The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating

Former FDA commissioner David Kessler, who lead tobacco reform, examines the causes of excessive eating in his new book, "The End of Overeating"

[The book includes a chapter on - Warning Signs In Children]

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A preview of the book is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AWVq7juJ8rEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+end+of+overeating&ei=vXj3SfymL5eSkASQzMjtBA#PPA234,M1
Check out the last chapter of the preview: ... coming to view these foods as enemies, not friends. ...

The moment you're thinking, "I deserve this," or "I'll only eat a little," no one can remind you that you'll feel differently after the meal. ... you see that food has kept you trapped in a cue-urge-reward-habit cycle. Only then can you accept that food rewards are short-lived and that their more enduring effect is to sustain your desire to keep eating. That's when you realize that if you stay trapped, you'll never eat enough to feel satisfied, and that's when you'll stop expecting food to make you feel better. That's when awareness of the long-term consequences of conditioned hypereating hits with full force.

When this happens, you begin to assign different value to foods. Your attitude shifts and you begin to see foods in a new light. You have made that critical perceptual shift.]
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eating habits to avoid.

to understand why it was so hard to control what we eat.
inside the brain and inside the food industry.

eating when ... didn't want to eat.
highly palatable foods had hijacked ... brain.

food companies
design foods to be hot stimuli.
excessively activates the rewards circuits of the brain.
stimulates the rewards-circuitry of the brain. It's all about selling product.

Much of what we eat in restaurants is fat on fat on sugar on fat with salt.

explain ... what is going on
give ... tools to cool stimuli.

things we can do.
once we understand what is going on, we can change.

The fundamental question, when you look at food, is this: Is it real food, or is it food that is layered and loaded?

decide what we find rewarding, and then decide how we control it.

what stimulates you. Everybody is different.

At the core, it's fat, sugar and salt.
We are wired to focus on the most salient stimuli in our environment.

You have to condition yourself to take the power out of the stimulus.

the loss of control in the face of highly palatable foods, lack of feeling full -- is reward-based eating.

learning and motivational circuits of the brain being captured.

Once you lay down that neuro-circuitry, it's there for life.
The actual act of consumption isn't as strong as anticipation.
It's the conditioning associated with a cue.

Once you are cued and you're activated, it amplifies the reward value. It torments you. You want it more.

obesity and children.

They are getting huge portions of very stimulating foods, hyper-palatable foods.
Once these cues are laid down, and the information is in your brain, it stays there and drives behavior.

This isn't a disease.

we've been captured by these stimuli.

[plus] the emotional gloss of advertising.

changed how we view
a critical perceptual shift. That's the key.
+++

The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating

Former FDA commissioner David Kessler, who lead tobacco reform, examines the causes of excessive eating in his new book, "The End of Overeating"

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124084009832659309.html

[The video is very insightful and all too short.]

[Here an excerpt well worth listening to:
http://books.simonandschuster.com/End-of-Overeating/David-A-Kessler-MD/9780743596794

A preview of the book is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AWVq7juJ8rEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+end+of+overeating&ei=vXj3SfymL5eSkASQzMjtBA#PPA234,M1
Check out the last chapter of the preview. ... coming to view these foods as enemies, not friends. ...

The moment you're thinking, "I deserve this," or "I'll only eat a little," no one can remind you that you'll feel differently after the meal. ... you see that food has kept you trapped in a cue-urge-reward-habit cycle. Only then can you accept that food rewards are short-lived and that thier more enduring effect is to sustain your desire to keep eating. That's when you realize that if you stay trapped, you'll never eat enough to feel satisfied, and that's when you'll stop expecting food to make you feel better. That's when awareness of the long-term consequences of conditioned hypereating hits with full force.

When this happens, you begin to assign different value to foods. Your attitude shifts and you begin to see foods in a new light. You have made that critical perceptual shift.]

In a wide-ranging look at eating habits, David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, addresses America's ever-increasing waistlines in his new book, "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite."

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler speaks to WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg about eating habits to avoid.

He interviews the overweight, who say that just the sight of a favorite snack food is enough to make them feel hungry, as well anonymous food executives who admit that fat, salt and sugar are often the building blocks of successful food products. The book was prompted by a question that had long nagged Dr. Kessler: Why is it that Americans continue to crave such foods as potato chips and candy bars long after they feel full? "No one has ever explained what's happening to them and how they can control their eating," he writes. "That's my goal in this book."

Dr. Kessler, a 57-year-old pediatrician, was commissioner of the FDA from 1990 to 1997. He is probably best known for his opposition to tobacco interests and efforts to better label food products. He is currently a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

The Wall Street Journal: What most surprised you while researching this book?

David Kessler: I wanted to understand why it was so hard to control what we eat. I thought I was going to end up in the world of nutrition and endocrinology. I ended up inside the brain and inside the food industry. The metaphor for the book was: Why did the chocolate chip cookie have such power over me? I saw a woman on Oprah who said she ate when she was happy, when she was sad, before her husband left for work and then after he left. I wanted to understand what was driving her behavior. It was not just that she was eating too much -- she was eating when she didn't want to eat. And nobody could explain why. I wanted to know, how could we help her? What was driving her? The greatest surprise was understanding how highly palatable foods had hijacked her brain.

WSJ: Early on in the book, you suggest that that major food companies know what motivates shoppers.

Dr. Kessler: They know what drives demand, and they were able to design foods to be hot stimuli. The food industry says they only give consumers what they want. But what they want excessively activates the rewards circuits of the brain. They aren't selling just any commodity. They've designed highly stimulating products, and consumers come back for more. Nothing sells as much as something that stimulates the rewards-circuitry of the brain. It's all about selling product.

WSJ: What about restaurant eating?

Dr. Kessler: Much of what we eat in restaurants is fat on fat on sugar on fat with salt. Pick any dish in any mid-American restaurant. What is spinach dip? Fat on salt with green stuff. Look at the average salad we're eating. If you look at the bacon, the croutons, the cheese…it's fats, salts and a little lettuce.

Listen to Dr. Kessler read from his book, "The End of Overeating."

WSJ: At times I couldn't decide whether you felt that the overweight were victims or undisciplined. Which is it?

Dr. Kessler: The answer is probably neither. Nobody has explained to people what is going on with them, or given them the tools to cool stimuli. Yes, you are bombarded throughout the day. You respond. And that creates torment for people. But just because we are activated and stimulated doesn't mean that that there aren't things we can do. Yes, their brains are being hijacked. But once we understand what is going on, we can change.

WSJ: What are the most important signs that people can recognize before they eat something they actually may not want?

Dr. Kessler: The fundamental question, when you look at food, is this: Is it real food, or is it food that is layered and loaded? It's easy to look at food and see what else is being layered on top of protein. I don't have a problem with a plain hamburger -- it's adding cheese and bacon. Also, you want a reasonable amount of food that you can control. Today if you put large amounts of food in front of me, I don't want it. But I used to go through big portions in an instant. We each have to decide what we find rewarding, and then decide how we control it.

WSJ: Regarding visual food cues, are you suggesting that the sight of a bowl of innocent M&Ms is enough to make us want to eat them?

Dr. Kessler: It depends on your past experience and what stimulates you. Everybody is different. For me it may be chocolate-covered pretzels. The one thing I can assure you: At the core, it's fat, sugar and salt. Not everything activates each of us the same. Here's the fundamental point: We are wired to focus on the most salient stimuli in our environment. If your kid is sick today, that's what you think about. For some people it's sex, gambling, alcohol. For many of us it's food. And within that category, different types of food are salient. You have to condition yourself to take the power out of the stimulus.

Dr. David Kessler

WSJ: Are we then all victims of subtle cravings whose genesis we're doomed never to understand?

Dr. Kessler: This syndrome of conditioned hyper-eating, which is what this is -- the loss of control in the face of highly palatable foods, lack of feeling full -- is reward-based eating. Not all are equally susceptible. Those obese and overweight have a greater incidence. But even 20% of the healthy report occasional loss of control. You will find people for whom food doesn't capture their interest, but it's probably a small percentage of the population. For the rest of us, it's a continuum. It's not only conditioned behavior. It's the learning and motivational circuits of the brain being captured. Is it nurture or nature? You expose children who are eating fat, sugar and salt all day. They've never been hungry a day in their lives. Once you lay down that neuro-circuitry, it's there for life. The actual act of consumption isn't as strong as anticipation. It's the conditioning associated with a cue. Once you are cued and you're activated, it amplifies the reward value. It torments you. You want it more.

WSJ: There is a lot of concern about obesity and children. What is the biggest cause? It is portions that are too large, or the wrong types of food?

Dr. Kessler: They are getting huge portions of very stimulating foods, hyper-palatable foods. You have huge portions of sugar, fat and salt. Every time they eat those foods it strengthens their neuro-circuitry to eat that food again. It activates them. Once these cues are laid down, and the information is in your brain, it stays there and drives behavior. This isn't a disease. But we've been captured by these stimuli. In the past, it allowed us to survive. Now we have health consequences because it's available 24/7 and we've added the emotional gloss of advertising.

WSJ: Is nutrition too difficult a concept to regulate?

Dr. Kessler: In the end it's not about regulation. Government can play a role. It's about how we as a country view the product. What was the real success of tobacco? We changed how we viewed the product. It was a critical perceptual shift. That's the key.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com

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The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Hardcover)
by David Kessler MD
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1605297852/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
# Hardcover: 336 pages
# Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (April 28, 2009)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1605297852
# ISBN-13: 978-1605297859

"David A. Kessler, who led the battle against the tobacco industry, now joins the fight against obesity. His message is important: The problem is not only the behavior of profit-driven food companies, but also the daily choices that each one of us makes." —Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

"David Kessler’s fascinating book is essential for anyone interested in learning more about how corporate greed and human psychology have created a national health crisis." —Alice Waters, chef and owner of Chez Panisse

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Hardcover)
by David Kessler MD

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book Provides Information That Will Help You Lose Weight, March 14, 2009
By     J. White - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

This book is written in a clear manner that is just plain enjoyable to read and keep reading. This book discusses the how and why of why people overeat. The author a former Surgeon General is an excellent writer. After reading this book readers will gain understanding of why they overeat. Using knowledge gained I have already lost 10 pounds without working very hard at it. No need to describe in detail the contents here since others have already done it. If you are overweight this book is a MUST read.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting guide into food industry goals, March 14, 2009
By     ichor (PacNW, USA) - See all my reviews
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

As a person who tries to eat only wholesome foods - which excludes the vast majority of anything prepared outside of my own kitchen, this book was still an impressive eye opener in many aspects.

Dissecting the various foods, and employing the help of an industry insider about the truth about the goal of food companies (money, only money, and nothing but money), the reasons some people overeat are explored scientifically - along with how the food industry exploits that scientific knowledge.

From a basic course in biology, most people are aware of the 3 basic food types that humans seek and will readily eat - fat, sugar, and salt. For thousands of years, finding these meant calories, safe eating, and health. But the three key ingredients were never combined, mixed, and layered as they are today - which this book delves into.

If you're not a person that overeats or is drawn into certain types of food (like myself - I just whatever is available whenever I'm hungry, and stop when I'm not) - most of this book is still quite compelling. The last couple dozen pages, however, are dedicated to those who want to "un-learn" their conditioned response to certain stimulus, which is eating.

While this book was an incredible journey of the processing of food, I would also recommend The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply--And What We Can Do About It for an equally interesting insight into the "food" before it is processed. In addition, The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health which will keep you shaking your head about what major food companies are putting into our food for the sake of profit. While these 2 books are not directly related to The End Of Overeating, in the grand scheme of our food production, from the raw products to the final, over-processed food many people eat and may consider healthy, they compliment each other well.

A highly recommended book; you may end up wanting to plant a garden, outfit your kitchen, and start making healthy, wholesome (and cheaper) foods after reading. We're all used as profit making machines for companies that mix various textures and flavors (via chemicals, salt, sugar, and fat) that they've invented and have no place in nature - and shouldn't have a place on our tables.
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