New Book Review: The End of Overeating
Wednesday July 8, 2009
David Kessler's The End of Overeating is an excellent book for anyone in the nutrition or fitness biz or for anyone who struggles with what Dr. Kessler calls 'hypereating.' While his writing is on the sciency side, he goes through a fascinating account of what leads us to overeat - a combination of brain chemistry, appetite and manipulation by the food industry.
What I really like is that he doesn't offer the usual diets, menu plans or workout programs, but a more individual approach to dealing with our eating habits. He knows we all know how to eat healthy, that isn't the problem. The problem is actually dealing with our own emotions and bypassing all the temptations we face to make those healthy choices on a regular basis.
You can learn more in my review and be sure to leave a comment to tell us what you think. Or post your own review to give readers another viewpoint.
Comments
ABSOLUTELY – DEALING WITH EMOTIONS is the key! That’s why exercise is so important – it allows one to focus on useful and interesting ways to uplift the emotions and therefore not have alot of slack time where the thought of food dominates the mind. I LOVE TO EAT – I also fight the pangs, but know the way out – EXERCISE and other activites to keep us engaged and lessen the thought of eating. YOU WILL FAIL AT TIMES-LET IT GO – What’s the alternative? – to dwell on negatives, fall much lower again and then rebound? GET BACK IN THE GAME AS SOON AS YOU CAN WHEN YOU FAIL!!!
In many cases it’s not what you are eating, it is the portion size that causes problems.
It’s not just about what you eat it also about what you do, staying healthy and fit depends on what you eat and how you exercise. There is a lot to be said for everything in moderation. However a lot of people need help in order to keep and stay in shape, this is why there are a lot of physical therapists training, fitness courses and personal training courses available.
Do you know why in an era where the availability of advice, Gym’s, experts and courses has never been better and yet our kids are more obese than ever.
I don’t know if the book goes into this, but I have learned that you can change your cravings from unhealthy ones to healthy ones. If you give up a food, you tend to not crave it anymore. On the other side, you can start “craving” healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables. Also, if you see the dangers of certain foods, you are more likely to avoid them. For example, I cannot eat refined sugar because I become addicted to it when I eat it. I really do. I start craving it every day. After reading about its harmful effects, I have started to look at it almost as poison. With that view, why would I want to eat it? I wouldn’t feed it to my dog if I really loved my dog. Why would I eat it myself? I know that’s extreme, but you do need to think about how some foods can increase your risk of disease and even just make you feel terrible. A sugar high is great until you come crashing down and then have no energy at all.
Having recently lost 33 lbs and needing to lose over 100 and seeing it consistently come off with merely a change in eating habits and exercise that’s hardly strenuous, I can say that one of the things at least for me that I notice is that it is over-consumption of carbohydates that has to be a culprit here.
I have yet to see healthy foods for youth and this is the major problem, that isn’t laden with carbs and it’s this “carb allergy” (which I reference because I’m convinced that in my case that if I eat beyond a certain carb point, I’ll crave and crave them, while when I consume protein and good fats, I don’t go into the binge mania as with the carb/savory/salty category). Try going to an airport these days and even eating a bit healthy…other than the occasional piece of fruit, there’s very few options, and they certainly don’t make it easy for folks to bring their options with them, unless it’s disguised as baby food and you have a child as a beard!
So Kessler is RIGHT ON there! If obese kids, who like me become obese adults, get ‘unaddicted’ to carbs, we could turn around this obesity thing.
Right now, high carbohydrate foods to kids are literally are what cocaine was in the 1970s…addictive and dangerous.
Marketers can correct these problems….Bob Greene’s Better Life Diet is proving that if companies want to use more fiber, less fat, less sugar and salt, they can. And you don’t even really miss it, if done correctly. And I bet if marketed this way, not only would parents pay attention and not put crap in the shopping carts for their kids to eat, even kids today would forego the doritos and focus on at least a better option.
Companies will be getting on the band-wagon otherwise they won’t have any ‘alive’ consumers to market too…everyone will either be too fat, sick or dead to buy their poison disguised as foods but with no nutritional value.