My latest reading obsession: The End of Overeating by Dr. David A. Kessler. I have read The End of Overeating twice, but I am not sure if The End of Overeating can stop, well, overeating. The book is extremely informative and easy to read, there is no question about that, the question is, however, does The End of Overeating provide any practical solutions that can help people who are overweight lose weight and get in shape?
In other words, does The End of Overeating work? These questions are not easy to answer. On one hand, the book explains in great detail why so many people are overweight these days; hint: American food companies spend a lot of money to design food products in such a way that we cannot stop eating them even when we are full, which, of course, leads to eating too much and a subsequent weight gain.
On the other hand, The End of Overeating does not really uncover a new ground. It does make a strong case for the fact that a combination of sugar, fat and salt makes your typical supermarket foods almost irresistible and addictive, but I knew that already. How is it going to help me lose weight?
To be fair, The End of Overeating is not a book about dieting and weight loss. Its primary focus is on explaining why foods that contain sugar, fat and salt make us consume a lot more calories than we need, and it does a great job doing that.
Essentially, the book brings us back to an old stomping ground – i.e., if you want to lose weight and break a life-long habit of eating foods that have been designed with a sole purpose of tricking our bodies into eating more (even when it has a clear detrimental effect on our health) – we need to limit our consumption of processed foods, and make sure that out diet primarily consists of fresh, preferably seasonal, whole foods.
If you want to know a little more about the premise of The End of Overeating, here is a short interview with its author, Dr. David A. Kessler:
You say food companies have hijacked our brains? They construct food to be highly stimulating: a roller coaster in the mouth, disappearing in a whoosh.
How do they do that? They use fat, sugar and salt to achieve the optimum bliss point. And processed food melts in your mouth. By eliminating the need to chew, we eat faster and more. And we are bombarded with food cues 24/7.
How can we protect ourselves? The food industry needs to change, but we do too. Look at tobacco: We used to view it as glamorous; now it looks like the enemy. We need to look at hyperpalatable foods – that huge plate of fries – and say, “That’s not my friend.” [Interview source: via]