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141st out of 469 books
—
976 voters
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food—when one slice of pizza turns into half a pie, or a handful of chips leads to an empty bag. But it’s harder to understand why we can't seem to stop eating—even when we know better. When we want so badly to say "no," why do we continue to reach for food? Dr. David Kessler, the dynamic former FDA commissioner...more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
April 28th 2009
by Rodale Books
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Loy Machedo’s Book Review – The End of Over-eating by David A. Kessler
Ever since I have been going through the Battle of the Bulge I have literally struggled to lose weight. I soon realized that the biggest challenges I had was not exercise. Rather my inability to stay away from Food. The Aroma of Cinnabon, the thought of a Mouth Watering entre from Pizza Hut, the Steaming Delicious Burgers from Burger King and the Tender Chicken of KFC would throw my will-power and self-control out of the windo...more
Ever since I have been going through the Battle of the Bulge I have literally struggled to lose weight. I soon realized that the biggest challenges I had was not exercise. Rather my inability to stay away from Food. The Aroma of Cinnabon, the thought of a Mouth Watering entre from Pizza Hut, the Steaming Delicious Burgers from Burger King and the Tender Chicken of KFC would throw my will-power and self-control out of the windo...more
A new angle, and very interesting ideas on how food becomes irresistible by combining many sensory attributes. Accurate descriptions, abundance of studies, very good examples of restaurants, food chains and brands.
"Snickers is extraordinarily well engineered. When you eat a Snickers bar, the chocolate, the caramel, the nougat, and the peanuts all disappear in the same time. You're not getting all this buildup of stuff in your mouth. (...) The genius of Snickers is that as we chew, the sugar dis...more
"Snickers is extraordinarily well engineered. When you eat a Snickers bar, the chocolate, the caramel, the nougat, and the peanuts all disappear in the same time. You're not getting all this buildup of stuff in your mouth. (...) The genius of Snickers is that as we chew, the sugar dis...more
This is a fascinating account of the measures that the food industry takes--both in marketing and in its attempts to load food with as much sugar, fat and salt as possible--to make its often very unhealthy products irresistable to consumers, and how it thereby has helped usher in the epidemic of obesity in the U.S.
Kessler, a former FDA chief best known for his anti-tobacco efforts, struggled for most of his life with a need to eat more that was good for him, a need he shares with an increasing p...more
Kessler, a former FDA chief best known for his anti-tobacco efforts, struggled for most of his life with a need to eat more that was good for him, a need he shares with an increasing p...more
I started reading this book in tandem with my viewing of the HBO documentary miniseries, The Weight of the Nation. The two dovetail nicely - covering many of the same topics, but reinforcing, not repeating what you already learned.
The book begins strong, with the author's personal stories and observations, but also from case studies, and interviews with restaurant industry professionals. The holy trinity of the regular American diet - sugar, salt, and fat - are covered extensively. The author h...more
The book begins strong, with the author's personal stories and observations, but also from case studies, and interviews with restaurant industry professionals. The holy trinity of the regular American diet - sugar, salt, and fat - are covered extensively. The author h...more
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This book details the rational (but hidden/psycho-social) and irrational (emotional) reasons why, not only do we overeat, but why we overeat unhealthy junk and comfort foods. Kessler then gives the reader some tips on how to tame this beast.
The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is because, in my opinion, the author went into too much detail at times, especially with some areas that are common knowledge, and/or simply make good rational sense.
The last third of the book is great. I pa...more
The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is because, in my opinion, the author went into too much detail at times, especially with some areas that are common knowledge, and/or simply make good rational sense.
The last third of the book is great. I pa...more
Recommended by my (MD) daughter-in-law. David Kessler--you may recognize the name as the former director of the FDA--has written an informative and down-to-earth book describing the underlying issues, at individual and societal levels, behind America's obesity epidemic. It's worth reading, and can be the source of some good practical steps if you are looking for ways to get out of patterns of overeating. He opens with a description of how easily he could be seduced by a plate of freshly baked go...more
This book has changed the way I will look at food forever. In an attempt to lead a healthier life and eat cleaner this book has made a huge impact on my views of advertising, marketing, and food production. The author has hammered into my head that almost everything processed is layered with sugar, fat, and salt. These tempting treats make us want more sugar, fat, and salt. No wonder American's are so fat and unhealth! We spend trillions of dollars on health care and what we really need to do is...more
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David Kessler writes a very interesting book, and the first half is quite readable. However, I think he fails to bring all his information together. I would read chapters and fail to see the connections. He was providing numerous facts, but I think he was reaching with his conclusions. The only thing I am sure of, is that just because something appears to make sense or be true, does not mean that it is true. I'm not even so sure that salt is really that bad for people. Our society wants it to be...more
If you know very little about food and nutrition, sure read this. But if you're already familiar with the politics of our food, with Michael Pollen, with the ever increasing number of different food movements and diets (local-food, slow-food, blood type diet, atkins diet) etc., with the manufacturing of our food and farms, then you're probably already familiar with everything that's in this book. Granted, maybe if I had read this when it first came out (2009), I would have gotten more from it, b...more
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This one was more academic than self-help. I read it because I've been having having trouble fighting off the siren song of sugar, and someone recommended it highly on her blog.
It was written at what I would describe as magazine level, (although about the last quarter is detailed end notes that I hadn't realized were there, or I might have been reading them).
The book does an excellent breakdown of how the restaurant industry tries to hyper-stimulate appetite and how for some people willpower j...more
It was written at what I would describe as magazine level, (although about the last quarter is detailed end notes that I hadn't realized were there, or I might have been reading them).
The book does an excellent breakdown of how the restaurant industry tries to hyper-stimulate appetite and how for some people willpower j...more
There is no question about David Kessler’s strong sense of purpose in his book The End of Overeating. He wants you to know what commercial food preparers do to make you want their food even when you are not hungry, and he is going to make sure you get the message. Even if he has to say it a very large number of times.
And that’s the primary problem I had with this book. I listened to it as an audiobook, which can be quite a different experience, so I’ll disclose that to begin with. The book focus...more
And that’s the primary problem I had with this book. I listened to it as an audiobook, which can be quite a different experience, so I’ll disclose that to begin with. The book focus...more
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This book is SO mis-titled. A more accurate title would be "The History of Overeating: How and Why the American Appetite Became Insatiable". If you are looking for information about the reasons for the obesity epidmic there is a lot of information here about how certain food characteristics promote overeating, how overeating becomes habitual or addictive, and why food companies tend to promote hypereating in their product offerings and marketing, you will find all that here. If you are looking f...more
I think the title of this book is slightly misleading. What it sounds like is a self-help book; what it is is an in-depth examination of the internal and external forces that cause many people to overeat.
It's extremely detailed, and provides tons of references to scientific research. There are a few places where it gets a bit too detailed, but overall I really enjoyed the book. The author outlines how restaurants and the food industry have capitalized on our biological urges for combinations of...more
It's extremely detailed, and provides tons of references to scientific research. There are a few places where it gets a bit too detailed, but overall I really enjoyed the book. The author outlines how restaurants and the food industry have capitalized on our biological urges for combinations of...more
It was an informative book which included the science behind our cravings and the food industry that caters to them and encourages them, adding more fuel to the eternal debate within ourselves that what we are about to eat is not good for us, but will taste so delicious. The last few chapters address what we can do about it. There are vague suggestions about what to do, giving basic principles to follow and encouragement to get involved in changing the food industry.
I enjoyed reading it. I lear...more
I enjoyed reading it. I lear...more
(this is a mirror of the review posted on my website, www.beatinglimitations.com)
I read this book in 2011 based on a recommendation from Twitter.
I didn’t breeze through this book in one sitting - I think I carried it with me for quite a few long haul flights, reading it section by section, and then digesting its key messages. My key takeaway? Similar to “Why Women Need Fat”, it has to be that making meals yourself, with clean whole foods, is the only surefire way to eat SAFELY. Yep, you read th...more
I read this book in 2011 based on a recommendation from Twitter.
I didn’t breeze through this book in one sitting - I think I carried it with me for quite a few long haul flights, reading it section by section, and then digesting its key messages. My key takeaway? Similar to “Why Women Need Fat”, it has to be that making meals yourself, with clean whole foods, is the only surefire way to eat SAFELY. Yep, you read th...more
What's Changed in America that has Resulted in Obesity?
David Kessler knows what he is talking about. His credentials are very strong. In addition to a stellar academic background he has run a teaching hospital and served as a commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration. He's not simply writing a book to get on the bandwagon and tap into the huge industry that exists in America because frankly as a nation, we're gaining weight. We are at a sea change now, where our younger generations may f...more
David Kessler knows what he is talking about. His credentials are very strong. In addition to a stellar academic background he has run a teaching hospital and served as a commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration. He's not simply writing a book to get on the bandwagon and tap into the huge industry that exists in America because frankly as a nation, we're gaining weight. We are at a sea change now, where our younger generations may f...more
I learned a lot from this book.
Originally I thought it might be a preachy type book and expected it to be drab like some other books that were nutrition based, I have to say this is NOT the case. The book was easy to read and quite interesting.
I have recommended it to several people I know that have a nutrional hobby/ interest such as myself.
I feel that it really help me understand a few basic things about the food industry that were puzzling to me. It was helpful to me in that it solved a few...more
Originally I thought it might be a preachy type book and expected it to be drab like some other books that were nutrition based, I have to say this is NOT the case. The book was easy to read and quite interesting.
I have recommended it to several people I know that have a nutrional hobby/ interest such as myself.
I feel that it really help me understand a few basic things about the food industry that were puzzling to me. It was helpful to me in that it solved a few...more
*The beginning of informed eating*
_The End of Overeating_ represents the beginning of a paradigm shift for understanding and managing the obesity health crisis. The main theory of Kessler's book is that overeating results from changes in the reward, learning, and habit circuits of the brain under the influence of an environment packed with readily available, overstimulating food.
In the same manner that Kessler was able to expose the truths behind the tobacco industry, he feeds us the hard-to-dig...more
_The End of Overeating_ represents the beginning of a paradigm shift for understanding and managing the obesity health crisis. The main theory of Kessler's book is that overeating results from changes in the reward, learning, and habit circuits of the brain under the influence of an environment packed with readily available, overstimulating food.
In the same manner that Kessler was able to expose the truths behind the tobacco industry, he feeds us the hard-to-dig...more
Kessler is a physician and former FDA commissioner who has had his own struggles with overeating. This book attempts to explain why we overeat, how meals (and appetites) have changed in the last several decades, and offers some suggestions to help overcome "conditioned hypereating." It sounds great in theory, but I had some issues with the book's structure. More than half the 250 pages discuss how the food industry tricks us into eating more by adding large amounts of sugar, fat, and salt to pre...more
Dr. Kessler's book is a highly accessible account of how the food industry crafts its products to appeal to the insatiable American appetite for sugar, fat and salt. He explores in detail the biological responses to these stimuli and makes a great case for how we literally become food addicts.
The best parts of the book are Dr. Kessler's conversations with co-workers and well-known people such as Wolfgang Puck, the chef, and Robert De Niro, who gained sixty pounds for the movie Raging Bull. He co...more
The best parts of the book are Dr. Kessler's conversations with co-workers and well-known people such as Wolfgang Puck, the chef, and Robert De Niro, who gained sixty pounds for the movie Raging Bull. He co...more
This book is an experiment in how many times someone can repeat the same concept in different ways.
It sells itself as being a look inside the food industry and food culture, as well as the science of appetite and overeating, but most of the book focuses simply on the fact that popular restaurants and snack food these days layer fat, sugar, or salt together.
The author also has this idea that being overweight is pretty much solely a result of something he calls hypereating-- just eating snacks rep...more
It sells itself as being a look inside the food industry and food culture, as well as the science of appetite and overeating, but most of the book focuses simply on the fact that popular restaurants and snack food these days layer fat, sugar, or salt together.
The author also has this idea that being overweight is pretty much solely a result of something he calls hypereating-- just eating snacks rep...more
Kessler calls attention to the obesity epidemic, noting that Americans have gotten significantly heavier on average in recent decades, and that people who are overweight and obese get fatter faster.
When we eat food that is unnaturally pumped up with salt, fat and sugar, people are like bird parents who choose another species' too-large eggs to sit on instead of their own eggs. Nothing good can come of this crazy mismatch. The salt-fat-sugar combination wreaks havoc on our brains, making us cons...more
When we eat food that is unnaturally pumped up with salt, fat and sugar, people are like bird parents who choose another species' too-large eggs to sit on instead of their own eggs. Nothing good can come of this crazy mismatch. The salt-fat-sugar combination wreaks havoc on our brains, making us cons...more
The first half of the book is pure food porn. Detailed, multisensory descriptions of super-unhealthy menu items from chain restaurants or snack foods - it's just about perfectly designed to send you running to the refrigerator. It's not a huge surprise to discover that the addictive qualities of this kind of food are well-known to people in the restaurant and snack-food industries, and even less a surprise to be told they are, in fact, addictive. So that part is really only good for salivating o...more
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Listening to the first chapter of this book, I was convinced it was my biography! I found this to be a very fascinating account of what makes us overeat and how the food industry uses this information to sell their products and feed our addictions. They have found that people become mildly addicted to sugar, salt, or fat but when these things are combined in optimal proportions, our addictions are enhanced. Many chain restaurants over process their meat and chicken so that we are essentially ea...more
What a waste of space and good paper this book is! The idiot author takes information enough to fill MAYBE one page and repeats it over and over and over and over again for three hundred pages. There an unbelievable amount of meaningless, useless fluff in the text. Almost worse than this is how NOT A SINGLE CHAPTER IS LONGER THAN 3 PAGES. MY IQ scrore has halved from reading this.
FYI, here's every single bit of real material in the book:
1. If you eat foods containing lots of salt, fat and sugar...more
FYI, here's every single bit of real material in the book:
1. If you eat foods containing lots of salt, fat and sugar...more
4 likes · like · see review
Jan 13, 2011
Audrey Ferrie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction-food-and-health
This is not a self-help book, nor is a diet book. I found the title misleading when I picked it up at the local branch of my library. Instead it is a book that about public health, the so-called obesity epidemic, and the science of human appetite. Written by a doctor who self-describes as fat, this title explores why a good majority of us can't stop eating fat, sugar, and salt. The premise, thoroughly explained scientific studies is that for some people it's not a matter of willpower, that these...more
(Audiobook version) Very helpful in:
-- reinforcing the negative effects of processed food
-- pointing out how artificial and salt-, sugar- and fat-laden such food is
-- rewiring the mental approach toward such food that's been created and designed to be as appealing as possible
-- inhibiting cravings
I certainly hope to pay many fewer visits to Panda Express and Burger King, both on the way to work, after having listened to this. Very easy to think of Chinese franchise food as healthy, and it's abo...more
-- reinforcing the negative effects of processed food
-- pointing out how artificial and salt-, sugar- and fat-laden such food is
-- rewiring the mental approach toward such food that's been created and designed to be as appealing as possible
-- inhibiting cravings
I certainly hope to pay many fewer visits to Panda Express and Burger King, both on the way to work, after having listened to this. Very easy to think of Chinese franchise food as healthy, and it's abo...more
A terrific work of popular science by the former head of the FDA. Dr. Kessler, an appetite researcher in his own right, explains how processed foods are literally rewiring the reward pathways in our brains to make us eat more and more without ever really feeling satisfied.
Our appetite control systems are adapted for a diet of unprocessed meats and plants. Now, most of the average American's calories come from highly refined or processed food products. Since we evolved under scarcity, our brains...more
Our appetite control systems are adapted for a diet of unprocessed meats and plants. Now, most of the average American's calories come from highly refined or processed food products. Since we evolved under scarcity, our brains...more
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from the library computer:
Summary: Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food--when a handful of chips leads to an empty bag. But it's harder to understand why we can't seem to stop eating, even when we know better. Dr. David Kessler, the dynamic former FDA commissioner who reinvented the food label and tackled the tobacco industry, now cracks the code of overeating by explaining how our bodies and minds are changed when we consume foods that contain sugar, fat, and salt....more
Summary: Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food--when a handful of chips leads to an empty bag. But it's harder to understand why we can't seem to stop eating, even when we know better. Dr. David Kessler, the dynamic former FDA commissioner who reinvented the food label and tackled the tobacco industry, now cracks the code of overeating by explaining how our bodies and minds are changed when we consume foods that contain sugar, fat, and salt....more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great video from author, David A. Kessler, M.D. | 1 | 26 | May 05, 2009 09:04am |
(David Kessler is also the name of another author, a hospice expert who worked with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, although David A. Kessler did co-author a book on elder care.)
David Aaron Kessler is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator (both academic and governmental). He was the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from November 8, 1990 to February 28, 1997, and...more
More about David A. Kessler...
David Aaron Kessler is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator (both academic and governmental). He was the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from November 8, 1990 to February 28, 1997, and...more
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Feb 10, 2013 03:31am