[Radio Book Club] The Psychology of Overeating: Food and the Culture of Consumerism

‘The psychology of overeating’ finds the cause of the overeating of modern people in the rapid expansion of consumer culture.

The cover of The Psychology of Overeating Source: Getty Images

Every species overeating 'occasionally'.

This phenomenon becomes more clear as we go back to the history of evolution.

In short, overeating was a form of evolutionary adaptation that tended to eat more when there was food to eat.

However, the overeating problem that modern people are experiencing is far from the evolutionary adaptation of the past. Modern people generally overeast nutritious, very fattening industrial products.

What has happened to them in the last few decades?

The book investigates how developments in food science, branding and marketing have transformed Western diets and how the food industry employs psychology to trick us into eating more and more – and why we let them.

[Full story is available on audio news.]