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

341 Pages·2009·12.41 MB·English

by  David Kessler

The end of overeating.
TAKING CONTROL OF THE
INSATIABLE AMERICAN ApPETITE
DAVID A. KESSLER, MD
The end of overeating.
TAKING CONTROL OF THE
INSATIABLE AMERICAN ApPETITE
DAVID A. KESSLER, MD
=.
RODALE
Notice
This book is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. The
information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your
health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that may have been
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time it went to press.
© 2009 by David A. Kessler, MD
Food Rehab™ is a trademark owned by David A. Kessler.
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Book design by Christina Gaugler
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kessler, David A., 1951.
The end of overeating: controlling the insatiable American appetite /
David A. Kessler.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60529-785-9 (hardcover)
ISBN-lO: 1-60529-785-2 (hardcover)
1. Nutrition-Psychological aspects. 2. Food habits-Psychological
aspects. 3. Obesity-United States. 4. Food-Marketing-United States.
1. Title.
QP14I.E467 2009
613.2-dc22 2008048058
Distributed to the trade by Macmillan
4 6 8 10 9 7 5 hardcover
!til I
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s
INTRODUCTION: YOU ARE THE TARGET ................... ix
T f\l
f~
Sugar, Fat, Salt
1. Something Changed ... America Gained Weight ............. 3
2. Overriding the Wisdom of the Body ................................. 7
3. Sugar, Fat, and Salt Make Us Eat More Sugar, Fat, and Salt ... 12
4. The Business of Food: Creating Highly Rewarding Stimuli ... 18
5. Pushing Up Our Settling Points ..................................... 22
6. Sugar, Fat, and Salt Are Reinforcing ............................... 29
7. Amping Up the Neurons ................................................. 35
8. We Are Wired to Focus Attention
on the Most Salient Stimuli ............................................. 41
9. Rewarding Foods Become Hot Stimuli ............................ 46
10. Cues Activate Brain Circuits That Guide Behavior .......... 50
11. Emotions Make Food Memorable .................................... 55
12. Rewarding Foods Rewire the Brain ................................. 58
13. Eating Behavior Becomes a Habit ................................... 61
v
vi CONTENTS
PART TWO
The Food Industry
14. A Visit to Chili's ........................................................... 67
15. Cinnabon: A Lesson in Irresistibility................. ........... 74
16. That's Entertainment ................................................... 78
17. The Era of the Monster Thickburger ............................ 83
18. No Satisfaction ............................................................. 94
19. Giving Them What They Like.......................... ... ......... 97
20. What Consumers Don't Know ...................................... 101
21. The Ladder of Irresistibility ......................................... 104
22. The World's Cuisine Becomes Americanized ................ 111
23. Nothing Is Real. ............................................................ 115
24. Optimize It! ................................................................. 120
25. The Science of Selling .................................................. 125
26. Purple Cows ................................................................. 132
PART THREE
Conditioned Hypereating Emerges
27. Overeating Becomes More Dangerous .......................... 13 7
28. What Weight-Loss Drugs Can Teach Us ...................... 142
29. Why We Don't Just Say No .......................................... 145
30. How We Become Trapped ............................................ 154
31. Conditioned Hypereating Emerges .............................. 157
32. Tracing the Roots of Conditioned Hypereating ............ 163
33. Nature or Nurture? ...................................................... 166
34. Warning Signs in Children ........................................... 169
35. The Culture of Overeating ............................................ 173
CONTENTS VII
PART FOUR
The Theory of Treatment
36. Invitations to the Brain ................................................ 181
37. Reversing the Habit ...................................................... 184
38. Rules of Disengagement ............................................... 190
39. Emotional Learning ...................................................... 196
PART FIVE
Food Rehab
40. The Treatment Framework ........................................... 205
41. Planned Eating ............................................................. 209
42. Letting Go of the Past .................................................. 217
43. Eating Is Personal ......................................................... 226
44. Avoiding Traps: On Obsession and Relapse .................. 231
45. Making the Critical Perceptual Shift ............................ 234
PART SIX
The End of Overeating
46. "Our Success Is the Problem" ....................................... 239
47. Industry Cracks the Code ............................................ 242
48. Fighting Back ............................................................... 245
A FINAL WORD ............................................................... 250
ENDNOTES ..................................................................... 252
LIST OF AUTHOR INTERVIEWS .................................. 305
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................. 312
INDEX ............................................................................... 315

INTRODUCTION:
YOU ARE THE TARGET
I've learned to recognize overeating in restaurants all over America.
It's not hard, because people who have been conditioned to overeat
behave distinctively. They attack their food with a special kind of
gusto. I've seen them lift their forks, readying their next bite before
they've swallowed the previous one, and I've watched as they reach
across the table to spear a companion's french fries or the last morsel
of someone else's dessert. Certain foods seem to exert a magical pull
on them, and they rarely leave any on their plates.
As I watch this kind of impulsive behavior, I suspect a battle
may be taking place in their heads, the struggle between "I want"
and "I shouldn't," between "I'm in charge" and "I can't control this."
In this struggle lies one of the most consequential battles we face to
protect our health.
The End of Overeating was born as I watched The Oprah Winfrey
Show. Dr. Phil, the program's former resident psychologist, was
talking about why people are obese and what they have to do to
lose weight.
When he asked for a volunteer from the audience, a large, well
dressed woman named Sarah came forward. Resting his hand on her
shoulder, Dr. Phil asked Sarah to talk candidly about the self-defeating
behavior that, he insisted, led to weight gain. He said he wanted to
know what made her "do what you know you don't want to do."
At first Sarah was all smiles as she told her story. "I eat all the
time," she said with a nervous giggle. "I eat when I'm hungry, I eat
when I'm not hungry. I eat to celebrate, I eat when I'm sad. I eat at
night. I eat when my husband comes home."
Dr. Phil pressed Sarah to describe how she felt about herself.
ix