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Why Can't I Stop Eating?: Recognizing, Understanding, and Overcoming Food Addiction |  | Authors: Debbie Danowski, Pedro Lazaro
Publisher: Hazelden
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Seller: green_earth_books
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 41307
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1568383657
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8526
EAN: 9781568383651
ASIN: 1568383657
Publication Date: March 9, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Why can't I stop eating?" If, like millions of others, you often ask yourself this question, you may be addicted to food. The food you eat may be precisely what makes you crave more . . . and more. This straight-talking book puts the widespread problem of food addiction into clear perspective and points the way to a life free of the obsession with food. Debbie Danowski, whose food addiction nearly ruined her life, and Peter Lazaro combine forces to give readers a full understanding of this debilitating condition: its sources, patterns, consequences, and physiological underpinnings. Unlike fad diets and drugs with their side effects, hidden costs, and infamous failure rates, the program outlined in this book goes to the root cause of chronic overeating and puts the tools for a lifelong cure into the hands of anyone willing to accept responsibility for a healthy, happy future.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
Some good content, some nonsense July 14, 2009
An engineer (California)
Let me start with the punch line. This book has some very important information that may help obese individuals lose weight. The author's primary thesis is that in many cases, obesity is caused or perpetuated by certain foods, especially flour, sugar, coffee and fats, that trigger compulsive overeating and which overwhelm the natural mechanism of satiety. This concept has been separately made by Dr. David Kessler, Former FDA Commissioner, in the context of the food industry. He observes that it is an established fact that adding extra fats, sugar (refined carbohydrates) and salt to foods cause people (even rats) to overeat. He notes that this fact is exploited by the food industry to get people to over consume. So these two books complement each other.
Dr. Danowski postulates that serotonin is the neurochemical that mediates this response. It makes excellent sense.
Now the down side. Dr. Danowski is inconsistent. First she makes a compelling argument that obese individuals become fat or stay fat because they have or develop a craving for certain foods (the same theme as Dr. Kessler). But then she contradicts that point by delving into emotional overeating ("feelings"). She just got done making the point that it's physiological. So it makes no sense to talk about emotional eating as a causative factor.
Other studies have confirmed that obesity isn't caused by psychology (your personality) or even genetics (although they may create susceptibility). Sure, people who overeat (and whose serotonin level goes haywire) may have emotional responses to the problems they face. But the idea is that the cause is the physiological response to the classic American diet. The distress and emotional issues are consequences (symptoms). You don't treat the symptom and expect the disease to be cured.
Bottom line: if you want a book on the emotional triggers of overeating or on ways to change eating through behavior, you shouldn't be buying this book. This book is about the physiological triggers of overeating (or at least, that's what it should be about) and about controlling it through avoiding fats, sugars (including refined carbohydrates like flour) and salt.
Back to the addiction theme. The author gives a questionnaire that is intended to show the reader that he/she is a food addict. But it's a bit over the top. The way it's worded, every person alive, including the skinniest, would have to answer "yes" or "maybe" to enough questions to be labeled an addict using her scoring system. For example, everyone "obsesses" about food occasionally, especially if they are forcing themselves to walk around hungry. Everyone misreports what they've eaten. Fat people do so not out of addiction but because society is intolerant of obesity and blames it on character flaws. Why put yourself through a litany of criticism (that you already know) by letting people know how much you actually ate? All you get back is a guilt trip. I could go on for most of the 25 questions. They are all loaded. In any case, it's just unnecessary to go down this convoluted path as if you're ready to start a 12 step program. This is a book about good decisions avoiding foods that don't provide satiety, not about some psychological makeover.
I also thought she wasted time (two chapters) on diet pills. I hate the way short books with simple themes are padded to make them sell for more. How many diet books are there that could be effectively summarized in 10 pages, but 150 more pages of fluff are added? Really not necessary. This book isn't about the dangers of diet pills, it's about the dangers of certain foods.
Again, this is a very good book, but it would have been better if the author had cut the book into half, skipped the speculative theories (and irrelevant discussions) and gotten right to the point. Recommended reading (along with David Kessler's book).
 Not a diet book? June 2, 2009
Shelly E. Spencer (Charlotte, NC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a diet book if I've ever seen one! The first half of the book talks about the addictiveness of certain ingredients (basic, common ingredients I might add; not things that would be easy or even feasible for most to avoid). It tells you it's not your fault you are "addicted" to these substances. You are powerless over it much as an alcoholic is powerless over their relationship with alcohol. But then the book launches into its idea of a life "food plan", which turns out to be a highly restrictive and unrealistic D-I-E-T. I would also wager to say unsafe.
I came across this book after reading a few other non-diet books so I feel I was well armed against its logic. It claims that food is the problem. 'An alcoholic should never drink alcohol, so a food addict should never eat certain foods.' That is this book's line of thinking. So should a shop-o-holic then (an example mentioned in the book), never again buy another pair of shoes? Of course they should! They need to!
The solution in Why Can't I Stop Eating is flawed because food is not the problem. Are fatty, sugary, carb-loaded foods bad for you? Certainly; but they are not the reason a person may find themselves overeating them day after day. After some of my own reading, I firmly believe overeating is a combination of deprivation and underlying emotional issues. The emotional issues are the problem that needs to be addressed. The food addiction will remain as long as food is being used as an emotional crutch.
You can overeat healthy foods too, by the way. Bingeing uncontrollably on carrots and broccoli is bingeing all the same.
I urge anyone considering this book to look elsewhere. I am new to it, but I think a non-diet approach is the best way to deal with overeating. Two books I recommend: Overcoming Overeating by Jane R. Hirschmann and Normal Eating by Sheryl Canter. The former to introduce yourself to a REAL non-diet way of thinking. The latter to further assist you in actually achieving a way of life without obsessing over food.
It was clear to me in reading the examples in Why Can't I Stop Eating that all of the relapse cases were really prime examples of people who had failed yet another diet. They fail because their problem with food is not the problem -- they fail because they still don't know what the real problem is.
 Not the best for people in binge eating disorder recovery. May 21, 2009
Kitty (Buffalo, New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book a while ago after skimming through it in the store for a bit and thinking it looked fairly good. I've started recovery for binge eating disorder myself in the last few months and having books is a huge help for me. I didn't quite look into it enough, though, because when I got home and finally started reading a bit more into it there were a few red flags, one of them being her mentioning bringing the scale everywhere to measure her food. I've noticed a separate 'movement' within people who identify as binge eaters that is anti-wheat, sugar, etc of any kind, not being that these foods set me off, I honestly cannot say whether or not this is a real problem. Food Addicts Anon is a prime example of this movement.
My main problem with this book is that it's very misleading in seeming like it's good for any binge eater. If you are actually diagnosed or have recognized yourself to be a binge eater as identified under EDNOS of the DSM, this is NOT a good book. Obsessive food behaviours are part of the 'meal plan' in this book, and the entire point of recovery for diagnosed eating disorders is to learn to get /away/ from obsessive food behaviours. Anyone trying to deal with any eating disorder might be very much helped by any book by Geneen Roth.
 Are you addicted to food? January 17, 2009
Rebecca Johnson (Washington State)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Debbie Danowski struggled with a food addiction for years. She then discovered how to break free from her addiction by following a diet plan that worked for her. This book is as much a manual for food addicts as it is Debbie Danowski's story of success. The program in this book is a natural alternative to dangerous diets.
This book has interesting facts, like how caffeine is an appetite stimulant. Why then is this used in "diet" pills? Did you know one chocolate bar has as much sugar as a dozen apples? Information like this helps you to look at foods in new ways. There is a discussion about diet pills and their scary side effects. There is also a section on how to read food labels. Did you know you could be addicted to sugar and that sugar is in most prepackaged foods? Once you start reading labels you will be surprised.
For the first third of the book, Debbie Danowski spends a lot of time convincing you that you might be a food addict. Finally by chapter eleven there is information on how to develop a food plan. The diet requires you to measure and weigh your food. There is also a helpful "week's worth of menus" to get you started in a good direction. There are some recipes for eggplant casserole, Italian stew and chili.
The end of the book focuses on self-esteem, dealing with holiday feats, setting boundaries, saying no and finding a counselor if you have trouble sticking with the diet. A short section on the importance of exercise is also included.
This book will be helpful to anyone who binges, can't say no to a second helping and who is concerned about their weight.
~The Rebecca Review
It has changed by life for good... May 14, 2008
Rachel Hope (Portland, OR)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book at the perfect time in my life, and I am forever thankful for it. For whatever reasons, I experience a physiological response to certain foods that make me crave more and more. This book helped me to see that if I avoid putting certain foods in my body, I won't experience those cravings that drive me into shame, compulsion, and eventually weight gain. It's not a temporary weight loss trick, it's a life long change to stop eating certain foods in order to keep my sanity. I had already been exposed to Overeaters Anonymous a couple years ago, which definately helped me see that I wasn't alone, that I do have an addiction, and that letting God into that area of my life is absolutely necessary in order to overcome it. This book helped me make changes to be free from the cravings.
In regards to the strict food plans the book presents, I don't take the portions too seriously, but I can see they could be helpful for someone who is just starting the recovery process. I think the general principals are more important for me - cutting out the foods that cause you problems, period. Why would you recommend that an alcoholic only drink a little bit? The point is, for whatever reason, they are unable to so they need to avoid ever putting it in their body.
I definately recommend this book to anyone who is ready to make a lifelong change.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
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