The full title of this book is Mindless Eating Why We Eat More Than We Think. It’s not exactly a diet book, but, if you use the hints and tricks outlined in this book, you might end up a few pounds lighter next year than you would have been otherwise.

“Mindless eating” seems to be the eating we do without realizing it. We eat because its “time” to eat, not because we are hungry. We eat a bunch of food at parties, and, since its all little snacks, we don’t realize just how much we ate when the party is over. We eat more when we are eating with friends than when we are eating alone. We eat more if we eat dinner while watching tv, or if we eat breakfast while reading the newspaper, than if we ate at the kitchen table, with no distractions.

Wansink uses his years of studies and experiments to help the reader find ways to lose weight without realizing it. Did you know you burn more calories if you put ice in your drink than if you drink it without ice? Did you know that if a food has more variety to it (such as the many different colors that M&Ms have in a package), we will eat more of them than we would if they were all one color? Most people don’t know these kinds of things. But, even if they do, they don’t remember them when they are actually eating food.

The way to lose weight fairly painlessly seems to be two things. One is to be aware of all the little tricks out there that are influencing you to eat when you aren’t hungry. The other is to make sure that you change your eating habits without doing something that will make you feel deprived.

There are tons of facts in this book, complete with detailed descriptions of the studies that were done. It’s an interesting read, even for people who aren’t looking for a diet right now.

If you love your Big Mac, you might want to skip this book. Or, maybe that’s the very reason that you should read it.

The subtitle of this book is “The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”, and it is fitting. This book takes a very close look at the Fast Food giants. It goes into the history of how they started, how they got big, and how their massive power is affecting so many aspects of American society, and now, many places around the world as well. It especially focuses on McDonalds, but does go into many other well known fast food resturants too.

It seemed fitting to me to read this book right after reading Fat Land. Together, the two paint a very terrifying picture of how things are. Fast Food Nation alone tells some really scary stuff. If you have ever read the book The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, you will have a good idea about about what you will find in parts of Fast Food Nation . Only Sinclair was talking about Chicago Meatpacking plants in the early 1900’s, and this book is talking about the state of the Meatpacking plants now. Made me once again seriously decide to give vegetarianism another try.

I also found it scary to hear about just how much power these few companies have, and how decisions made by just a few people have such detrimential effects on the quality of life for so many people around the world. It makes me angry that these people could be using their power for good, and instead, are using it to feed their greed. Human rights go right out the window, never mind what happens to the animals.

The version of this book that I picked up also includes some new information relating to Mad Cow Disease, which wasn’t really known about when the book was first written. Its a very eye-opening read. Everyone should read this book, if only to just be informed about what they are eating. Im glad I know details now, even though those details are disgusting. Makes me want to never eat from a Fast Food Place ever again, if not for health reasons, than as a response to how much I don’t like the way they treat their workers. This book was a best seller for a long time, and it will be interesting to see if any changes are made as a result of more people having access to this kind of information. We can hope.

Ever wonder why more and more Americans are getting really fat? Ever wonder just how that happened? This book sets out to reveal the answers to these and more questions about America and obesity. This is a frightening read! Critser details just how the extra calories got into the food, and why no one stopped that from happening. He gives details about just what happens to the body of someone who becomes obese, and clearly defines a link between obesity and poverty. He also describes the connection between how Americans think, and how they eat. This book is very eye-opening. I recommend it to anyone who is wondering about the same questions I was wondering about when I decided to read this book.
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