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

Very eye opening ! Great expose on how we got here and how bad our food supply is - but the answer to “experience” artisanally grown food prepared in lavish ways isn’t one most of us can undertake.Only a few of us have the time or money to eat the way the French and Italians do. Yes we should buy and enjoy the best quality food we can but when our palates have been so deranged by the food industry , that’s a giant challenge. Ending cravings by switching to high quality food is a process. I hope as a nation we can turn this ship around.

So, as I contemplated providing a review, I thought I would start at the 1 star reviews…. Well, they tell you all you need to know…. There is no silver bullet…. Never has been, never will…. This book is the canary in the coal mine. The start (hopefully) of a humble redirection in the course of how we consider the act of nourishing our bodies. As man’s confidence in “what he/she knows” has expanded, hubris has most infected those who should know better. Scientists. In our rush to solve problem A, we have created problems B, C, and D…. At its core, the book does provide a glimpse to the solution…. Eat things that are of nature, not the result of man’s effort to change nature…. As with any topic where the “science is settled” run in the other direction to that which is empirical…. Heuristics your grandmothers followed…. Not the man-made solutions of today…. My journey will be started with an attempt to quit artificial sweeteners…. As my fitness improves, my weight has grown…. Time to see if the ideas hinted at in this book will help me attain my inner Italian…

This is a really interesting book with lots of well-researched science-y stuff along with a bit of humor here and there. I liked this author's style so much that I ordered his other two books. Not done with them, but if anything they're even better. I'd give the Craving book five stars, except in parts it feels (to me) like the writing takes an overly circuitous route that doesn't always get to the point quickly enough (for my taste). However, my reading of the other two books may have colored that viewpoint, as they seem a little more direct. I look forward to more by this author in the future!

A very thoughtful synthesis of many researchers' studies that strives to shed light on humans' relationship to food and how that relationship has been altered for the worse, particularly in America, over the last fifty-plus years with the resulting prevalence of obesity. Four stars (as opposed to five) due to the author's not making more explicit how the myriad of research and studies he discusses (all interesting in their own rite) intersect with one another to create a compelling argument for the premise that "eating well" will mitigate the counterproductive urge of "craving." Still, definitely recommended.

You will only understand that headline by reading this book. In it, you will encounter a cast of characters that will amaze you along with enough plot twists to keep you guessing to the end. It begins with a question: why are we so fat? I won't try to tell you the answer. You will get that from reading the book. It will be a worthwhile experience.

I bought the audio book and was so fascinated, I bought the Kindle version and read it all over again. Mark is so compelling I interviewed him for a YouTube channel. It's the most interesting book about nutrition I've read in months.The essence is in America we have drenched our food with vitamin and mineral supplements, thinking they are great for us so what could go wrong? A lot, it turns out. I am an obsessive reference checker because there is so much misinformation about diet, but Mark's references check out and he's cautious about his sources and what can be gleaned from them. He's also a great storyteller, so the book is riveting from the first page.I read a lot of books and this one is definitely in my top 10 this year.

The thesis of the book is that Italians aren't fat because they eat quality food and have no craving to stuff themselves with a lot of unsatisfying food. Our foods, on the other hand, have too many additives that are bad for us, causing us to overeat. To satisfy a compulsion to eat when you aren't really hungry, suck slowly on a dark piece of chocolate and the craving will be diminished. The rest of the book, in my opinion is mainly filler -- my travels in Italy -- conversations with various people. Oh and there was an interesting story of the mystery surrounding the cause of pellagra and how that disease got cured. The story could have been cut down by half, in my opinion.

The author presents a compelling argument for reclaiming our inborn desire to completely experience whole, unprocessed food instead of eating processed foods that are rendered metabolically unrecognizable. The craving attached to processed foods leads to an insatiable appetite, driven by both our hedonic and survival-oriented hormonal feedback loops, as we continue the quest for the holistic experience of eating. Instead of trying to outsmart nature and our metabolic machinery, comprised not only of internal hormones but also of reflective sensory experience, we need to eat food unchanged from its seed. Once we eat these unprocessed foods that are unadulterated parts of their whole, will we be free of the tantalizing longing for satiety while simultaneously drowning in overconsumption.

I loved this book. Mr. Schatzker explored the relationship between our modern food system and obesity in his previous book, The Dorito Effect, but he delves even deeper into the topic in this book. His investigation is thorough and his case is compelling. Ultimately, he tries to answer perhaps the fundamental mystery of modern food science: why are we all getting so fat? The most common answers these days are either fat or sugar, usually dispensed by villainous industrial food manufacturers. I won’t spoil the book by giving anything away, but Mr. Schatzker’s answer is as grounded in science as it is entertaining, and it’s not as reductive as so many in the media would have us believe. Most importantly, The End of Craving offers some practical solutions to the obesity epidemic on both the individual and societal level. It won’t be easy, but this book offers some hope that we can recover.

An interesting take on the obesity crises by the author of "The Dorito Effect". Although many behaviorially-oriented psychologists would disagree with his characterization of their approach, his distortions are often in aid of making a valid point. He is, on occasion, simply wrong (e.g., about the ability to control body tempreture) but not in a manner that distorts his main message, that the imbalance of the inputs from the mouth, stomach, and brain caused by food additives results in many of our cravings that lead to obesity.

well enough written, but the conclusion is very weak, no real plan comes out of it but throw hands in the air and say that's how it is. No call to action at all. Also the conclusion really doesn't logically follow the stories presented throughout.

It’s a decent read, you could drive a truck through the holes in the logic he uses to arrive at his conclusions, but there are still some interesting and worthwhile observations made.

In a nutshell explains the people living in Italy don't have weight problems because thier food ( think flour) is not fortified.