Interesting concept.   In fact. . . .what a great name for a book!  The author of Mindless Eating is a food scientist at Cornell and is speaking free this Thursday 7:30 p.m. at Hughes Metroplex in Wichita.

 Obesity is rampant as 1/3 of the US population has a BMI (body mass index) more than 30.  Hand-in-hand with obesity is high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers. 

Many obese patients would like a quick fix

•  prescription medications.  Studies have shown prescriptions may help promote “modest” weight loss, meaning an additional 2 to 15 pounds.  One of these prescriptions, Sibutramine (Meridia) was recently voluntarily taken off the market (October 8, 2010)  due to increased adverse heart events like heart attack and stroke.
• “bariatric surgery” like gastric bypass.  This may result in a loss of greater than 20% of body weight, which may be maintained or the patient can learn to outsmart/outeat their stomach.  This surgery has operative and postoperative complications and, on average, 0.28% of patients die within 30 days of surgery.

Weight loss treatment without the above perils is based on the easy concept of, expend more energy than you eat. 

If you can attend the free lecture above, please do.  If you cannot attend, he has a great easy-to-read book which is truly enjoyable reading.  Dr. Wansink states “the best diet is the one you don’t know you are on.”

I agree.