Summary: Dr. David Kessler shares some interesting results of his research into how we seem to eat more and more and what we can do to take charge of our health.<br> <br> Host: Gloria Tsang, RD<br> Guest: David A. Kessler, MD<br> <br> If you are like most people, the month of January finds you dreading the tighter fitting clothes and regretting all the excess calories you ate during the holidays. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler is here today to share some interesting results of his research into how we seem to eat more and more and what we can do to take charge of our health.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Transcript:<br> Gloria Tsang, RD: If you are like most people, the month of January finds you dreading the tighter fitting clothes and regretting all the excess calories you ate during the holidays. Welcome to the Nutrition Tidbits Podcast. This is Gloria Tsang, Editor-in-Chief for HealthCastle.com. Joining me today is Dr. David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner and author of the book The End of Overeating. He is here today to share some interesting results of his research into how we seem to eat more and more and what we can do to take charge of our health. Thank you for joining me Dr. Kessler.<br> <br> David A. Kessler, MD: It's a pleasure.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: In your book you mentioned about the food industry's three points of the compass. Can you tell us more about that?<br> <br> David A. Kessler, MD: The three points of the compass are sugar, fat and salt. Especially when you put them in combination like fat & sugar, fat & salt, and fat, sugar & salt, stimulate us to eat more and more.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Now you outline some dramatic examples on how highly-processed our restaurant foods are. Are the three points of the compass related to the refined foods that you were talking about that melts in our mouth?<br> <br> David A. Kessler, MD: Both go in to stimulating us to eat more and more. I thought when I was eating, I was eating to fill myself up, I was easting for nutrition, I was eating for satisfaction. I didn't even realize that most of the time, when I'm eating what I am doing is just stimulating myself to eat more and more. We know that when you put sugar, fat and salt together in those combinations that we are actually stimulating the brain. We are activating certain parts of the brain, the reward circuits, to get us to come back for more and more. And when you layer and load that sugar, fat and salt into processed food, what you are doing in processed food is taking out, in the processing, anything that slows down the eating so the food goes down in a whoosh. In essence, we are eating adult baby food. Again, that is stimulating us to eat more and more. We are eating for reward; we are not eating for eating for nutrition.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Based on your experience and research, what's the main difference between our so-called American cuisine and other culture's traditional cuisine?<br> <br> David A. Kessler, MD: American cuisine is highly-processed foods, which is both layered and loaded with fat, sugar and salt. And take any appetizer from a modern American restaurant. Take Buffalo wings for example, what are they? Take the fatty part of the chicken, fry it in the manufacturing plant first, it loads about 30-40% fat in. Fry it again in the restaurant or kitchen that loads another 30% fat in the food. The red sauce; fat and sugar. The white creamy sauce; fat sugar and salt. What are we eating? We are eating fat on fat on fat on sugar on fat on salt.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: I find most shocking when I drive by some of the fast food chains is that I see boneless chicken wings and I couldn't get my head around it. Chicken wings actually have bones and skin so what exactly are we eating? That refers to your point of fat, sugar and salt. So what about other traditional cuisine like French?<br> <br> David A.
