In his article The End
of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler explores the mystery behind the
psychological and biological reasons behind our desire to overeat. He proposed
that foods unnaturally high in sugar, fat and salt can be very addictive to
humans. Dr. Kessler repeats an idea that when food with fat, sugar and salt is
given to us stimulate the reward centers in our brains. This will lead to an
addictive behavior towards those foods. According to the writer many other
reasons contribute to the addiction of food such as the visual cue. Giving the example
of M&M and how rewarding that could be if we eat it is suggesting that visual
cue can stimulate the urge we call wanting (32) and make us unable to resist. Also studies
show that rats will work almost as hard for hyper-palatable food high in fat
and sugar as they will for cocaine. I think food reward is a major factor in
obesity because it will always makes you want more and more even if you are
completely full. This is why people after eating dinner seek escape in something
sweet like candies and cakes or something salty like chips.
The systematic effort of the food industry to maximize those
ingredients into foods for increasing their sales is a fact. Everywhere you go
you will find food companies promoting their abundant in sugar, fat and salt food.
For example French fries (high amounts of salt and fat), dipped in ketchup
sauce (amounts of sugar) is a desirable food hardly to resist. Obesity occurred
because of this powerful force of wanting more and more. People in the food industry are taking benefit from that desire. The more you want the more you will buy and they know it. Through a process of balancing the right amounts of salt an sugar in food they succeed to maximize the desire. The taste must not be too salty neither too sweet. I believe by cutting
our portions and turn to food that are nutritious and not addictive will be the
best way of fighting obesity and many other diseases caused by fat, sugar and
salt.
Hello, your summary of "The End of Overeating" by Dr. David A. Kessler is very to the point and stripped from minor details. You used the source to support your claim of why people eat foods as a way to “reward” themselves. Using the source demonstrated the good use of the source to support your general claim. The comparison between sugar and drugs also gives a good understanding of how addictive sweets are to humans. This on the one hand is great because through this summary one gets the general idea of what the article is about. However, sometimes those minor or miscellaneous details can be useful to support and get a better understanding of this article. For example, if these foods are addictive due to the “unnaturally” high levels of salt, sugar and fat, is there a process in which these foods become unnaturally high in sugar, fat and salt? And are these foods intentionally done to harm the public? How is ultimately profiting from making people sick?
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