I have been reading this really great book called The End of Overeating, which is written by David Kessler. He is an MD who was the FDA Commissioner from 1990 to 1997. He was instrumental in regulating Nutrition Facts labels, and was active in attempting to regulate  cigarettes.

He has since written this book which delves into how food companies manipulate the salt, sugar, and fat in processed foods as a means of getting us to crave certain foods. He talks about how you can describe to the tiniest detail eating something that is your favorite food — how it smells, crunches, feels in your mouth, lasts in your mouth, etc.  And, it is the combination of fat, sugar, and salt which impact our desire for certain foods. These favorite foods become habit forming for us. They become habits by impacting our brain neurons, and actually alter our brain function.

Here is an example of a candy bar that someone might crave….

So back to what I decided to do to Shake It Up — I have been trying today to figure out what foods I eat that have added sugar or fat, and I realize that there is not really a lot that I crave. The only food that I really crave is salmon, and that seems too healthy to give up. 🙂

I am going to Shake It Up this week by trying to figure out if the processed items that I like contain added sugar or fat or salt as a way of making the food taste more enjoyable, thus increasing the amount I crave them. I will be closely reading ingredient labels this week with this in mind. So even though I did not really do much differently today, it was the start of what should be an interesting week.