Note: This review contains quotes that might be considered spoilers for those who plan to read the book. -JED
I can add this volume to the many I've read about health, food, weight loss, and diet. I wish I could say that this book brought me to The End of Craving, but I've been craving a donut all day. I resisted, so far. I won't make light of the book, however, because it does tell us in an entertaining and science-based manner why the obesity epidemic is raging in America. I've been fighting with my weight for most of my adult life.
"The stories you see on TV of people “miraculously” losing ten pounds in a single week are true. Every diet works. I repeat: every diet works. Just not for long."
I found some really interesting information in this book that does give me some understanding about the role of chemicals and "enrichments" in our food supply in impacting our health overall. The studies of the brain and its responses to these chemicals were also very interesting.
This is not a diet book. Some reviews complained that Schatzker didn't outline a new way of eating for us based on all of his conclusions. I don't believe that was his aim. I think he was focused on the 'wisdom of eating well' aspect. And there is a lot of wisdom to consider in this book.
"Life with obesity is a kind of cruel prison. To eat is to experience raging bursts of desire followed by an underwhelming dribble of pleasure."
Toward the end of the book (Spoiler Alert!), he comes to the following conclusion:
"So here, then, is the theory spelled out: the obesity epidemic is being fueled by advancements in food technology that have disrupted the brain’s ability to sense nutrients, altered eating behavior, and given food an unnatural energetic potency. ... This is what set so many of us on a path to weight gain. We changed food and it changed us."
Yes, in the end, he lays the cravings we constantly battle to the additives, the sugar substitutes that the brain doesn't know how to process, and what we expect from all of it.
"Because every time we have embraced some simple fix—whether it’s a diet, the demonization of carbs or fat, or some idiotic form of coffee—it hasn’t worked. It’s easy to imagine a world where the food is pure and everyone is skinny and healthy again. But that’s a wish."
I would have given the book five instead of four stars, but some of the chapters were a little over-explanatory and I got lost in some of it. But overall, I did gain some knowledge. I, like many other people, have wondered what all of these chemicals we consume are doing to us. Well, this book explores that. And it's not happy news.
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From his author page: Mark Schatzker is an award-winning writer based in Toronto. He is a writer-in-residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center at Yale University, and a frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Condé Nast Traveler, and Bloomberg Pursuits. He is the author of The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor and Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef.
Sounds akin to some of my favorites on the topic, both by Michael Pollen. "Ominvores Dilemma" and "Food Rules " . Both were impactful to me but have since lost their punch in the demand for convenience and ease of eating.
I watched a Netflix show called the magic pill. It was about stopping the use of processed sugar. One of the people they were following had autism. He also didn’t talk. They took sugar out of the diet. One time someone left goldfish out and the kid went after them like an addict. In the end, the child ended up talking and they had broken the sugar addiction.
I think I’ll have to read the book.