Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally

This is a great book for those who are interested in becoming vegan. Even if you aren't, it provides some really interesting information on why we crave the foods we do. For the person who said we crave meat and cheese because we need the "nutrients" in them, you obviously didn't read this book and you're still hypnotized by the propoganda from the meat and dairy industries. These foods are not necessities. The author clearly states that a supplement is only necessary if you feel you're not getting enough B12. If you don't have enough time to cook the recipes provided in the book then buy a good vegan cookbook or look on the internet. If you're serious about changing your life then you'll find a way to do it. I'm so tired of hearing the "I don't have time to do it" excuse. This is why North America became fat in the first place. Anyway, this is a great book and I recommend it 100%. GO VEGAN!

Breaking the Food Seduction:
The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings-and
Seven Steps to End Them Naturally

Whether you're drawn to chocolate, cookies, potato chips, cheese, or burgers and fries, we all have foods we can't seem to resist-foods that sabotage our best efforts to lose weight and improve our health.

These foods are winning the battle-but that's because we're fighting it in the wrong place. As physician and leading health researcher Dr. Neal Barnard explains in this groundbreaking book, banishing these cravings is not a question of willpower or psychology-it's a matter of biochemistry.

Based on the author's research and that of other leading investigators at major universities, Breaking the Food Seduction reveals the diet and litestyle changes that can break these stubborn craving cycles. Using everyday examples, questionnaires, and practical tips, the book delivers:

o Fascinating new insights into the chemical reasons behind your cravings
o Seven simple steps to break craving cycles and tame your appetite
o Important advice for kids' sugar cravings and how to halt them
o A three-week kickstart plan
o One hundred delicious, satisfying recipes that help your body break the spell of problem foods and put you on the path to weight loss, better health, and greater well-being.

This accessible and practical book is essential reading for anyone who wants to lose weight, lower cholesterol, feel more energetic, and get control of their health once and for all.

This reviewer would like to add a tidbit of health/diet-related
information which is not well-known, yet which is rather timely
---> Although sugar merely rots teeth and does not cause cancer
it is the bone ash IN sugar (left in sugar during the refining)
that is the #1 cause of the various kinds of cancer. Tobacco &
pollution take a back seat to the BONES in factory sugar as far
as cancers go. Without actually buying a bag of commercial food
(sic) sugar, look for the ingredient(s) statement. You probably
won't see a disclosure of the plant from which the refined food
is made (cane or beet). It's what they DON'T tell you that very
likely might do you in... Keep in mind that most brown sugar is
made from white sugar with some of the molasses added back. For
a bone-free sugar, look into jaggery (mentioned by Sai Baba) or
perhaps (whole-grain) rice syrup (Mizuamé or Amé in Japan). Sai
Baba says that you've got to decide whether your sweet tooth is
more important than your health (& consequently forego refined
white sugar). The bones do not add to taste appeal: they whiten
the finished product.

2 additional books to do with the enticing appeal of sugar are
038000903X (and various earlier editions) "Body Mind and Sugar"
0446343129 (paste this into the Search) "Sugar Blues" by Dufty.

In case you don't mind consuming honey (not a vegan foodstuff),
look for UNHEATED honey (right on the label). Raw does not mean
unheated. The beneficial living enzymes in natural honey don't
continue to be viable once the honey has been heated (cooked).

Were you to have a home-made (simple, uncomplicated) meal with
steamed vegetables (and no, not from the can) and zero sugar, I
venture to say that you'll get a mellower high in your brain, a
feel-good comfort-food after-effect that has no side effect of
crankiness or irritability (which it seems sugar does produce).
On a day off from work when you can afford to live dangerously,
have a bowl or plate of steamed vegetables (preferably without
tomatoes and eggplant; potatoes OK, with the skin left on) and
perhaps either whole-grain stone-ground bread* or plain noodles
(spaghetti w/o tomato sauce, linguini w/ garlic that YOU press)
and (only if you already have incorporated home sprouting into
your weekly routine) a handful of mustard or alfalfa sprouts.
Rather than guzzle water like there's no tomorrow, intersperse
single MOUTHFULs of water (distilled costs no more than spring)
whenever your stomach indicates that you're sending down overly
dry food. Finish your (day off) meal with a SINGLE nap; set the
alarm for the maximum that you can afford to be 'gone'. I'd say
to set the alarm for a full two hours AND WEAR (soft) EAR PLUGS
to further ensure an anxiety-free nap. Whether or not you sleep
the full time before the alarm goes off, get up THE FIRST TIME
that you wake up (even without the alarm). That's the time when
your brain will get the druggy effect from your earlier meal of
steamed vegetables. The insurance of having an alarm clock lets
you totally relax and really get into the nap, since the alarm
will rouse you in case you travel beyond this solar system). RH
* -the store-bought bread oftentimes sneaks in various sugars;
try to find an outlet for day-old organic bread withOUT sugars;
the retail cost of yuppie-quality organic bread means that you
are better off either slow-baking your own OR buying it 'stale'

Make no mistake, Dr. Barnard wants you to become a vegan. This powerful books explains the scientific evidence against eating animal proteins (including milk and dairy products) and gives a plan for eliminating these foods from your diet. The first half of the book discusses the evidence for addictions to chocolate, cheese, milk, meat, and fatty foods and explains why those foods are not good for you. The second part of the book discusses his "3-week plan" to revamp your diet, going into detail about how to overcome specific problems and listing a number of fun and interesting vegan recipes.
If you would like to break your addiction to chocolate, or cannot imagine life without cheese but feel you'd be healthier without it, this is a great book to get you started on the right path. It is very educational, even if you decide not to pursue a vegan lifestyle.

The nutritional diet in this book has really worked to curve my chocolate addiction without requiring significant will-power. I also feel much much better overall and it has ended my PMS and significantly reduced the pain of menstral cramps. I will continue to eat this way for the rest of my life...I'm sold because of the results. Oh, I lost fat weight as well.

As a true food addict, I never could eat "just one" of anything chocolate or most other sweets. Like an alcoholic's first drink that leads to a week long (or lifetime) binge, as far as one cookie was concerned, I could forget it. It was the whole bag or nausea, whichever came first. The only way I could tell when I was full was when I felt like throwing up.

Most diet advice treats these kind of cravings as mental. And while there is a certain mental element to all addictions, it wasn't until I read Dr. Bernard's book that I realized my cravings were caused by something physical. For food addicts, it is impossible to use will power to lose weight. Why don't sugar addicts just quit? (Interestingly, that is a question that most non-alcoholics don't understand about alcoholics either. Because they can quit at will, they don't understand why the alcoholic can't quit.) Most people think you are too self-indulgent and have no willpower. Especially the people who are naturally thin or who have never had the disease.

The taste of chocolate triggers the release of opiates in the brain which cause of rush of dopamine, the brain's principal feel-good chemical. Chocolate stimulates the same part of the brain that morphine acts on. For all intents and purposes, it is a drug, powerful enough to keep us coming back for more. The same thing may be true for sugar, meat and cheese.

If you are addicted to certain foods, like I was to chocolate and sweets, or if you are just addicted to food in general, Dr. Bernard's book sets the stage for overcoming your addictions. I was able to conquer the mood swings, as well as the psychology and physiology of food addiction. In less than a year, I dropped from 205 pounds to 150.

Whether you are an carnivore, omnivore, vegetarian or vegan, you must eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, especially green vegetables. I recommend Dr. Bernard's excellent book. It will put you on the road to success. And for additional help in conquering these addictions, try The pH Miracle by Dr. Robert Young.