About the Author

David A. Kessler, MD, is is a pediatrician, attorney, and author who has served as Chief Science Officer of the White House Covid-19 Response Team since 2021. A former FDA commissioner who reinvented the food label and tackled the tobacco industry, he is the author of The End of Overeating and Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs: The Simple Truth About Food, Weight, and Disease, among others.

Reviews

"Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw," says Kessler, former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler (A Question of Intent) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating. Through the evidence of research, personal stories (including candid accounts of his own struggles) and examinations of specific foods produced by giant food corporations and restaurant chains, Kessler explains how the desire to eat-as distinct from eating itself-is stimulated in the brain by an almost infinite variety of diabolical combinations of salt, fat and sugar. Although not everyone succumbs, more people of all ages are being set up for a lifetime of food obsession due to the ever-present availability of foods laden with salt, fat and sugar. A gentle though urgent plea for reform, Kessler's book provides a simple "food rehab" program to fight back against the industry's relentless quest for profits while an entire country of people gain weight and get sick. According to Kessler, persistence is all that is needed to make the perceptual shifts and find new sources of rewards to regain control. (May) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

In this captivating book on why we overeat and what we can do about it, pediatrician and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Kessler (A Question of Intent) incorporates a healthy balance of scientific research and personal anecdotes. He addresses the allure and preponderance of foods rich in sugar, salt, and fat, examines the psychological and sensory forces driving excessive food consumption, and speaks to how we can change our view of and approach to food. Adroitly read by Blair Hardman, this accessible and excellent-quality production will appeal to those seeking materials about dieting, weight loss, metabolism, and lifestyle changes.-Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.