The age of fake food

In his bestseller The End Of Over-Eating: Taking Control Of The Insatiable American Appetite, author and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, David Kessler proposes that our western obesity crisis is due to the combination of fats, sugars and salt used by food manufactures to trigger a ‘bliss’ point in the human brain.

‘It’s time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese,’ says Kessler. ‘The real problem is we’ve created a world where food is always available and that it is designed to make you want more of it. For millions of us, modern food is impossible to resist.’

Now, my first instinct on reading this was, well that’s just another excuse for the greedy and weak-willed. If I can eat carefully and consciously for my health, then so can anyone. But I stopped myself before I got too far up on that old high horse of mine and thought of my own cravings for certain foods which I am not immune to and sometimes given in to myself. As Kessler also points out “few of us are immune to the dangers of over-eating. The ubiquitous presence of food, large portion sizes, incessant marketing and the cultural assumption that it’s acceptable to eat anywhere, at any time, have combined to put more people at risk.’

According to an article in today’s Daily Mail, to dismiss Kessler – who is professor of paediatrics, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California – as an apologist for fatties is to do him a grave disservice. For The End Of Over-Eating has been praised by figures as diverse as chef Anthony Bourdain, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and former U.S. surgeon general David Satcher. It is a serious, scientific look at the way in which food is manufactured and marketed.

Kessler says it all comes down to the bliss point. ‘The right combination of tastes triggers a greater number of neurons, getting them to fire more,’ he explains.

‘The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to look for even more food.

‘Many of us have a bliss point – the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt. As more is added, food becomes more pleasurable, till we reach that point, after which it becomes too sweet and the pleasure drops off.’

In other words, your occasional, inexplicable craving for that extra slice of chocolate cake or a midnight scoop of ice cream is not so inexplicable after all.

Certain foods trigger the bliss point more than others, among them Heinz tomato ketchup, Starbuck’s frappuccinos, Pringles crisps and pretty much anything from that old fast-food devil McDonald’s. As Kessler explains, the U.S. fast-food industry of today runs entirely on the ruthless pursuit of profit.

Kessler makes the point that where 30 years ago a triple chocolate muffin was made with real eggs, real chocolate and real butter, today it will be considerably bigger, leading the customer to believe they are getting more value for money. Yet, instead of butter, it will contain fat substitutes, powdered egg instead of whole eggs and inexpensive processed sweeteners, according to Kessler. It’s food as an illusion; a combination of chemicals designed to trigger the brain’s neurons and make customers crave more.

So what can be done?  I believe we can retrain our taste buds to expect less sugar and synthetic food. It requires more time and effort to cook from scratch using fresh ingredients. It is much easier to pick up that convenience food from the supermarket. But isn’t it worth that extra effort? Our health is priceless after all.

Kessler believes that ‘The goal is not to vilify all food and those who serve it, but to change thinking about big food – huge portions of layered, loaded food with little nutritional value.

‘You have to understand your own behaviour around food and pay attention to everything you eat. You need to bear in mind how the brain processes stimuli and how that drives your behaviour. And you need to always remember what the food industry is trying to sell you and why.’ With that understanding, Kessler argues, will come a new way of eating.

‘Understanding what triggers over-eating and planning accordingly gives you a much greater chance of taking control. You’ll still have to fight the conditioned responses that drive over-eating, but while the neural pathways that created the cue-urgereward-habit cycle can’t easily be wiped out, they can be managed.’

In other words, Kessler believes we should regard our food habits in the same way in which former smokers look at their former 40-a-day habit.

Just as a smoker has to condition themselves to stop thinking of ‘a quick cigarette’ as a reward for a job well done or having the odd drag in times of stress, so those who over-eat need to stop thinking of cupcakes and crisps as rewards or turning to food for comfort in a crisis.

The act of eating should not be an act of denial, but one of enjoyment – it’s just a matter of everything in moderation rather than the all-or-nothing attitude so common in today’s world.

But the primary lesson from Kessler’s book is that instead of simply blaming and shaming those who weigh more, we should reconsider our entire relationship with food and look at why some people are more likely to respond to the stimuli provided by salt, sugar and fat than others.

Until we stop celebrating this purge-andbinge culture, and pitting the super-skinny against the very fat, little will change.