336 pages | 28th April, 2009 | Non-fiction | Health; Diets & Weight Loss
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The former commissioner of the FDA exposes how the food industry manufactured a nationwide health crisis and offers research-based solutions for taking back control of our diets.
Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food, but it’s harder to understand why we can’t seem to stop eating—even when we want to. So why do we continue to reach for food?
Dr. David A. Kessler, the dynamic and controversial former FDA commissioner known for his crusade against the tobacco industry, is taking on another business that’s making America sick: the food industry. Nearly 75 percent of American adults are clinically overweight or obese, triple the amount from only sixty years ago. But why? In The End of Overeating, Dr. Kessler shows us how our brain chemistry has been hijacked by the foods we most love to eat: those containing stimulating combinations of fat, sugar, and salt. Food manufacturers create products by manipulating these ingredients to stimulate our appetites, setting in motion a cycle of desire and consumption that ends with a nation of overeaters.
Drawing from the latest brain science as well as interviews with top physicians and food industry insiders, The End of Overeating exposes the food industry’s aggressive marketing tactics and reveals shocking facts about how we lost control over food—and what we can do to get it back.
"Fascinating . . . an exploration of us . . . we begin to think differently about food and take back control of our eating habits."
The New York Times
"Groundbreaking."
USA Today
"Disturbing, thought-provoking, and important."
Anthony Bourdain
"A wide-ranging look at eating habits [that] addresses America’s ever-increasing waistlines."
The Wall Street Journal
"Kessler was on a mission to understand a problem that has vexed him since childhood: why he can’t resist certain foods. His resulting theory . . . is startling."
The Washington Post
David A. Kessler, MD, served as chief science officer of the White House COVID-19 Response Team under President Joe Biden and previously served as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Overeating and Capture and two other books: Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs and A Question of Intent. Dr. Kessler is a pediatrician and has been the dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco. He is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Chicago Law School, and Harvard Medical School.
US: Rodale Books