I stop? It’s the struggle with eating as much as the
overeating that the book tries to explain. Why do we
do what we know we don’t want to do but end up
doing anyway?
I was watching Oprah one night, and there was a
well-spoken, well-educated woman on the show
who said, “I eat after my husband leaves for work in
the morning, I eat before he comes home at night, I
eat when I’m happy, I eat when I’m sad, I eat when
I’m hungry, and I eat when I’m not hungry—and I
don’t like myself.” Obviously, this woman wasn’t
eating for fuel or nutrition. The question was, What
was driving that woman to eat? And I could relate: I
have suits in every size.
So if adults are eating like this, I would assume
that children are, too.
Certainly when I grew up four or five decades ago,
we used to eat at mealtimes—-we didn’t snack, or
only occasionally. But the average child now eats
almost constantly throughout the day. Rarely does
that child get hungry. Some call this grazing.
What we’ve done in the United States is taken fat,
sugar, and salt and put them on every corner. We’ve
made food available 24/7, and we’ve made it socially
acceptable to eat anytime. We’ve made food into
entertainment. These cultural effects lead to constant
eating. The definition of overeating is eating more
