Blog Three: The End Of Overeating

"The End Of Overeating" by David A. Kessler is a book based solely on how America's diet consumes us not only on an emotional level but a mental one as well. Kessler explains the reasons why so many Americans are morbidly obese; and how it's not just due to lack of will-power/laziness - but actually much attributed to what exactly is in our food that propels us to binge. During one particular passage, Kessler describes the reward system as something that is "essential to survival, encouraging us to seek out pleasurable things like sex and food. Powerful biological forces are at play that make us want something enough to pursue it and then make us feel momentarily better once we obtain it." (Kessler, chapter two, page ten) Basically, the reward system is a region of our brain that seeks out the satisfying things (food). Once our reward systems are gratified, our brains become stimulated and crave more food, even if they are not hungry. An experiment was studied on animals to prove the power of the reward system. Food was placed on the far end of the room over an electrified floor. The strength of the reward system shows to be extremely strong when the animals still continue to try and reach the food even though they're not physically hungry. The overall discovery of this passage is that temptation for food (primarily junk food and sweets) is not just built upon actual hunger, but lies within our mind as well.