The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

David Kessler was a commissioner at the FDA under two administrations, and a dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco.He was inspired to write "The End of Overeating", because he was frustrated with his own lack of willpower to lose weight. He figured out why by interviewing scientists, food industry insiders, a great deal of research, and infiltrating industry conferences about how to make food irresistible.Kessler calls the processed and restaurant food we eat "adult baby food", because you can woof it down in 10 bites on average. Food used to take about 25 chews per bite before you could swallow.I was thinking about that when eating goat at a barbecue recently - it took about 30 chews per bite. Because chewing takes time and gives your body a chance to say, "hey, I'm full", I felt stuffed on just a small amount of goat.Food you can chew in just ten bites is full of fat, which also gives food texture, flavor, and aroma that's hard to resist. In addition to fat, the food industry removes chews by getting rid of fiber, gristle, bran, and chops food into tiny bits drenched in high-fat dressing. Meat is made soft by "pre-chewing it" from soaking in marinades, and then spun and tumbled to pull the marinade deep into the muscle. Then suddenly you've eaten a thousand calories before you know it.If the food industry could like to fill you up like a car at a gas station, they would, but what's saving you is the fact that most people don't want to drink their doughnuts.Welcome to the world of industrialized food, where chicken is pumped up with 40% water, making the customer think they're getting a lot of bang for their buck. The chicken is then battered, breaded, and shipped in frozen cubes to restaurants where it's deep fried fast and the water replaced with fat. So that chicken you've ordered that's so soft, huge, and tender maybe isn't as healthy as you expected. Probably bits of spinach have been added to the sauce on top to make you think it's healthy as well.Chapter 3 is titled "Sugar, Fat and Salt make us eat more Sugar, Fat and Salt". It starts from day one, even newborns like sweet food. When you buy processed food or eat out, you're basically being served fatty, sugary, and salty food infused with sugar, fat, and salt, and topped with fatty, sugary, salty sauces. If you think I'm kidding, the book is laden with examples in Chapter four and throughout the book that may sicken you enough to stop eating a lot of common food served in restaurants and to read labels more carefully.Added fat is how the food industry keeps you coming back for more. Fat gives food texture, body, crunch, creaminess, merges flavors, releases flavor-enhancing chemicals, lubricates food making it easier to swallow, and lingers as a pleasurable aftertaste.But the food industry has other irresistible hooks to get you to bite. All kinds of chemicals are added to exaggerate the smell and taste, the texture, and colors. To give the industry discredit, there's an art to balancing the chemicals, sugar, fat and salt, and millions of dollars are spent testing food on people.The food industry knows you don't like chemicals, so a chocolate drink will have cocoa in the ingredients list, even though there is very little cocoa and nearly all of the chocolate smell and flavor comes from the added chemicals. David Michael & Company can even replace real fruit with a fake filling and juices full of fruit flavor.Often you don't even know you're eating fat and sugar. Kessler asked Gail Civille, who runs tasting test panels, where fat, sugar, and salt might be hidden that you wouldn't expect it. She said bread and crackers have quite a bit more than people realize.I always read the list of ingredients on labels, and have seen many types of sugar listed. Kessler explains this is because sugar would have to be listed as the first ingredient if only one sugar were used, but each type of sugar is treated as a separate ingredient, so even though sugar is the main substance, it isn't first on the list.The most upsetting part of this book are the rat studies that make it seem it's impossible to get out of the fattening sticky trap - for example rats will work for food high in fat and sugar even when they're not hungry. Rats will eat whatever quantity they're given, similar to the super-sized portions we're served.A speaker at a food conference likened some of the highly processed food we eat to cocaine and heroin speedballs. This isn't too far from the truth - scientists have observed an opiate food reward cycle. Food high in fat, sugar, and salt can change the circuitry of our brains, and alter our habits to the point where we're stuffing ourselves without any awareness of doing so., and habits are very hard to break!On a botany field trip, the Frito Lay slogan plastered on delivery trucks became a joke and we'd earnestly shout "Food for the fun of it!" when a Frito Lay truck drove by. But that's yet another way the food industry has gotten us to eat more - food as fun and entertainment.They also make products they call "Premium snacking" items, because they know many people reward themselves with junk food, often to lower stress. The industry also knows the five factors that make food irresistible, how to add excitement and novelty to tempt you, and what packaging to use to get your attention. They can layer spices and sugar, balance crunchiness and creaminess, and bitter and salty flavors into multi-sensory food you can't resist.Restaurants no longer cook food - they assemble it. Food is not fresh and healthy, it arrives pre-cooked and chopped. Garlic and onions are powdered, tomatoes dehydrated, and fresh spices are now oil extracts.The push to serve healthier food doesn't daunt the food industry a bit, in fact they see it as a way to make more money, plus show they care about you. Kessler wonders if people are actually buying healthier choices.In chapter 29 Kessler summarizes his thoughts about food that's no longer like anything our ancestors ate. The food industry pushes highly palatable combinations of sugar, fat, salt, and chemicals that condition us to seek more. He calls this "conditioned hyper-eating" because we automatically woof the widely available food down and can't control ourselves. Some people are more vulnerable to this cycle than others.Eventually he comes to the part of the book on how to lose weight. But to do so, you really have to read the entire book, because you need to understand the whole cycle so you can't be so easily manipulated, and be grossed out enough over the way food is prepared that you don't want to eat it. He also explains why most diets don't work.And even then, don't expect it to be easy. Here are just a few of his many ideas about how to lose weight that have worked for me. First, break the habit of walking into the kitchen when you come home. Second make rules - "I do not eat French fries", or "I only eat dessert on Fridays". Third, after you've served yourself food, put half of it on another plate. Wait 30 minutes. You'll be amazed at how much less food you need to eat to feel full. If it doesn't work and you're still hungry, try removing a quarter of your food the next night. You can probably remove some food and feel full half an hour later.Kessler thinks that counting calories or weighing food is impractical, and takes too much time. It's better to pay attention to how much you eat and how long it takes before you get hungry again. A meal should last about four hours, a snack about two hours.Think ahead about how you'll handle tempting situations. Visualize not eating the cookies, potato chips, or whatever it is that you can't resist. Try to eat food made from raw ingredients at home as much as possible.In the end, if you don't get exercise, it will be hard to keep weight off. Exercise acts as a substitute reward and enhances your moods positively. It can change your self-image too, into one where you see yourself as a healthy, athletic person who can say no, and get rid of your old bad habits.I thought this book was fun to read, and the dark side of how industrial food is altered chemically and changes your brain was as scary as any horror novel. The science and psychology of food is critical to understanding how to lose weight when we're surrounded by so much temptation.

David Kessler knows what he is talking about. His credentials are very strong. In addition to a stellar academic background he has run a teaching hospital and served as a commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration. He's not simply writing a book to get on the bandwagon and tap into the huge industry that exists in America because frankly as a nation, we're gaining weight. We are at a sea change now, where our younger generations may for the first time in a long time, actuarially begin to see lifespans and quality of life decrease. Add to these qualifications the fact too that Kessler has a strong background in examining and dealing with the science and medicine of tobacco addiction and it's easy to see why Kessler is better positioned than most to write a book of this nature.Kessler very clearly and with great support explains why this raise in national obesity is happening and then goes on to provide real insight as to what needs to change to see this disturbing trend reversed, both in the arena of national health care policy and personal habits and responsibility.First to the technical elements of this book. I purchased this book on my Kindle and I found it to be well laid out with an interactive table of contents which allowed me to move directly to chapters. This is an important element because the Kindle tracks by data volume and not page number, so without this element, as I've found to my consternation in other Kindle books you're forced to guess as to where that particular chapter you're looking for is without a means to jump there easily and so this is something that I look carefully for now in a Kindle book before I just hit the buy button. This book functioned completely and conveniently in the Kindle format and I can recommend it without reservation in that format as opposed to a hard-copy.This book is laid out in six parts and is written in short pithy chapters that progressively build upon one another and then transition cleanly into the next logical area to be addresses and assessed.From the fundamentals of nutrition to an examination of the business practices of today's food industry to the emotional and psychological trigger-points that have been identified and are routinely pushed with predictable results in the American populace a case is compellingly built as to why Americans have gained weight, how the food and restaurant industry is complicit in the factors which coincidentally contribute to their profit margins and how Americans can identify and take control of their own destinies collectively and individually.While the level of discussion presented in this book is higher than most popular literature, the editing and writing style has been well laid out and there is no reason the average reader cannot move through this material easily. Anecdotal stories pepper the work and help to illustrate and reinforce the more technical elements that are explained themselves without a great deal of technical, medical jargon.All in all I came away from the book better aware of the factors that are at work in our nation and within me personally to drive me toward overeating and obesity. That knowledge in and of itself is not enough to solve the problem, but there is enough there to provide a platform from which to move in the future.5 stars, an excellent and powerful read.bart breen

Completo, sviluppa la tematica offrendo interessanti spunti di riflessione. Da leggere per i policy makers.

The central thesis of the book demonstrates how hyper palatable foods arrive in our food environment, why they lead us to overeat, and how we can escape their control over our eating habits. This book is a must read for anyone who has difficulty controlling their food cravings or who uses food to cope with stress. It contains an excellent analysis of how food is first manufactured, then marketed to maximize consumption at the expense of our long-term health.

I recommend this book to anyone who knows they are overeating or want to know more about the psychology of eating. It will help you to be more conscious and aware of food and in effect can also help you to lose weight in the long term.

Pour ceux qui essaient de comprendre le raisonnement des industriels.Ce livre est par moment un peu répetitif, peut-être parce qu'il est adapté en particulier au "monde" américain (nationalité et cursus de l'auteur obligent).En tout cas il y a à mon sens deux leçons à tirer:1) il faut éviter de grignoter2) il faut éviter les repas préparésEn gros, il faut manger comme nos parents nous ont appris à le faire.

「砂糖、塩、脂肪はとればとるほどもっと欲しくなる。」の言葉に思い当たることが大いにありました。逆に言えば、この３点、食べなければ今はもう目の前に出されてもまったく食べたいと思わない。ダイエットにお悩みの方、この本をすぐに手にとって身も心も軽くしてみませんか。