Book Four, The End of Overeating

I'm really excited about this book.  First it is written by a doctor who struggles with his weight.  Love that.  Second, it really spoke to me!  For so many years I have been trying to make my food behave , not taking personal responsibility for my behaviors.  It did not even occur to me that I had a behavioral problem.

The End of Overeating, Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite,by Dr. David A. Kessler, is just what I needed to hear.  The first part of the book goes into quite a lot of detail about why we overeat.

What drives us?  Sugar, fat, and salt are powerful forces that reinforce our eating behaviors.  What is sad is that the food industry knows this fact and uses it to get our money! 

Part two of this book is devoted to the food industry, how serving sizes have more than doubled, how consumers are manipulated, and other interesting tidbits.

Part three talks about "conditioned hypereating"  and our need for more and more sugar, fat, and salty foods. The more we eat, the more our body craves.  We eat and are unaware of the amounts of food being consumed.  It takes more and more to be satisfied. (That was me, totally!) 

But there is hope! Parts 4, 5, and 6 speak to treatment.   "Learning to act in a new way requires either being drawn toward something you want or being pushed away from something that no longer seems desirable."  This quote is exactly where I am in my journey to health.  I am drawn to the desire to be healthy more than I am to chocolate, gooey cookies.  But how do I change my deeply ingrained conditioned hypereating?

"To alter our behavior, we need to change our emotional appraisal of salient food.  We begin that process by recognizing our capacity to assign food a value, either good or bad.  If we learn to view the pursuit of sugar, fat, and salt in a negative light, and to imbue with equal emotional significance behavior that encourages us to turn away from it, we can reverse a habit."

"It means to look at a stimulus in new ways.  Change the reward value of the stimulus."

"If we think it's an enemy, we'll turn from it with distaste!"

Now, I don't believe that food is my enemy, any longer, personally.  Tomorrow's book will go more into that issue.  I do believe, however, that there are better choices to be made when choosing between foods. 

"Managing our eating behavior depends on our ability to alter automatic responses to food cues and gain conscious control over them.  We do that most effectively by the engaging the higher functions of the brain regions to change our perceptions."

In other words, form strong,negative opinions about your trouble foods! 

"Learn to find reward in smaller amounts of foods I enjoy."

This is the best statement in the book...

"The loss of control that characterizes conditioned hypereating is magnified by diets that leave us feeling deprived.  We can't sustain a change in behavior if it leaves us hungry, unhappy, angry, or resentful!"  All of which I've been since working with my health coach.

Now again, I don't exactly agree that food is good or bad.  Some cause me more trouble than others.  Some I no longer care to eat because they are gross!  For example, once in my life, I loved Ding Dongs.  Today, I'd have a hard time eating one because it violates so many of my eating convictions.  It's processed.  It's full of corn syrup.  It's not real!!!  It might taste good, but it's not real food.  I'd be better off eating a chocolate cake with whipped cream that I made myself.  

Come to think of it, I have formed some pretty strong negative thoughts about junk food, which in turns help me to avoid eating it.  (This is good stuff!!! )

I do think this book is rather empowering.  It made me realize again that I do not have to be mindless in my eating.  It also alerted me to the addictive nature of foods that are sugary, fatty, salty.  Thankfully, I can't afford to go out to eat much anymore, so those foods are less tempting than they once were.  They did play a huge role in how I got to this size, though.

Hope you're enjoying these reviews as much as I have enjoyed reading these books.  Again, these are just the notes that I took when I borrowed them from the library.  Happy reading!