Hijacked: How Your Brain Is Fooled by Food

By David A. Kessler, MD

Most people believe that it's natural to gain a lot of weight as we get older. But this is not true. Kessler knows it's not true because until about 30 years ago, we did not have a weight problem in North America. In fact, throughout history, the human body weight stayed pretty much the same. People ate the amount of food they needed and no more. Then, in the 1980s, something changed. North Americans started gaining a lot of weight.

     What happened in such a short time to add so many millions of pounds to so many millions of people? Something had changed in North America, but it wasn't us. It was our food. These processed foods - loaded with sugar, fat, and salt - make it almost impossible for some people to stop eating.

     Many years ago, the food industry managed to figure out that they could sell more food if it had a lot of sugar, fat, and salt in it. Good food should make you feel full and satisfied. But foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt have the opposite effect on many people. Instead of easing our hunger, these foods make us want to eat more. Even when we're full, even when we're not hungry, we feel the need to eat.

     Hijacked helps us understand what it is that we're eating and helps us train our brains to know when to stop eating and to stop craving food.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781770495050

Reviews for Hijacked

[paulysue · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great quick read and very informative in terms of the true health/nutrition realities for the guilty pleasures our North American eating culture turns a blind eye to. The mantra, not surprisingly, emphasizes and identifies sugar, fats and salt as the culprits and key ingredients utilized by a fast food industry intent on hooking their consumers on easy, tasty food. These overused ingredients lead to overeating, obesity and blind addiction. Kessler moves the reader beyond the general awareness that these three key ingredients lead to obesity by delving into the menu's of familiar eateries, describing the typical experience of visiting, ordering and eating the foods while investigating how the foods are prepared. He reveals surprising practices and, by illuminating how foods are injected and prepared, creating a deeper conscious awareness of our choices of food the next time we step up to the counter to choose these foods. A good resource for young people beginning to explore health issues and choices albeit a little repetitive.

[peripa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First, I love the cover of this book - it's eye-catching and relevant. I found the book itself fairly informative and interesting although, as other reviewers have mentioned, it gets quite repetitive. This is a bit of a shame, because I think our current cultural atmosphere is one that could use a few accessible, health-focused books on food for teenagers who will be making independent food choices soon enough, even if they are currently at the mercy of their parents' cooking. In any case, I would guess that the majority of teenagers wouldn't hate reading it for required reading, but would not select and read it of their own volition.

[calicok3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the book, it was an interesting, quick read. Kessler kept the chapters short and made interesting points about the food industry. I enjoyed many of the examples provided, however, I would have preferred to see some actual studies to back up the claims, I think it would have strengthened the arguments. That being said as I understand it, 'Hijacked: How your brain is fooled by food' was meant for teens and young adults and Kessler's previous, more in depth book, for adults. This version would be suitable for young adults.

[lucidly · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sugar, fat, and salt. These three words will be repeated many, many times. Be prepared.It's a book designed for young school aged children on overeating and what causes it, including information on how processed food has been designed to make people want more. Lastly, it goes briefly in to how a young person can try to overcome the bad habit of overeating.Although there are times when the author tries to encompass the problem as being for all of North America, statistics are mainly from the United States.It's written in a fairly conversational style, making it really easy to understand the concepts within. However, the repetition of some things might get annoying. Overall, the information was interesting and did not try to make the food industry look like it was pure evil. Supposedly this is the 'young readers' version of another best selling book titled The End of Overeating, but I have not read it so I cannot compare.

[lefthandeddrawing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an adaptation for young adults of Kessler's full length book The End of Overeating. It communicates valuable lessons about the commercial food industry and how companies manipulate consumers to their own ends. I think many aware readers will be familiar with the accusations - that commercial foods are loaded with extra sugar, salt and fat to increase desire and consumption of their products by consumers. There were many poignant anecdotes and descriptions of the factory processes were shocking. I think many young adults will be interested to learn this and it will serve them well in their growing lives. As some of the other reviews have mentioned, the writing is very repetitive and simplistic. It's been a while since I was a young adult, but I don't think I would have appreciated being talked down to in this way - it may cause some readers to lose interest or discount the book entirely. Although the writer seemed to be being very careful to describe weight gain only in terms of health ramifications, I couldn't help but feel that he came uncomfortably close to fat-shaming. At a time when young people are already vulnerable to damaging mentalities about body image, I could imagine this book contributing to some negative understanding about health and body and beauty for some readers. I understand that it's a fine line between making readers aware of the manipulative practices of the commercial food industry and promoting fat-shaming and body-image-perfection, but I think this could have been handled in a different manner. Overall, I would give it three out of five stars, and be careful when you recommend it to young readers in your life.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kessler's book will have a wide appeal. Written very simply, and accessible to any readership, including teens and children, it aims to educate on the powerful hold the food industry has on us to keep consuming more.Its very repetitive messages can get tedious, but it is effective, especially if the reader is reads the book slowly, chapter by chapter. I must say that when I now smell high fat foods, I do get a little queasy.The last part of the book, when he gives tips on recovering good eating habits, is certainly the weakest. I don't think that the tools he gives are focused enough to really help someone hooked on high fat, high sugar products. Nonetheless the first two parts are convincing in egging the reader to take action and reclaim control over food. A good introduction to what has become a health crisis and a good place to start to review one's eating habits.

[dream24-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

First thing I have to say is that I was totally drawn in by the cover of the book.

OK down to business. This is a quick but rather in depth read. The chapters are short but rather informative. The content is written so that is it very easy for readers to understand (after all not all of us are nutritionists or scientists) and I rather enjoy how the author uses real world examples (The Cheesecake Factory's menu, etc.) to explain the inner working of the food industries in North America. "Fat, sugar and salt" are constantly drilled into your mind that they are the key ingredients used by the food industries to hook consumers and ultimately lends a hand in the increase in obesity and other health issues.

Although everything written in this book was very, very persuasive, I would have liked to seen a bit more incorporation of researches/studies conducted by researchers/scientists over the years in regards to food and health. I'm not saying we need a dozen statistics or hypothesis paraded to the readers, I am just saying it would be nice to have some actual science and numbers to back up the claims.

Overall, if you want to know more about underbelly of the fast food industry and how food influences obesity, this book is worth a read.

[dk_phoenix_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I found the book decently informative, I did think it rather simplistic at times. Having read Kessler's full version for adults, I thought that at times in this version for young adults he did them a bit of a disservice -- almost talking down to them at times.That said, it's a good introduction to the concept for younger teens (and even Middle Grade kids), I just wish that perhaps there was a version in between this one and the full version that could be presented to older teens.

[yells-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book and definitely something that teens could read, understand and use. My one main issue with it is that it is extremely repetitive & each chapter seem to tell the same thing over and over again. After reading the same point for the tenth time, I found myself skipping over sections. I do think it's important to emphasis key things but hammering someone over the head with a simple fact is a bit excessive. The other little thing I noticed (and am probably the only person who would be bothered by it) is that it was put out by a Canadian publisher and had Canadian spelling but most of the references were American. The author is obviously American and sited restaurants that we just don't have here in Canada. Perhaps having a Canadian co-author update it specifically for a Canadian audience would help us relate to it better.

[crazybatcow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am not sure about the audience for this book. Apparently it is meant for teens, but I don't know that this information is any use to them. For the most part teens don't control their own meals - they are not the ones doing the shopping or the cooking (and, really, how many families have the income and the time to put into making meals from scratch at home?) So, ultimately, to have this book aimed at teens seems like a target that a) probably doesn't really care (what teen thinks he is not immortal?) and b) is powerless to do anything about it.For adults, however, the information is interesting and useful. And, even though the writing is downgraded a bit for a teen audience, I don't think it is too simple for adults to enjoy reading.. I started the book after reading a couple other reviews and was a bit worried that it was going to be repetitive. I suppose it is, because the author uses certain phrases a lot, but I certainly didn't find it excessive, or annoying - he was just making his point.All in all, it is a quick and enlightening look at the mass marketing of food, with a suggestion that this stuff we are being sold isn't really food at all, but a substance meant to trigger the addiction centres in our brains.