A few weeks ago Earl shared a Washington Post article on food-science findings from the former commissioner of the FDA, David Kessler, that we both found rather interesting.  A large chunk of my undergrad days in New Hampshire were spent waitressing at TGI Fridays, so I particularly riveted having always wondered about the calorie makeup of some of the dishes!

I’m going to quote a portion of the article below, but I advise you to pop over and read it in its entirety here:

Kessler was on a mission to understand a problem that has vexed him since childhood: why he can’t resist certain foods.

His resulting theory, described in his new book, “The End of Overeating,” is startling. Foods high in fat, salt and sugar alter the brain’s chemistry in ways that compel people to overeat. “Much of the scientific research around overeating has been physiology — what’s going on in our body,” he said. “The real question is what’s going on in our brain.”

The ingredient labels gave Kessler information the restaurant chain declined to provide when he asked for it. At the FDA, Kessler pushed through nutritional labels on foods sold through retail outlets but stopped short of requiring the same for restaurants. Yet if suppliers ship across state lines, as suppliers for Chili’s do, the ingredients must be printed on the box. That is what led Kessler, one of the nation’s leading public health figures, to hang around dumpsters across California.

The labels showed the foods were bathed in salt, fat and sugars, beyond what a diner might expect by reading the menu, Kessler said. The ingredient list for Southwestern Eggrolls mentioned salt eight different times; sugars showed up five times. The “egg rolls,” which are deep-fried in fat, contain chicken that has been chopped up like meatloaf to give it a “melt in the mouth” quality that also makes it faster to eat. By the time a diner has finished this appetizer, she has consumed 910 calories, 57 grams of fat and 1,960 milligrams of sodium.

Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination will stimulate that diner’s brain to crave more, Kessler said. For many, the come-on offered by Lay’s Potato Chips — “Betcha can’t eat just one” — is scientifically accurate. And the food industry manipulates this neurological response, designing foods to induce people to eat more than they should or even want, Kessler found.

So the exciting result of reading the article is we learned Kessler wrote a book, The End of Overeating, and is currently doing a speaking tour.  Tomorrow he’s speaking at the Commonwealth Club downtown, and Earl and I snagged tickets and are going to see him speak!  The Commonwealth Club is right around the corner from Earl’s office, so I’m picking him up for our lunch date and we’re walking over.

As an avid overeater (heh), I’m excited to hear Dr. Kessler present his findings and hopefully can garner some tools to reign in my often insatiable appetite from the book.  I’ll let you know how the lecture goes!