One day not too long ago, I was listening to the audiobook version of David Kessler's The End of Overeating, and something in the book made me say to myself, "That's really interesting - I should blog about it."
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
If you're familiar with plf515's regular series Let's read a book together, you know that he summarizes one chapter of a book in his diary, and he and the others interested in the book comment on that chapter in the Comments. As I continued listening to my audiobook that day, it occurred to me that other people might find some of the same things in the book as interesting and worthy of comment as I did. I decided to grab the next Saturday morning WHEE diary and get started with the introduction to the book as an introduction to a possible new diary series.
Before I get down to the summary of the book's introduction, I thought I would include a couple of other items that might stir the WHEE pot - a little something to inspire discussion, especially for those who might not be interested in going through Kessler's book chapter by chapter.
What's so geeky about low-carb, anyway?
When I signed up for this diary a couple of days ago, I promised I would explain why I added the "Geek My Fitness" tag to my diary about low-carb dieting.
The reason is a flashback to the heyday of low-carb dieting in 2003 - an article from Salon magazine titled Hackers on Atkins. The article talks about tech luminaries like blogger Cory Doctorow, Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Doc Searls, and Mike Godwin - yes, THAT Mike Godwin. Given the oft-repeated assertion that Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, I find it amusing that Mike Godwin went on the low-carb diet.
What was the appeal of the low-carb diet to techies? According to the Salon story,
For some geeks, the low-carb diet is itself a clever hack, a sneaky algorithm for getting the body to do what you want it to do, a way of reprogramming yourself. Programmers, who are used to making their computers serve their will, are now finding that low-carb diets enable the same kind of control over their bodies.
I don't know how many of the techies listed in the Salon article kept up with the low-carb diet long-term. Doctorow for one posted in 2007 that
These days, I still eat low-carb (no starch, grain, or sugar), but try to get the bulk of my calories from fruits and vegetables...with lots of beans and tofu and a little fish now and then.
Are menu calorie counts really a good idea?
A few days ago, one DKos user (who shall remain nameless) posted a diary series about a proposed federal law (the MEAL Act, HR 2426, S. 1048) to require calorie counts on restaurant menus. By "diary series," I mean this user posted the SAME diary four days in a row. The first installment original post garnered 117 comments, but by the third repost, the comment total was down to 17 comments (not counting the diarist's Tip Jar, which was thoroughly Hidden).
In addition to the MEAL Act (which is currently in committee), menu calorie counts have been proposed as part of healthcare reform, according to a TIME Magazine article from June.
New York City implemented mandatory menu calorie labeling a year or so ago. When I heard about it, I thought it seemed like a Good Idea - or at least, I thought, It Couldn't Hurt. Since then, however, I've started to wonder.
Why? Well, another audiobook I've been listening to recently is Robert Cialdini's Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. In this latter book, Cialdini and his co-authors discuss the Contrast Principle - the idea that pushing an extreme position can help make less-extreme positions seem more reasonable. Long-time Kossacks may recognize this as "Moving the Overton Window."
Yes! talks about how Williams-Sonoma introduced a super-duper, very expensive breadmaker. This introduction was followed by a large number of sales -- of their previous top-of-the-line breadmaker, not the new one. The Contrast Principle theorizes that the premium price of the new premium breadmaker made the old one seem like a bargain.
In his ("as-told-to") book Dave's Way, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas talked about the Wendy's Triple - three quarter-pound patties stacked on a bun. He noted that not too many people ordered one, but they kept it on the menu for those who wanted something "a little more." I wonder, though, if the real function of the Triples and similar gut-busting menu items at other restaurants is an expression of the Contrast Principle, making menu items that are almost as bad seem healthy by comparison.
If that's the case, those menu calorie counts, by putting that information out where it's harder to ignore, might make customers choose LESS wisely: "Hey, I know the Double Bypass with onion rings probably isn't good for me - but hey, at least I'm not ordering the Triple Bypass. I mean, just look at that calorie count! That would be nuts!"
It seems to me that before we make these menu calorie counts the law of the land, it might be smart to do a bit more research on the effects of the law in New York City. According to the TIME Magazine article, people THINK they're choosing more wisely when they consider calorie counts - but are they really? A bit more study seems like it would be a Good Idea - or at least, It Can't Hurt.
The End of Overeating - Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, by David Kessler, MD.
Introduction: YOU Are the Target
I've learned to recognize overeating in restaurants all over America. It's not hard, because people who've been conditioned to overeat behave distinctively. They attack their food with a special kind of gusto. I've seen them lift their forks, readying their next bite, before they've swallowed the previous one.
Kessler introduces the theme of the book in the first sentences of the introduction:
...certain foods seem to exert a "magical pull"...
He claims that these foods cause many of us to pit our impulses of "I WANT..." against "I shouldn't..."
He continues by describing a scene from the Oprah Winfrey show where, with the "help" of Dr. Phil, an audience member he calls "Sarah" confessed to feeling out-of-control around food. Kessler follows with a personal anecdote, where he attempted to resist the pull of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. A few paragraphs later, he introduces us to "Andrew", a journalist who finds a bag of M&Ms similarly irresistible:
I hadn't planned on tormenting Andrew when I put those M&Ms before him and asked how they made him feel. "They're incredibly distracting," he allowed...
[Andrew]...feels mystified by people who don't share his single-mindedness. "I can comprehend suicide terrorism more easily than I can comprehend somebody who just doesn't think about food," he said (without a trace of facetiousness).
Kessler goes on to introduce a four-word phrase that will re-appear throughout the book: sugar, fat, and salt. Says Kessler,
The food industry has been remarkably successful at designing foods to capture the attention of people like [Andrew]. Food manufacturers, food designers, and restaurant owners may not fully understand the science behind the appeal of their foods, but they know that sugar, fat, and salt sell.
Kessler next introduces us to "Samantha", a young law student whose relationship to food is much like Andrew's, despite the fact that unlike Andrew, Samantha is not overweight. Samantha says,
If food is put in front of me, I find it an eternal struggle not to eat...I rationalize what I eat in the weirdest ways. I have friends who feel the exact same way, and we marvel at people who are not like this. I don't understand how they do it.
Kessler next talks about "Claudia", a colleague who also confesses to an obsessive attitude toward food. He then winds up the Introduction by saying,
Millions of people are like Sarah, Andrew, Samantha, and Claudia. They don't have any of the eating disorders we've learned to recognize and treat. But food is NEVER far from their minds. And once they begin eating, they can't seem to stop. Long after they've ceased to feel hungry, they're still eating. No one has ever explained what's happening to them, and how they can control their eating. THAT is my goal in this book.
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