The End Of Overeating by Dr Kessler

 The End Of Overeating By Davis Kessler

I thought that today I would write about a book that changed my eating habits. It is one of my  favorite books when it comes to nutrition. I picked it up at the library. I opened it thinking it was a diet book. I was very wrong.

The End of Overeating has more to do with how our food is processed and how the processing effects our bodies. Knowing how certain food can effect your desire to eat too much is very powerful to learn how to stop overeating.

Dr Davis Kessler is Harvard-trained doctor, lawyer, medical school dean and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. That is a lot of credentials. Even armed with all that knowledge, he was overweight man and a yo-yo dieter since college.

Kessler was on a mission to find out why he just couldn't resist certain foods. He enlisted labs and scientists from around the world. He read every medical paper regarding food consumption. He even went dumpster diving in the middle of the night as some of our favorite chain restaurants, like Chili's and Appleby's. His booked is littered with footnotes pointing back to some study or experiment.

What Kessler found was that the body craves fat, sugar, and salt. When these three things combine in certain proportions, the body wants to have more than it needs. The food labels at these chain restaurants revealed a lot more than they want you to know. Some appetizers have 8 or 9 different types of salt listed on the label as well as different fats and sugars. An average appetizer in a chain restaurant is 900 calories and that is before you get you meal.


Foods that are highly processed, like that grilled chicken breast you always order because you are looking out for you weight, may not be the best choice on the menu. These pieces of meat are marinated in sugar, salt and fat and then tenderized to the point that you don't have to chew your food. The foods have become hyper-palatable, according to Dr Kessler. He says, “A hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily”. It also make you want more to eat than you should.

This book has no diet plan. It is just full of knowledge to helps you understand what goes on in your body and your brain when eating certain foods and why they make you want to overeat when clearly you have had enough. It is a must read!

Challenge #3: Move Frequently at a Slow Pace

Walk, hike, swim, or cycle. Today is raining. I really wanted to cycle, but I am going to hike instead.

Why hike in the rain? Well for one thing, the forest is a different place in the rain. If you like nature, you must hike in the rain. Animals, like frogs, salamanders, and turtles, often explore the ground during the cool rainy days of early fall.

If you like to take pictures, the light is diffused so there are no harsh shadows, no glare. Waterfall pictures are the most beautiful on a cloudy day and a slow shutter speed.

One more thing about a rainy day hike. No one else is there. You really get to be one with nature. No other hikers, unless they are die hard like me, to be on the trails, even the popular ones.

Ready to Get Back to it - Primal

I have been absent these past few days but I had a good reason. My husband was deployed to the Middle East yesterday. It has been a rough weekend to say the least. Saturday we had the departure ceremony. Sunday was football with friends and Monday was the extremely long, but not long enough, drive to drop off my husband so he can go to his mobilization site. Just picture me with a sad face.

Didn't mean that I wasn't trying to be primal. I did try, but with being on the road so much the choices were limited. At the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, there literally was nothing primal in the place. We arrived at 12 , for my husband had formation. The ceremony was at 2. We had planned on us getting food before we got there as we had a car full of children. Traffic held us up and we got there just in time.

Once we were in we were stuck there. No running for a coffee. But I do have to say that they treated us very well while we were there. A local Baptist church was handing out baggies of homemade cookies and brownies. Another group was handing out water, juice and snacks. A booth was also set up from the USO and they had crayons and activities for the kids to do while they sat and waited.

The kids kind of pigged out. They were hungry and it was cookies. Normally I would have said something but seeing as to what they were there for, I figured it wouldn't really hurt them.

New Day

Today is a new day. I am starting off with some good quality coffee with cream, no sugar. I am also having some scrambled eggs. Then I am off to help at the local food pantry. I am bringing a big *** salad with me so I can eat while I am there.

Challenge #1 Eat lots of Plants and Animals

This is my favorite challenge. I LOVE to eat. I also really love to eat good foods, but sometimes I get stuck in the quick and easy, like open a box and pop into your mouth easy. Then I would get into the habit of eating that way. Not any more!!

I have cleaned the fridge and the pantry and now I need to refill it. I am headed to the store today after pinting off the shopping list.

Day 2 YUM

Day 2 started with an early morning doctor's appointment. I woke up early enough and had time for breakfast, but I wasn't hungry. Before I would have ate anyway. So many diet books and nutritionists claim you need to eat breakfast everyday. I have heard this for years and sometimes have eating weather or not I was hungry because it was part of the diet.

Primal Blueprint offers different advice. Intermittent fasting. Which basically means that sometimes you are hungry and you should eat. Sometimes your not and you shouldn't eat. It doesn't hurt your body or your metabolism by skipping a meal every now and again. Back in the hunter-gatherer age, people got hungry, sometimes not eating for days, because they hadn't found food. 

Chronic under eating is the thing that screws up your metabolism.I was on a diet once that advocated 5-6 meals a day. Each meal being about 300 to 400 calories a day, not to go over 1800 calories a day. I found I was still hungry after eating a 'meal'.  It wasn't the amount of calories over the day but the number at the meal for me that matters. I always found myself wandering back into the kitchen when I sill had 2 hours until I was supposed to eat again. That was another thing. I thought about the next meal, constantly. I lost some weight, but wasn't living my life.

Day 2 food:

• cheddar cheese
• coffee with cream
• tossed salad with avocado and full fat creamy cheese dressing
• orange
• banana
• Taco salad 

The Taco salad was awesome. I had some chirozo sausage from the local farmers market. It is a pork sausage with Mexican spice in it. I browned it up and chopped it up small. On a bed of Romain lettuce, I split the plate into quarters. On each quarter I places a handful of local grape tomatoes, a quarter of a sliced avocado, a large spoonful of chirozo, and some diced Cheddar. The flavors of the very fresh ingredients were great the way they were. No need to add dressing, but the husband did sprinkle some hot sauce on it.

Day 1 Primal Challenge

Today was the day! The start of my Primal Blueprint 30 day challenge. Starting out my weight is 181. I stand about 5'6", so that makes me FAT. Can't find my Tape measure but as soon as I do I will post my circumference.

This morning I was a little anxious. Not that giving up pasta and bread would be hard, but that giving up all grains would be. There are grains in everything as I look around. I looked the other day at a convenience store for a primal snack. Besides some beef jerky that was laden in chemicals, there was nothing remotely primal. Not a piece of fruit nor stick of cheese. I decided to hold off until I got home.

What can I snack on? Crackers!

I love cheese and crackers. They have to be my favorite and have been dreading the thought of not having any for a month. So I have been searching the web for different recipes and I am making my shopping list.

At the top of the list, because it is in almost all the recipes is almond flour. I have never used almond flour before. I am curious on the flavor, but worried about the price. After a quick Google of shopping prices shows that the average price is about $5 for 10 ounces. It will take more than half the package to make one batch and there are so many recipes to try.

So I decided to ask myself what exactly almond flour is anyway.. The answer is simple, ground up almonds. Ground skinless blanched almonds is called almond flour. Leave the skins on for almond meal. From everything I have read the two are interchangeable. You simply add the nuts to a food processor or blender and grind into meal. Just be careful not to go to far because you will have almond butter, which is really tasty, but will not make good crackers

Other seeds and nuts that are on my shopping list are, sunflower seeds, ground flax meal, and sesame seeds. I will need an assortment of herbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil.

Some recipes, like Grain Free Almond Crackers, from Caveman Food or Sunflower Seed Crackers from Mark's Daily Apple are simple. Others like Savory Herb Crackers from What I Crave or from Fit Rich Woman are a bit more complicated.

Now that the heat wave in the Northeast has broke, I can put the oven on and try them all!
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Gearing Up - Primal Blueprint Challenge Sept 7th

courtesy of imamon

Just got an email from over at Mark's Daily Apple about the upcoming challenge. The challenge starts Sept 7th and will end Oct 6th.  Don't want to wait to win a prize, well with Mark's sponsor, U.S. Wellness Meats, sign up for their newsletter and someone will win $100 gift certificate for Mark's Primal Products.

What should you have if you want to go primal with me?

Well you could get the 'The Book' and/or the cookbook, but Mark just came out with the Primal Leap Package. With it you get a guidebook, DVD, audio book, shopping guide, fitness book, one-on-one access to Mark, pod casts, and a daily email. You also choose to receive either The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Blueprint Cookbook or the Primal Essentials Kit with your Primal Leap package.