good article about over eating

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By

TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: June 22, 2009

As head of the

Food and Drug Administration

, Dr.

A. Kessler

served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the

Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces

of a chocolate

chip cookie.

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In an experiment of one, Dr. Kessler tested his willpower by buying two

gooey chocolate chip cookies that he didn’t plan to eat. At home, he found

himself

staring at the cookies, and even distracted by memories of the chocolate

chunks and doughy peaks as he left the room. He left the house, and the

cookies

remained uneaten. Feeling triumphant, he stopped for coffee, saw cookies on

the counter and gobbled one down.

“Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me?” Dr. Kessler

asked in an interview. “Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie

in

my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.”

The result of Dr. Kessler’s quest is a fascinating new book, “The End of

Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” (Rodale).

During his time at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Kessler maintained

a high profile, streamlining the agency, pushing for faster approval of

drugs

and overseeing the creation of the standardized

nutrition

label on food packaging. But Dr. Kessler is perhaps best known for his

efforts to investigate and regulate the tobacco industry, and his accusation

that

cigarette makers intentionally manipulated

nicotine

content to make their products more addictive.

In “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food

industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our

brain

circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.

When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual

ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and

salt in

innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s

reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat

and leaves

us wanting more and more even when we’re full.

Dr. Kessler isn’t convinced that food makers fully understand the

neuroscience of the forces they have unleashed, but food companies certainly

understand

human behavior, taste preferences and desire. In fact, he offers

descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to

reach the aptly

named “bliss point.” Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or

salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to

reach

the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar

and salt.

The result is that chain restaurants like Chili’s cook up “hyper-palatable

food that requires little chewing and goes down easily,” he notes. And Dr.

Kessler

reports that the Snickers bar, for instance, is “extraordinarily well

engineered.” As we chew it, the sugar dissolves, the fat melts and the

caramel traps

the peanuts so the entire combination of flavors is blissfully experienced

in the mouth at the same time.

Foods rich in sugar and fat are relatively recent arrivals on the food

landscape, Dr. Kessler noted. But today, foods are more than just a

combination of

ingredients. They are highly complex creations, loaded up with layer upon

layer of stimulating tastes that result in a multisensory experience for the

brain. Food companies “design food for irresistibility,” Dr. Kessler noted.

“It’s been part of their business plans.”

But this book is less an exposé about the food industry and more an

exploration of us. “My real goal is, How do you explain to people what’s

going on with

them?” Dr. Kessler said. “Nobody has ever explained to people how their

brains have been captured.”

The book, a New York Times best seller, includes Dr. Kessler’s own candid

admission that he struggles with overeating.

“I wouldn’t have been as interested in the question of why we can’t resist

food if I didn’t have it myself,” he said. “I gained and lost my body weight

several times over. I have suits in every size.”

This is not a diet book, but Dr. Kessler devotes a sizable section to “food

rehab,” offering practical advice for using the science of overeating to our

advantage, so that we begin to think differently about food and take back

control of our eating habits.

One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of

willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the

overstimulating

food environment that surrounds us. “Conditioned hypereating” is a chronic

problem that is made worse by dieting and needs to be managed rather than

cured,

he said. And while lapses are inevitable, Dr. Kessler outlines several

strategies that address the behavioral, cognitive and nutritional factors

that fuel

overeating.

Planned and structured eating and understanding your personal food triggers

are essential. In addition, educating yourself about food can help alter

your

perceptions about what types of food are desirable. Just as many of us now

find

cigarettes

repulsive, Dr. Kessler argues that we can also undergo similar “perceptual

shifts” about large portion sizes and processed foods. For instance, he

notes

that when people who once loved to eat steak become

vegetarians

, they typically begin to view animal protein as disgusting.

The advice is certainly not a quick fix or a guarantee, but Dr. Kessler said

that educating himself in the course of writing the book had helped him gain

control over his eating.

“For the first time in my life, I can keep my weight relatively stable,” he

said. “Now, if you stress me and fatigue me and put me in an airport and the

plane is seven hours late — I’m still going to grab those chocolate-covered

pretzels. The old circuitry will still show its head.”