hot Stimuli 4610 Cues Activate Brain Circuits That Guide Behavior 5011 Emotions Make Food Memorable 5512 Rewarding Foods Rewire the Brain 5813 Eating Behavior Becomes a Habit 61Part 2 The Food Industry14 A Visit to Chili's 6715 Cinnabon: A Lesson in Irresistibility 7416 That's Entertainment 7817 The Era of the Monster Thickburger 8318 No Satisfaction 9419 Giving Them What They Like 9720 What Consumers Don't Know 10121 The Ladder of Irresistibility 10422 The World's Cuisine Becomes Americanized 11123 Nothing Is Real 11524 Optimize It! 12025 The Science of Selling 12526 Purple Cows 132Part 3 Conditioned Hypereating Emerges27 Overeating Becomes More Dangerous 13728 What Weight-Loss Drugs Can Teach Us 14229 Why We Don't Just Say No 14530 How We Become Trapped 15431 Conditioned Hypereating Emerges 15732 Tracing the Roots of Conditioned Hypereating 16333 Nature or Nurture? 16634 Warning Signs in Children 16935 The Culture of Overeating 173Part 4 The Theory of Treatment36 Invitations to the Brain 18137 Reversing the Habit 18438 Rules of Disengagement 19039 Emotional Learning 196Part 5 Food Rehab40 The Treatment Framework 20541 Planned Eating 20942 Letting Go of the Past 21743 Eating Is Personal 22644 Avoiding Traps: On Obsession and Relapse 23145 Making the Critical Perceptual Shift 234Part 6 The End of Overeating46 "Our Success Is the Problem" 23947 Industry Cracks the Code 24248 Fighting Back 245A Final Word 250Q&A with Dr. Kessler 253Endnotes 257List Of Author Interviews 311Acknowledgments 319Index 323About The Author 330
