Weight Loss without Worry

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David Kessler is the former head of the Food and Drug Administration.  When he was the acting commissioner of the FDA he took on the growing influence of the tobacco companies and now he is tackling the ever growing waist line of the average American.

I composed a post of Questions and Answers to give you some highlights from this fascinating book but for the whole deal I recommend you read the book from front to back.  You can find it in your local bookstore or here on Amazon.com

The End of Overeating

Q: What is this magic formula that the food companies have figured out makes us crave foods.

A: The magic combination of ingredients seems to be fat, sugar and salt.  This combo is what makes food “compelling” as Kessler was told by dozens of food executives that he interviewed.

Take potato skins, for example. Typically, the potato is hollowed out and the skin is fried which provides a large surface area for “fat pick-up.” Then on top we load a hearty serving of bacon bits, sour cream, and cheese. The result is an easily digested carb (the potato which the body sees at sugar) topped with fat on fat on fat, much of it loaded with salt.

Q: What does this combination do to your brain?

A: In a nut shell it stimulates the reward circuitry in the brain which leaves us with a pleasant feeling that we have a natural instinct to want to repeat. In other words, sugar, fat and salt make us want to eat more sugar, fat and salt.

Q:  Now that we know the highly addictive nature of this combination what do we do?

A1:  Changing your behavior means changing your emotional appraisal of food. You need to learn to view the foods that contain sugar, fat and salt in a negative light.  Don’t just eat the food, think about what it is doing to your body and what it is doing to your mind.

A2: You need to stop looking at overeating as a lack of willpower, but rather as a chemical reaction that can be avoided.

A3:  Kessler recommends eating structured meals, eating foods you enjoy (healthy ones), and creating a mental mindset that helps prepare you for the inevitable times you are in the presence of these foods.

Final Thought:

If you like the science behind behaviors you will get a lot out of this book. There is a biochemical reason for overeating certain foods yet this doesn’t mean we have to throw up our arms and surrender.  The book is not written in a way to get you mad and feel hopeless, the opposite is true, the book will leave you feeling like you have gotten the upperhand on food manufacturers.

Ultimately a good eating program that naturally avoids these foods combined with a healthy exercise routine and constant work on building a mindset for success will get you to your goal.