14 DAY TRIAL // We as a society have probably grown accustomed to looking at people who struggle with their weight and think, “They’ve brought it upon themselves,” because they did not exercise enough willpower. At the same time, we’re constantly being told that the obesity epidemics is about to reach a troubling threshold in the next few years, which might seem to reinforce the above-mentioned observation. In his new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite,” Dr. David A. Kessler argues humanity needs deconditioning from food in order to successfully battle obesity, as DesertNews can confirm.
The book, out now, argues that there is much more to our uncontrollable desire to eat than just the lack of motivation. What happens is that there is a very powerful combination of stimuli that makes us unable to resist certain foods, Kessler says. This, combined with the way food is regarded now (that is, not just as nutrition), contributes to weaken our will and add the pounds on our not-exercised-enough frames. Dealing with the obesity epidemics is one of the greatest health challenges ever, the doctor, who acted as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the ‘90s and also worked for 15 years on the tobacco health program, meant to raise awareness to the dangers of smoking, pinpoints.
It’s not just us who’re to blame for the expanding tummies, Kessler believes, because what goes in the food and the way it is marketed also hold their share of the blame, as they make us see it as more than nutrition. Once this point reached, it becomes harder and harder to resist temptation and, the doctor underlines in his book, there is no way to lose the pounds while also continuing to eat the same foods as before.
“The right combination of tastes triggers a greater number of neurons, getting them to fire more. The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to look for even more food. Many of us have a bliss point – the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt. As more is added, food becomes more pleasurable, till we reach that point, after which it becomes too sweet and the pleasure drops off.” Kessler says in the book. The food industry is well aware of this “bliss point,” therefore additives and extra everything are constantly added to food to make it “addictive.” At the same time, ingenious marketing attributes an emotional value to food, something that never happened, say, 50 years ago, when food was merely for the purpose of nutrition.
Because of this, the obesity epidemics is more than just more and more people getting fatter, because they can’t help themselves, and the sooner we see that the better, Kessler believes. “It’s time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese. The real problem is we’ve created a world where food is always available and that it is designed to make you want more of it. For millions of us, modern food is impossible to resist.” the doctor writes.