Product Description
Why You Eat What You Eat examines the sensory, psychological, neuroscientific, and physiological factors that influence our eating habits. Rachel Herz uncovers the fascinating and surprising facts that affect food consumption: bringing reusable bags to the grocery store encourages us to buy more treats; our beliefs about food affect the number of calories we burn; TV alters how much we eat; and what we see and hear changes how food tastes. Herz reveals useful techniques for managing cravings, such as resisting repeated trips to the buffet table, and how aromas can be used to curb overeating. Why You Eat What You Eat mixes the social with the scientific to uncover how psychology, neurology, and physiology shape our relationship with food and how food alters the relationships we have with ourselves and with one another.
Reviews/Praise
"Jo Anna Perrin, who brings a studied and smooth voice to this exploration of the biological and psychological influences on food choices and eating habits.” —Donovans Literary Services
“One of Herz's major strengths is her skill at creating catchy phrasing to convey complicated scientific theories and experiments.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Herz . . . delivers on her promise to explain human eating habits in this research-based work on neurogastronomy. . . . Herz's book illuminates Western eating habits and offers some ways that both individuals and wider society might change in order to make Westerners eat more sanely.” —Publishers Weekly "This engaging and accessible account by a leading neuroscientist has something for everyone."—Rachel Laudan, author of Cuisine and Empire
"Continuously fascinating…Rachel Herz sets new standards in helping readers deal with the vast range of problems that beset our eating habits."—Gordon Shepherd, author of Neurogastronomy
"Rachel Herz…reveals how our minds and emotions influence taste, and vice versa, helping explain why there is such a thing as bacon-scented underwear, why grapefruit aroma suppresses appetite and why loud noise enhances tomato flavor. Your plate, and your skivvies, may never look the same."—Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix