The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well

by Mark Schatzker

Overview

The international bestseller from award-winning writer Mark Schatzker that reveals how our dysfunctional relationship with food began—and how science is leading us back to healthier living and eating.

For the last fifty years, we have been fighting a losing war on food. We have cut fat, reduced carbs, eliminated sugar, and attempted every conceivable diet only to find that eighty-eight million American adults are prediabetic, more than a hundred million have high blood pressure, and nearly half now qualify as obese. The harder we try to control what we eat, the unhealthier we become. Why?

Mark Schatzker has spent his career traveling the world in search of the answer. Now, in The End of Craving, he poses the profound question: What if the key to nutrition and good health lies not in resisting the primal urge to eat but in understanding its purpose?

Beginning in the mountains of Europe and the fields of the Old South, Schatzker embarks on a quest to uncover the lost art of eating and living well. Along the way, he visits brain scanning laboratories and hog farms, and encounters cultural oddities and scientific paradoxes—northern Italians eat what may be the world’s most delicious cuisine, yet are among the world’s thinnest people; laborers in southern India possess an inborn wisdom to eat their way from sickness to good health. Schatzker reveals how decades of advancements in food technology have turned the brain’s drive to eat against the body, placing us in an unrelenting state of craving. Only by restoring the relationship between nutrition and the pleasure of eating can we hope to lead longer and happier lives.

Combining cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom, The End of Craving is an urgent and radical investigation that “charts a roadmap not just for healthy eating, but for joyous eating, too” (Dan Barber, New York Times bestselling author of The Third Plate).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781638082392
Publisher:	Center Point
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	500
Sales rank:	988,186
Product dimensions:	5.59(w) x 8.58(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Mark Schatzker is an award-winning writer based in Toronto. He is a writer-in-residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center at Yale University, and a frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Condé Nast Traveler, and Bloomberg Pursuits. He is the author of The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor and Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Mystery 1

Part I One Disease, Two Cures

1 The New Road to Better Nutrition 15

2 The Old Italian Way 25

Part II You Are a Metabolic Genius (and You Love It)

3 You're Hot. Then You're Not 37

4 The Quest for Pleasure 55

5 Too Much of a Good Thing 69

Part III Nutritive Mismatch

6 How Sweet It Is 83

7 Not Losing Isn't Everything. It's the Only Thing 99

8 Creamfibre 7000 117

Part IV The Help That Hurts

9 Why Does Food Taste Good, Anyway? 133

10 You Are Eating Pig Feed 149

Part V The Brain-Changing Power of Good Food

11 The End of Craving 167

12 Can This Be Fixed? 181

13 A Visit to the Old Road 187

Acknowledgments 205

Bibliography 207

Notes 227

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

08/16/2021

Decades of fad diets have missed the fact that “additive by additive, food has become a strange imitation of itself,” according to this zippy and fascinating survey. Science journalist Schatzker (The Dorito Effect) argues that by attempting to alter foods for weight loss, food companies have instead created “the perfect conditions” for obesity. Schatzker begins with a comparison of how the governments in Italy and the U.S. reacted to the revelation that a disease, pellagra (which struck the Southern U.S. specifically), was caused by a vitamin deficiency. This discovery led to a 1941 federal government decree that flour be enriched with B vitamins, and thus began the downfall of the American diet. The 1950s saw a boom in modified starches and artificial fat replacers, and since then, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fats, and additional vitamin and mineral enrichments have “disrupted the brain’s ability to sense nutrients” and led to high rates of obesity. Meanwhile, Schatzker notes, the Italians set out a program of baking bread in communal ovens and encouraged the poor to raise rabbits for meat (the yeast in their unfiltered wine contained niacin, too, which didn’t hurt), and as a result, in northern Italy, where pellagra was endemic, there is an 8% obesity rate, compared to 47% in Mississippi. Schatzker supports his case with copious research from the fields of food science, psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. (The quirky anecdotes, such as those about Goethe’s travels in Italy, are a nice bonus.) This is a real eye-opener. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR THE END OF CRAVING:

“With The End of Craving Mr. Schatzker has advanced our understanding of why we have undergone such a rapid transition from fit to fat—and why more carrots are needed and less carrageenan.” —The Wall Street Journal

“[A] zippy and fascinating survey. . . .Schatzker supports his case with copious research from the fields of food science, psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. (The quirky anecdotes, such as those about Goethe’s travels in Italy, are a nice bonus.) This is a real eye-opener.” —Publisher's Weekly

“Mark Schatzker is a rigorous researcher and a masterful storyteller. Unsparing in his indictment of food scientists and the industry at large for peddling food addictions, he is also hopeful in his vision of a way out of our national eating disorder. At its heart, The End of Craving is a treatise on deliciousness—the pure, sensorial appreciation of good food; in writing it, Schatzker brilliantly charts a roadmap not just for healthy eating, but for joyous eating, too.” —Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and New York Times bestselling author of The Third Plate

“A narrative that seriously questions decades-long cherished and cultivated myths behind hedonic eating and diet. This is a meticulous, very well-researched, and thought-out book that is fun to read and important in rethinking lifestyle advices on eating (or aligning these with science-based facts).” —Marc Tittgemeyer, head of the Translational Neurocircuitry Group at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research

“A provocative, optimistic approach to solving our problem with eating too much. By sticking to cutting-edge science and avoiding the diet wars, Schatzker provides a badly needed alternative to unproductive debates over fat vs. carbs, articulating a new—and delicious!—vision of what it means to eat well.” —Dr. Alan Levinovitz, PhD, professor of religion at James Madison University and author of Natural and The Gluten Lie

“Engaging, lyrical and brilliantly written, Mark Schatzker takes us on a compassionate journey that explains obesity and our unhealthy relationship with food in a way that has not yet been done. Filled with fascinating scientific stories, surprising facts, and profound insights, The End of Craving reveals the true intuitive intelligence of our brain and body, and the power of real food.” —Rachel Herz, author of Why You Eat What You Eat

“You’ll devour Mark Schatzker’s delicious The End of Craving, which provides a potent and nutritious smorgasbord of understanding that what we eat and how we eat it literally shapes our lives.” —William D. Cohan, bestselling author of House of Cards and The Last Tycoons

“The End of Craving is an illuminating look at how changes in our food have left us wanting more yet enjoying less. Grounded in the latest neuroscience research, Mark Schatzker outlines a path to regain control over cravings while re-acquainting ourselves with the pleasures of eating.” —Dr. Russell Poldrack, PhD, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University and author of Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick

From the Publisher

Diet and physiology expert Mark Schatzker (THE DORITO EFFECT) builds his case slowly to make three points: food additives such as artificial sweeteners trick our physiology into craving calories, our bodies know what nutrition they need, and the best path to healthy eating is good food eaten slowly with other people. Shortly into the narration by Gibson Frazier, some listeners may wish for more variety in phrasing. But his vocal clarity and earnest engagement work well with this science-based consumer guide. The accessible information will help struggling dieters reduce cravings by understanding the distinction between the dopamine high of wanting and the actual enjoyment of food. Its well-documented guidance will revolutionize the way people think about the dynamics of hunger and their nutritional needs. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Diet and physiology expert Mark Schatzker (THE DORITO EFFECT) builds his case slowly to make three points: food additives such as artificial sweeteners trick our physiology into craving calories, our bodies know what nutrition they need, and the best path to healthy eating is good food eaten slowly with other people. Shortly into the narration by Gibson Frazier, some listeners may wish for more variety in phrasing. But his vocal clarity and earnest engagement work well with this science-based consumer guide. The accessible information will help struggling dieters reduce cravings by understanding the distinction between the dopamine high of wanting and the actual enjoyment of food. Its well-documented guidance will revolutionize the way people think about the dynamics of hunger and their nutritional needs. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile