Is The Food Industry Manipulating Your Chemistry? An Interview With Dr. David Kessler

by Janice Taylor

 

If cake is your BFF (best friend forever), if the call of Cheeto sends you into an orange-stained spin, if you start to drool at the mere mention of Cinnabon, and/or if you are mad at yourself for giving in and diving into a vat of chocolate, then pull up a chair and start clicking for an interview that just may change your relationship to food and, in turn, your life.

Read as Janice Taylor, weight loss coach, hypnotherapist, and author of All Is Forgiven, Move On interviews Dr. David Kessler, author of, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.

Dr. Kessler was Commissioner of the FDA from 1990-1997 (under two administrations--one red, and one blue), and during that time he was responsible for putting a squeeze on the tobacco industry and reinventing the food label. Janice found him to be an authentic, caring human being who has battled the bulge himself and is a model teacher for how you can take control of your overeating.

Cracking the Overeating Code

JT: Dr. Kessler, you invested seven years of your life meeting with top scientists, physicians and food industry insiders, exploring and investigating just how we (Americans) have lost control of our eating habits. This research must be very important to you.

DK: Yes, very important on a number of levels. While watching Oprah, I heard a woman speak about her inability to control her eating, and the pain and frustration that accompanied her lack of control. I wondered, "What is going on? What's driving this?"

And I related to her story. There's almost nothing in my life that I do on impulse. But foods and the cues that surround them have the power to make me act against my own will. I wanted to understand how this works. I wanted to crack the code.

JT: You found that the food industry plays a rather prominent part in the fattening of America. Please explain.

DK: The food industry is a for-profit business. Their business model is to pull out all the bells and whistles, load the food with multiple layers of salt, fat and sugar, thus creating what I call "carnival food." This carnival atmosphere keeps us wanting and coming back for more.

The food industry's first priority is to make their foods as highly 'palatable' and appealing as possible. They discovered that certain foods can and do keep us eating and eating, with no end in sight.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-taylor/is-the-food-industry-mani_b_226463.html