Each time you turn around your box of cereal to read the nutrition label, you have Dr. David Kessler to thank. When your orange juice carton says "fresh," you can trust that it wasn't made from concentrate, thanks to Dr. Kessler. And now, when you open a restaurant menu and see those endless pages of fat-, sugar- and salt-laden concoctions, you can also thank him. Kessler isn't responsible for the recipes at chain restaurants, and if he had his way, you'd know straight-away exactly what's in them. But thanks to his new book, "The End of Overeating," you know that restaurants are not fighting fairly when it comes to those over-the-top creations. And, after reading the book, you'll know how to fight back. As a doctor, researcher and former commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, Kessler knew there were certain foods are irresistible to different people. We can all think of a food that, as the Pringles jingle goes, "once you pop, you can't stop." For one of his patients, it's M&M's. This man is a journalist who has covered some of the most dangerous conflicts on Earth, and he breaks out into a sweat and falls to his knees at the site of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate candies. Kessler discovered that there is a biological reason that we're compelled to overeat cheese fries but not celery: Foods high in sugar, fat and salt alter our brains' chemistry. Restaurants and processed food companies know this, and they use the most advanced technology at their disposal to make food fattier, more sugary and saltier--and easier to eat, or "hyperpalatable" as Kessler calls it. A mere 15 percent of us are impervious to the slick marketing and souped-up food. The rest of us (70 million, said Kessler during our 45-minute in-depth phone interview), lose control in the face of highly palatable foods, are unable to resist certain foods, have a hard time stopping once we've started eating, and have a preoccupation with food. Kessler--who served as FDA chief under both President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton--is among that larger group, and though the book doesn't delve deeply into his personal journey, broke the cycle of uncontrollable eating. The journey ends with him learning to love Spinning, but it begins with an episode of "Oprah," and soon one of the nation's top health experts is diving in dumpsters behind chain eateries. According to the Washington Post: "The ingredient labels gave Kessler information the restaurant chain declined to provide when he asked for it. At the FDA, Kessler pushed through nutritional labels on foods sold through retail outlets but stopped short of requiring the same for restaurants. Yet if suppliers ship across state lines, as suppliers for Chili's do, the ingredients must be printed on the box. That is what led Kessler, one of the nation's leading public health figures, to hang around dumpsters across California." As I told Dr. Kessler during our interview, he and SparkPeople are on the same team. We're both trying to educate people about their health and empowering them to make smart choices. Listen to our audio interview: It is a little long, so let it play while you go about your business on SparkPeople and elsewhere on the Internet. There was just too much good info to cut it short! Coach Dean also read the book, and he plans to review it soon. What do you think about Dr. Kessler's findings? What are your own trigger foods? Will you try to avoid "hyper-palatable" foods now that you know the power they can have over you? Have you read "The End of Overeating"? Will you? |
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