Oct292009
Book Review: The End of Overeating
Filed under books,food by Kim at 4:27 pm on Oct 29 2009
Kim: It’s amazing how food science can design a bran muffin that has 24% of your daily fat intake.
Kim: I know Eric gets mad at people who blame the food industry, but
Kim: DAMN PEOPLE
Rob: *laughs*
Rob: It’s a business
Rob: and it does terrible things and wonderful things
Kim: Yeah, I’m not mad at the food industry, I’m mad at capitalism.
Kim: Sometimes the things that are good for us don’t taste as good.
Kim: Like socialism!
Kim: And dry bran muffins!
I was of course joking around (a little), but there is no question about David Kessler’s strong sense of purpose in his book The End of Overeating. He wants y0u 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 focuses on the way current U.S. culture is designed to make the average consumer eat more often, more volume & faster. On the outside, it is a really good idea – as someone who struggles with overeating there’s no question that many things in the book rang true. Unfortunately the rhetoric is tiring and repetitive. To borrow an idea from my friend Fred, it’s like having a pamphlet’s worth of helpful information and stretching it out into book form.
Popular science books are hard to review from an authoritative position when you’re not… well… a scientist so from here on out I’ll just review it as a layman. I felt this book had some good things to say about possible psychological triggers for overeating, and tools to use to overcome them. You may appreciate those tools… if you can make it through the first 4/5ths of the book which are generally discouraging. (Literally – the book is 250 pages, and only 45 are on the deconditioning.)
I mean, it is very hard to read (or in my case, listen to) someone describing for over 6 hours the ways in which food is designed to make you feel powerless to resist it. The words “hyper-palatable” and “satiety” were new to my vocabulary at the beginning of the book, and like torture by the end. Maybe he was trying to get you to associate torture with really tasty food. Actually that’s not too far off the mark, I think.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t entirely work that way. And I think many people who try to read this book are going to get turned off before they can get to the useful part. I know I had to really force myself to listen to the whole thing. If that’s happening, you’re not necessarily helping people, which is ostensibly the goal here. Not to mention, describing the horrific amount of fat in a food made me feel revulsion only about half the time – the other half I was thinking, “Turn this car around and get me to a Pizza Hut, stat!”. Come on, Dr. Kessler! Sprinkle some of the helpful info throughout to keep the reader engaged! A simple “if this is you, don’t worry, we’re getting to the part where you can cope” would suffice.
Ultimately, if Kessler wants us to create a cultural shift like the one we’ve seen for tobacco (the last answer he gives in that article), that’s a real uphill climb. It probably shows the bias in my vices to say that I think accepting that smoking tastes like crap is far easier than accepting that buttermilk biscuits taste like crap. Getting people to be snotty to each other about biscuits is more about recipe preference than moral superiority.
I wasn’t even going to write about this book, but this week I’ve been ill for days thanks to a lifetime’s poor nutrition habits. So when I sent Jack to the store to get me bran muffins, it was quite a treat to read the label and find that the %DV of fiber was far outclassed by the %DV of fat. These are tasty, saleable muffins. Sadly I am in need of the far more difficult to market, actually beneficial muffins.
If you really, really want to dig into cognitive ways to deal with an overeating problem you percieve that you have, then I can say that I would recommend reading this book. It will not be the most fun you ever had, but some things just take work. If you’re just reading because you want to learn more about food science, maybe find another book.
1 CSueon 29 Oct 2009 at 5:16 pm
I once had a cookbook that you would have found either very useful or very funny. The authors (parents of a brood) claimed that real salads are full of veggies and never have dressing, and their bran muffin recipe made me (1) fart endlessly, and (2) clog my toilet. (I think they RIPPED me inside!) This kind of put me off anything but white bread for a good long while. Luckily I recovered. :> But, yeah, of course the food industry is about getting people to eat more; that’s how they make their money. :/
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Kim Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Yeah. My nutrition teacher said that the main reasons Americans choose what they eat is taste and convenience. Well, I can compromise on taste somewhat, but convenience… you won’t find me making my own bran muffins, is what I’m saying. I like pre-prepared foods, but the folks who make them are trying to make money, so they want you to enjoy their food, so…
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2 Rachelon 29 Oct 2009 at 6:31 pm
I think I’ll stay away from this one, I get enough of the rhetoric from type 2 diabetes messages boards I frequent
Yep, I know. I don’t want to preach it.
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Kim Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
There might be some interesting facty bits in the book but it might not be worth the pain.
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3 Fredon 29 Oct 2009 at 10:10 pm
Did Eric say the pamphlet thing too? Because that’s exactly my problem — not with just this book (which I haven’t braved yet), but with a good 80% or more of all nonfiction books I’ve come across out there.
If you only have a pamphlet of actually useful information to say, do not kill trees to say it in book form, dammit. Blog, or hit us with the message in film, or whatever; it’s bad format dynamics.
Still, if this dude ever publishes a pamphlet about the same topic, I’m there.
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Kim Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
DOH! I misquoted! I was in a haze of pain and discomfort when I was reading those tweets. Corrected!
Actually I think some of the long form was good; I liked hearing about certain studies and some of the neurological stuff. But I felt the same way when I read Guns, Germs, and Steel; how many ways do you really need to say the same thing?
There must be something between “book” and “pamphlet” we can compromise on. Perhaps “shorter book”.
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4 Rob Donoghueon 30 Oct 2009 at 4:37 am
I am starting to use the term “Blook” for “book that would be better off as just a blog post.
Would talk more, but tiny person is stalking me.
-Rob D.
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Kim Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I think blog post would not necessarily be correct for this, since there obviously was plenty of research presented which needed to be presented – far more than anyone would have an attention span for in a single blog post. But the neologism is a good one.
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5 Heatheron 30 Oct 2009 at 6:43 am
I read this in book form and I actually really liked it – but I am a science geek and thought it was fascinating on how hyperpaletable foods act like opium on your brain.
What really annoyed me was the fact that he made multiple references to AA, NA, etc and never mentioned the fact that there’s a 12 step program for over eaters, too. I would have thought that would have been an obvious give there.
I’m guessing reading the book is definitely a different experience from the audio.
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Kim Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I enjoy science books, and reading them, and I was fascinated by the same parts! But other times I just felt like the descriptive passages were just beating me relentlessly over the head.
I wonder if he had a problem with OA. And if he did, shouldn’t he have mentioned that?
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6 Jackon 30 Oct 2009 at 10:05 am
It’s actually 42% of daily fats per muffin, or 14% per serving size of “1/3 muffin.” It was 24% of the daily fiber, or 8% per 1/3 muffin serving.
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Kim Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Yes, I remembered it wrong when I was talking to Rob yesterday. I am not sure what the point would be in correcting it now.
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7 Dadon 31 Oct 2009 at 10:09 am
Those who think that overeating is a peculiar American problem have never cruised the pastry shops of France, Germany and Spain. They use the real stuff there like lard in the pastry and butter on everything. Overeating is more of a self disipline problem than an evil bakery problem. Personal responsibility seems to be lost in our culture.
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Kim Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:34 am
The presence of food made with lard is different than a cultural trend towards overeating! I think he talks a little bit in the book about why it hasn’t yet gained prominence in other countries, and some ways it’s starting to because of processed foods.
And the book is very much about taking responsibility, not in a shaming way, but in a way that gives you the tools you need to do it, instead of just saying “do it” with no guidance.
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8 brynon 31 Oct 2009 at 11:33 am
I am a counselor, I specialize in eating disorders and have for the past 10 years- and I can say with authority that in many cases overeating is not an issue of self discipline, or lack of personal responsibility- but something that stems from much deeper and much more complicated issues. and self blame, or blaming (or shaming) others about their struggles just perpetuates the problem.
Overeating can become a coping mechanism, a way of self medicating, and can evolve into a very serious problem.
Food can become an addiction.
High fat foods and simple carbohydrate foods actually increase serotonin levels- however its a short lived high and then there is the crash and then people go back to the food to get the high… round and round.
but you are right- knowing this and feeling powerful enough to get out of the cycle are 2 different things…
I personally think that OA is a GREAT program, it’s a space to talk about problems and emotions and to learn different coping skills. The OA book is a really helpful one too, for people who struggle. and I think that reading “recovery” focused material is more inspiring than reading about the mechanics of food…
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Kim Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 am
Thank you Bryn. Much of what you said here is in the book. I am 100% with you about blaming and shaming!! My dad has a particular point of view that is, I think, a little traditional. :-/
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9 Jenon 03 Nov 2009 at 6:45 pm
Bryn… I am an addiction counselor (predominantly substance abuse though I am branching out into other addictions). I couldn’t agree more. We discussed this idea in group today- funny to hear addicts describe their eating and thinking around eating since they have stopped using, only to realize halfway through that they sound like they are saying the same things, with the same defenses, and the same shame, that they do about other areas of their lives. None of them have an eating disorder but they clearly exhibit similar behaviors and emotions when eating as when using. I have not read the book, but I feel like anything that can help at least one person to increase their awareness is a good thing. And I will be looking for this on tape at the library as I drive home for Thanksgiving!
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Kim Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I got the book through my subscription to audible.com so if you go through a lot of audiobooks, that’s a reasonable way to do it – if like me you have already plundered the local library’s stash. Well, their stash of things I might actually be interested in on audio.
If you listen to it definitely let me know what you think!
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