Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings--And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally
by: Neal D. Barnard
Topics include: dry wire whisk, tablespoon organic canola, pound firm regular tofu, cup nutritional yeast flakes, fortified vanilla soy, fortified plain, teaspoon crushed garlic, cup brown rice syrup, line with parchment paper, firm silken tofu, tablespoons sesame tahini, cup pure maple syrup, steady blood sugar, drained cooked, ounces tempeh, hot add onion, cheese consumption, healthy fiber, your ideal body weight, brown rice vinegar, white table sugar, opiate effects, sugars into the bloodstream, carob powder, carob chips
Amazon.com
Why is it so hard to resist the temptation of chocolate? Because chocolate triggers the release of natural opiates in the brain. It's a drug "strong enough to keep us coming back for more," according to nutritional researcher Neal Barnard, M.D., president and founder of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine. Cheese also releases mild opiates during digestion--no wonder we crave it. In Breaking the Food Seduction, Barnard helps you understand and overcome your food cravings. He explains which foods "hook" us the most and why, and what to do to break free when you want to decrease the calories and fat that accompany these seductive foods. Cheese, for example, is about 70 percent saturated fat and has more cholesterol, ounce for ounce, than a steak.
Barnard offers seven steps to breaking your food cravings, devoting a chapter to each one, with anecdotes and plenty of clear, sound, practical tips. Then he presents guidelines for healthy eating using "the New Four Food Groups"--vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains--with a three-week menu plan and 113 healthful, vegan recipes. Highly recommended for people who want to understand their food cravings and finally get rid of them. --Joan Price
Andrew Weil, M.D.
"Dr. Neal Barnard is one of the most responsible and authoritative voices in American medicine today." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
"Dr. Neal Barnard is one of the most responsible and authoritative voices in American medicine today."
- Andrew Weil, M.D.
"Dr. Neal Barnard is a brilliant visionary, one of the leading pioneers in educating the public about the healing power of diet and nutrition."
- Dean Ornish, M.D., author of Eat More, Weigh Less
"Here at last is the book that shows why certain foods can be so addictive and exactly what to do about it."
- John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Director of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Cooper Clinic
"...must reading for anyone who eats - and wants to enjoy good health."
- Has A. Diehl, Dr.HSc., Director of the Coronary Health Improvement Project and Chairman of the Board of The Lifestyle Medicine Institure
"This book squarely addresses some of the most critical nutritional problems we face - not only what we should be eating, but also how we can free ourselves from the habits that have kept too many of us from enjoying better health."
- Henry Heimlich, M.D., The Heimlich Institute at Deaconess Hospital
John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Director of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Cooper Clinic
"Here at last is the book that shows why certain foods can be so addictive and exactly what to_do about_it." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Has A. Diehl, Dr.HSc., Director of the Coronary Health Improvement Project and Chairman of the Board of The Lifestyle Medicine Institute
"...must reading for anyone who eats - and wants to enjoy good health."
Henry Heimlich, M.D., The Heimlich Institute at Deaconess Hospital
"This book squarely addresses some of the most critical nutritional problems we face..."
About the Author
Dr. Neal Barnard is the president and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. His research has been published in Scientific American, the American Journal of Cardiology, and other major journals. Dr. Barnard is the author of six previous books, including Foods That Fight Pain and Food for Life. A frequent lecturer appearing across the country and an adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine, he lives in Washington, D.C.
Reviews:
Dr. Barnard appears in the documentary Super Size Me touting a couple of the ideas in this very book, namely concerning casomorphins in cheese and the supposed opiate effect of chocolate. I scarcely have enough time to write how awful this book is or how much he misrepresents legitimate research. First of all, an introduction: Neal Barnard heads the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. What is this group? Mostly, a group of people who are not physicians, but who ARE vegans. Membership requires nothing but $20- no degree, no research experience, nothing. A strange policy for an organization calling itself a "Physicians Committee." This is a political interest group so incompetent that it can't even do its own research. Do a search on PsychINFO or Medline for anything Barnard has published in scholarly literature, and you will find precious little there. That's because he's too busy writing books like these for people who don't necessarily have the academic background to know full of it he is. Take for example the chapter on chocolate in this book. Barnard asserts that chocolate is addictive, that it has a drug effect on the brain. He even notes one study where naloxone (a drug that blocks the effect of opiates like heroin), also blocked the desire for chocolate. Wow that's pretty interesting stuff! Barnard didn't mention a few things about this study though. First of all, there was more than one group tested. There were normal subjects, and then there were obese bulimics, people who were quite mentally ill. Barnard doesn't mention that naloxone ONLY HAD AN EFFECT ON THE BULIMICS. Hey, that might be inconvenient for making his point, so you can see why it's okay for him to mislead you. This indicates that the blocking effect had nothing to do with chocolate, but it DID have to do with mental illness. Moreover, they didn't even test chocolate! They used several popular snack foods that CONTAINED chocolate. That didn't keep Barnard from zooming in on one single ingredient though, and not mentioning that the people in this study consumed several other things as well. Another problem with the chocolate chapter is that he cites a study to support his point that no component of chocolate quells cravings quite the way chocolate itself can. He is referring to a study in which people who crave chocolate ingested either chocolate, a pill containing the pharmacological equivalent of chocolate, or both. It turns out that ingesting the pill won't satisfy a chocolate craving, you actually have to eat the stuff. Not to be deterred, even though this study is actually working AGAINST his point, Barnard compares chocolate to nicotine, and writes that smokers are usually not satisfied with just the patch, they need to actually smoke (he doesn't cite any study in support of this assertion). Well, actually nicotine patches DO reduce cravings for cigarettes, as anyone who does a cursory search of the literature could easily find out. More than that, what exactly is Barnard concluding here? That the taste of chocolate has a drug effect through our tongues, but ingesting it has no effect? Can anyone really read such garbage without laughing? I could go on, but you can get this book from your library and see the rest of it for yourself. When in doubt, look up the references he uses to support his points. Pretty often, you'll find that the articles he refers to really don't say what he makes them out to say. I thought Super Size Me was a really good film that pointed out what a vested interest many companies have in keeping us unhealthy. Unfortunately, Dr. Barnard has his own vested interests, and they don't include science or truth.
Interesting but sometimes obvious
I so wanted to give this book 5 stars. I respect Dr. Barnard and agree with most of his philosophies regarding animals, diet, food, and veganism. I read these (and many other) reviews prior to reading this book, and I so hoped it would be amazing and life-changing for me.
The first several sections of the book explain how meat, cheese, and chocolate have certain effects on our brain, and why we crave them. I found this part of the book the most interesting.
The latter part of the book gives hints and tips on how to overcome these cravings. This part of the book was dissapointing to me. Most of the tips boiled down to two things: avoid meat and dairy products, and exercise.
Actually, I am an "almost-vegan" (I eat no meat and very little dairy) and maybe that's why I wasn't so impressed with the suggestions - I was already following them for the most part. Someone who eats a very meat and dairy filled diet would probably find the suggestions much more helpful than I did.
To anyone who eats meat and dairy, this book is a great resource. It just wasn't as helpful to me as I had hoped.