The End of Overeating

[kacie tri-ing]

So over my spring break, I read The End of Overeating by David Kessler
http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating.../dp/1605297852

Great read. I loved how much he talked about how the food industry manipulates us to literally keep us coming back for more. DH is reading it right now, and he is totally into it!

It is really well researched, and i enjoyed the review of the literature about appetite and psychology.

[Slowspoke]

I need this book! I just read your post while eating my umpteenth chocolate egg!

[azfiddle]

I have heard interviews with the author, but haven't read the book. Everything he said in the interviews was fascinating, and made sense.

[nico demouse]

I started reading this and then had to return it to the library before I was finished. Your post is a good reminder to check it out again and finish it!

The chapters I finished were fascinating, as I also remember the NPR interview(s) being. It certainly makes a person want to stay away from restaurant and processed foods.

[DarcyInOregon]

Thanks for recommending the book. I ordered it immediately and I am looking forward to reading it.

I had to figure out a lot of it by myself over the years, about processed foods and such. I got it confirmed by the doctor, and the food chemicals in the processed foods gave me an internal inflammation of the digestive system. All of the sodium made me sodium sensitive. Plus there are no nutrients in packaged and processed foods, so the calories just turn into body fat.

The schools really need to teach nutrition from elementary school through high school because knowing how to eat and how to exercise is how we will all live a long healthy life. People today believe that if something is for sale, then it is ok to stick it in your mouth and swallow it. It is so far from the truth. We need to be educated on what to eat so as to prevent disease, maintain a healthy weight and live a long life. The first two steps are to read the literature on the American Heart Association web site, because what is good for the heart is good for the entire body, and the second step is to start watching the Dr. Oz show.

I watched a lot of the television shows about morbid obesity on the Discovery Health channel. After viewing quite a few of the shows over the past few years, a pattern emerged, and that is the people who get over 350 pounds do the following: 1)they don't eat fresh fruits and vegetables, 2)they don't eat whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, 3)they consume vast quantities of fast food, deli food, take-out food and frozen grocery store food, and 4)they don't exercise. Somehow, eating the highly processed foods leads to food addictions, maybe because the body is crying out for nutrients and too much of a bad food will at least give a minimum of nutrients, even though the result is more body stored body fat.

I am really looking forward to reading this book. Thank you for sharing.

[shootingstar]

Thanks for recommending the book. I ordered it immediately and I am looking forward to reading it.

I had to figure out a lot of it by myself over the years, about processed foods and such. I got it confirmed by the doctor, and the food chemicals in the processed foods gave me an internal inflammation of the digestive system. All of the sodium made me sodium sensitive. Plus there are no nutrients in packaged and processed foods, so the calories just turn into body fat.

The schools really need to teach nutrition from elementary school through high school because knowing how to eat and how to exercise is how we will all live a long healthy life. People today believe that if something is for sale, then it is ok to stick it in your mouth and swallow it. It is so far from the truth. We need to be educated on what to eat so as to prevent disease, maintain a healthy weight and live a long life.

Glad you got help on pinpointing things that you need to be alert re food for your particular situation.

Agree that nutrition education in school must continue and has to be practiced in real life.

But it must be supported by parent(s) at home in daily practice, since they wield consider buying power and power to make decisions on types of food for home during first decade or so of child's life. The time period that sets the foundation for a child's physical development for ...life.

Kudos to some young teens who will stand firm and "try" to eat healthier by eating more veggies, etc. or dropping certain unhealthy foods against the general eating/meal patterns prepared for the whole family.

So nutrition education should expand into the community centres, etc. for adults, etc. I've seen the occasional cooking course for people wanting to cook/eat healthy. But those courses are pretty rare compared to other theme /skill based cooking courses.

It's great to watch some tv shows which do impart useful tips. But support and reinforcement helps by hanging out with people (either in person or virtual forums, like TE ) who are trying to make/maintain the same healthy changes.

[DarcyInOregon]

But it must be supported by parent(s) at home in daily practice, since they wield consider buying power and power to make decisions on types of food for home during first decade or so of child's life. The time period that sets the foundation for a child's physical development for ...life.


It's great to watch some tv shows which do impart useful tips. But support and reinforcement helps by hanging out with people (either in person or virtual forums, like TE ) who are trying to make/maintain the same healthy changes.

I am lucky in that I took a nutrition course as a science requirement in my first year of college and the knowledge stuck with me. Then in the early 1990s I went through a 3-month hospital course on nutrition and cardio health with my husband, a course based on the DASH Diet, which is supported by the USDA and the American Heart Association. I am also lucky in that I grew up with parents who used all of the food groups before all of the food groups were recognized.

You are right, the children need to have appropriate nutrition at home. I was thinking of the next generations, to get today's children educated on how to eat to maximize nutrition and to minimize sodium, sugars, refined carbs and food chemicals. The Dr. Oz show is good to watch because he puts the parents in front of the Truth Tube and shows them what is wrong with their health, like having fatty trigs of 680, or a blood pressure of 220/110, or LDL over 100, and these parents with the bad health must be feeding their children the same garbage they are feeding themselves. Sometimes Dr. Oz has children on the show who are over 300 pounds. Unbelievable.

Another show is on BBCA, You Are What You Eat with Gillian McKeith. This summer there is going to be a show with the female trainer from the Biggest Loser. And of course there is the Biggest Loser. There is a lot of information out there available for people who don't want to take a 3-month hospital course on nutrition, and these types of shows might be in a format that will impart the information to get people to think before they make their food purchasing decisions.

I just feel very lucky that I never liked fast food or processed food or take-out food. It is why I am eager to read this book because there must be a theory advanced by the author that the stuff in processed foods and fast foods gives people food addictions, and not addictions for more raw veggies, but addictions to foods without any nutritional benefits.

[OakLeaf]

I think the word "addiction" gets thrown around entirely too much.

But it's well known that a lot of processed foods contain chemicals that are designed to attract the senses extremely powerfully, and also that they are designed to reduce satiety (i.e., you can keep eating them without feeling full). If you've been eating that cr*p your entire life, it is challenging to retrain your palate.

Heck, even though I've eaten reasonably well most of my life, almost never had fast food or anything processed as a child, it was a challenge to learn to eat salads with no dressing when I came up allergic to molds (and eliminated vinegar as well as other mold-containing foods from my diet). When the real flavor of food is completely hidden by chemicals (natural or synthetic) that appeal to the senses, it really takes some effort to learn to appreciate the flavor of a leaf of lettuce, or arugula, or baby mustard, or baby pac choi. (Especially if it's at an inexpensive grocery or restaurant and the vegetables are neither very good quality nor very fresh.)

[Melalvai]

I cut out sugar from my diet which means I read labels more. I don't eat anything that has sugar, HFCS, or corn syrup in the label. That means I don't eat processed foods much at all. I wondered if the magical effects* I'm experiencing are from the reduction in sugar or from the reduction in all the other chemicals.

*effects observed were monthly. The monthly hemorrhoids, cramps, and best of all the monthly depression are all gone or reduced in severity since I quit sugar, and the 2 months I went back on it, these symptoms started to come back, especially the monthly depression.