Can You Eat Just One Chip or One Cookie??

Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food - when one cookie turns into ten or a handful of chips leads to an empty bag.  It's hard to understand why we can't seem to stop eating - even when we know better. When we want so badly to say "no," why do we continue to reach for food?

We wonder why we have no willpower and blame ourselves for having no self control and being undisciplined.  The End of Overeating by David Kessler (former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration who also served as the Dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California) explains why.

Before you think to yourself that this is another way for people to avoid personal responsibility, let me tell you that this book is well documented and explains how certain foods actually override our conscious will and drive us to continue to consume them. This is a biological phenomenon that mimics alcohol or tobacco addiction. Most people are addicted to sugar, fat, and salt or any combination of two. 

It also explains why, even after months and years later we can have food relapses. Careful monitoring of the consumption of sugar/fat/salty foods is a life-long commitment.  It's no wonder that there aren't people complaining that they are compulsively eating string beans.

When I gave up sugar two years ago another (junk) food took its place - chips. You don't think of them as having sugar, but the simple sugars in the potato covered with fat and topped with salt are a deadly chemical combination that triggers an insatiable desire to consume all of the potato chips. The same thing happens with tortilla chips or bread. You can't even tell when you are satiated, because the combination of the fat, sugar, and salt overrides the ability for the body to create satiety signals to get you to stop eating. Soooo true - for me anyway, after eating chip I don't have a feeling of fullness or being satiated that I do when I have my shake.

This book opened my eyes to the powerful effect certain foods can have on my brain and that I need to be forever mindful when consuming them. What I have now that I didn't have then was a complete source of nutrition that satisfies my body and gives my willpower a fighting chance.