| The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite |  | Author: David Kessler
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  286 reviews
Sales Rank: 2,443
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.2
Publication Date: April 28, 2009
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Product Description
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 sure to be a controversial view inside the industry that continues to feed a our nation -- from popular brand manufacturers to advertisers, chain restaurants, and fast food franchises. Dr. Kessler's cutting-edge investigation offers new insights and useful tools to help us find a solution. There has never been a more thorough, compelling, or in-depth analysis of why we eat the way we do.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 286
 Struggle With Mean Streets of Fast Food Avenue? Read This Book. August 7, 2010
Kelly Klepfer (Iowa)
The End of Overeating is an eye opening book. If you struggle with any pull toward the things you know you should not eat, the things that make you feel awful after you slurp them down and yet you eat every bite, you need to read this book.
Dr. Kessler looks into the science of hyper-palatable foods and then he investigates the psychology. It was fascinating and horrifying to realize that certain foods are as addictive to the brain as some heavy duty street drugs.
The scientific information can get a little boggy but it is worth slogging through to get to the help Kessler offers after he leaves the reader feeling hopeless to overcome food addiction and the mean streets of fast food avenue lined with the neon lure of saucy satisfaction.
Most of the contents of the book can fall under this one common sense quote from page 207. " Eventually, we can begin to think differently about food, recognizing its value to sustain us and protect us from hunger, and denying it the authority to govern our lives." While the quote is a worthy goal, getting from addiction or salivation to serenity with food takes work on the part of the reader who wants to make this goal reality. And Kessler offers common sense help to pull that off.
Really. If you are making choices to get healthy yet struggle with dreaming of Crispy Cremes and waking up singing "Candy Man" read this book!
Great analysis, but poor on the solutions August 6, 2010
apusworld
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Obesity and the health issues that accompany it have long been a subject of intense discussion in the Western world, where the abundance of super-cheap and highly processed foods has been linked to many health disorders. David Kessler's, The End of Overeating is an important addition to the books written on the subject - why, we shall come to a little later.
Kessler has the background to take on this complex subject having served as commissioner at the US Food and Drug Administration. He is also a man who has grappled with weight issues, giving him a more personal interest in the subject.
One of the biggest strengths of The End of Overeating (and the reason why I called it an important book) is that Kessler articulates convincingly a position on obesity that moves it away from the issue of individual control and choices ('if you're fat, you have no willpower, and you really ought to control yourself'). He acknowledges that while for a large part of America, calorie intake is outpacing calorie absorption, it's not as simple as `having the willpower to say no'. (Kessler also acknowledges that a small percentage of obese people are obese due to other medical reasons and that `hypereating' is not restricted to obese people.)
Kessler advances his position by taking a close look at the food and restaurant business, and how it gets consumers to eat larger portions, eat more often, eat at any place, eat at more locations, eat more indulging foods and eat mind-blowing combinations of fat-sugar-salt that make us want to - well, eat some more. He also goes to some length to explain how overeating can become a habit, by conditioning and by altering the stimulus-reward circuits in the brain. By indulging in high calorie foods, which offer a temporary but pleasurable sensation, we are primed to remember those sensations the next time we come across the same stimulus.
If all this sounds esoteric, think of a food experience that you particularly crave - perhaps a burger at a particular fast-food joint, perhaps a particular brand of chocolate and think about how hard it is to turn away from the treat it promises. That is what Kessler is talking about, and this book helps us to understand why we don't just 'say no'. The first 3 sections, `Sugar, Fat, Salt', `The Food Industry' and `Conditioned Hypereating Emerges' are all about dissecting the problem, and are the strongest parts of the book.
One quibble is that Kessler sometimes stops short of covering an individual's story in sufficient detail, preferring to move on to the next of numerous chapters. For instance, in one chapter, he interviews Jerilyn Brusseau, the creator of Cinnabon, a cinnamon roll bakery that started off as a small store offering a `treat', but is now part of the pandemic of chain stores rushing to pad your waist (and line your heart).
He goes on to end the chapter with, `Balance was something Brusseau once lacked in her own life. In her twenties, thirties and forties, she battled bulimia and anorexia. A chef and restaurant operator who lived her days surrounded by tempting indulgences, there had been a time when Brusseau lost all sense of when she was hungry and when she was full.' Now, what is one to make of an ending like that? A gourmet bakery owner's complicated relationship with food - yes, interesting, but why tell us about it if you are only going to throw in stray tidbits? Kessler does this when talking about people, but when he gets to the science, he is painstaking.
One suspects that Kessler would have done well to stop with this thorough analysis of the problem rather than extend the book to offering solutions as well. The next 3 sections, `The Theory of Treatment', `Food Rehab' and `The End of Overeating' are somewhat disappointing in their generality when compared with the rigorousness of the first half. While there are a few useful suggestions, they don't go beyond what commonsense suggests, nor are they buttressed with any studies or other information on their efficacy. They veer dangerously close to the `you can stop eating if only you try' approach that Kessler disses in the first half.
Some of the suggestions don't take the social context into account adequately; what of the fact that healthy eating in Western societies (especially the US) takes more money than eating junk food? What of the loss of cooking skills in many families and young people? Kessler doesn't address these issues when he advocates healthier eating.
Nor is there a special focus on women and food, which is surprising, given the greater social expectations from women to maintain a desirable weight, and the pressure it creates amidst the constant food cues in the environment.
Despite these drawbacks, The End of Overeating is an interesting read for anyone who has struggled with weight or with the expectations of desirability in an increasingly appearance-conscious world. Those of us living in India can already see the wholesale import of Western brands and lifestyles into what was a slower and more wholesome way of eating. For us, it may be the Beginning of Overeating, but that is no reason we shouldn't be better prepared.
No wonder Americans are so fat August 5, 2010
Nancy Loderick (Boston, MA)
We eat too much and it's too much of the wrong stuff. Dr. Kessler does a pretty good job at explaining in layman's terms why we are so fat and it's so hard for most of us to stop eating.
I especially liked the following about this book:
**Dr. Kessler's clear explanation of why it's so hard for us to resist food. The sugar/fat/salt combination of many foods wrecks havoc with our internal mechanisms. Dr. Kessler calls this `hypereating.'
**detailed descriptions of restaurant food. I knew restaurant food was not the healthiest, but I never dreamed that it was fried and re-fried and injected with all sorts of bad stuff. I swear I'll never eat in a restaurant again.
**suggestions on how to combat hypereating. I wonder just what would happen if restaurants prominently posted the calorie and nutrition components of their menu items. I'm sure this would stop some folks from eating the junk.
What I didn't like about this book:
**it's very repetitive. How many times to we have to read about that evil sugar/fat/salt combination or how we react to it. Yes, this is key point of the book, but it doesn't have to be repeated in almost every chapter.
**not a lot of advice on how deal with this problem. Dr. Kessler offers a few tips, but there should be more. How about suggesting that folks not eat out as often?
**Minimal mention about the role of exercise in appetite regulation. Yes this is a book about food and exercise could be a book unto itself. It's not just about the food.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in their health and well-being. I think it's particularly important for parents to be aware of these issues so they can help their children make healthy food choices.
 Wasted text August 3, 2010
Steven Parr
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Very disappointed in the book. Good information. Mixtures of salt, fat and sugar are very bad for me. Restaurants and the food industry are out to addict me to food to make more money. But 46+ chapters to tell me this? Over and over and over again? Please!
 Too much fluff July 30, 2010
smart fitness girl
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's a good book, if you like to spend your time reading a lot of examples. Personally, after the first example illustrated the concept, I got bored with the rest of the examples. So, I sort of thought it was a lame book that was a bit of a waste of time. I'd recommend cliffnotes if they had them, but since they don't have cliff notes the bottom line of this book is - The food companies do what they can to make food taste good to the point where you eat it even when you're not hungry - it proceeds with examples. Too much fluff in this one.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 286
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