Hedonic Eating How the Pleasure of Food Affects Our Brains and Behavior

While the prevalence of overweight and obesity has continued to increase, the understanding of the complex causes of these conditions by academics and the public has not. Much of the current literature regarding excess body weight focuses on reducing calorie intake, ignoring the complicated biological and behavioral nature of overeating. Hedonic Eating, Second Edition, explores the behavioral, biological, and social rewards of eating in our current world saturated with hyper-palatable food. Comprehensive chapters cover topics ranging from the neurochemistry of food reward to the hotly debated concept of 'food addiction', while providing relevant and up-to-date information from the current body of scientific literature regarding food reward. This new edition has been fully updated to reflect emerging research and evidence on issues such as eating behavior, psychological factors, metabolic influences, and the environment. New research has deepened our understanding of the interrelationship between the brain, behavior, and food consumption. This book offers another perspective to the current understanding of the issues of overeating and obesity rooted in scientific research.

Dr. Nicole Avena is a research neuroscientist, author and expert in the fields of nutrition, diet and addiction. She received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Psychology from Princeton University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Currently, Dr. Nicole Avena is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and a Visiting Professor of Health Psychology at Princeton University. She has done groundbreaking work developing models to characterize food addition and the dangers of excess sugar intake.