The International House of Pancakes recently put a stuffed French toast combo on its menu. Cinnamon raisin French toast (made with eggs and milk) is stuffed with sweet cream cheese; smothered with powdered sugar, fruit topping, and whipped topping; and served with two eggs, hash brown potatoes, and a choice of two strips of bacon or two sausage links. Breaking it down, the French toast is a load of fat on fat on fat and sugar that's then layered with fat on sugar on sugar and served with fat, salt, and fat.
-The End of Overeating
Sounds really lovely when you put it like that, right? It does seem that it's much easier to make choices about food if one turns a blind eye to its origins, its processing, and its nutritional value (or lack thereof). As David A. Kessler notes in The End of Overeating, the foods that we generally consider the most palatable (that is to say, those that "stimulate the appetite and encourage us to eat more," per Kessler), are those with a happy mix of fat, salt and sugar - none of which we need too much of. One of the big problems that has mired our country in an ongoing weight loss struggle, of course, is that we are constantly given opportunity to eat mind-boggling portions of all of those things.
In his book, Kessler describes some of the elements that have led to the current obesity crisis. He is particularly interested in the idea of conditioned hypereating (just what it sounds like), and how people are cued to engage in it. Much of the book is spent on this (bring on the rat studies), in addition to a look at the workings of some restaurants and food corporations. He also presents a plan to end overeating.
In a way, I found this book to be common sense - for example, if you like the way something tastes, you eat more of it. If you walk by the restaurant that serves a favorite meal, you will be more inclined to crave that meal. Kessler offers behavioral reasoning for why we do these things, but it still can sound less than revolutionary (although he does overturn some widely held ideas, such as people having a set point for weight). He lays out all of the science in a very clear, easily understandable way.
I found the plan to end overeating itself to be the most interesting part of the book. His plan, which involves retraining your responses to stimuli, is a natural progression from his ideas on hypereating. It's definitely not a quick fix - Kessler describes the battle against conditioned hypereating as a lifelong one. His plan involves structure - the same structure people go for when they choose "shake for breakfast, shake for lunch." The difference is, a shake-based diet is not a sustainable long-term plan. Kessler's could be.
I'm not sure how what I've learned from this book will affect my eating - I imagine it will help to sustain the awareness I'm trying to maintain about what foods I buy, if nothing else. I am not a huge overeater myself, although I certainly have many, many food weaknesses* - plantain chips, baguettes, ice cream, etc. I was actually hoping that this book would have more personal anecdotes about how people respond to food and information about the evolution of eating in this country rather than the self-help information (although that ended up being interesting). I guess I will have to look for another book to get into those other things - perhaps one of Michael Pollan's books, which are still on my to-read list.
Up next: I'm about halfway through my first Inspector Morse book, The Way Through the Woods - the 10th book in Colin Dexter's series. Ideally I would have started at the beginning, but since the opportunity presented itself, I thought I'd give Morse a try.
*Not French toast, incidentally. I think that IHOP selection above sounds disgusting - to each his own.
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