Chocolate Is My Kryptonite: Feeding Your Feelings How to Survive the Forces of Food
Each year American consumers spend thirty-three billion hard earned dollars to control their appetites and lose weight. Thousands of promises, gimmicks, and miracle cures try to offer Americans what they want most __ a quick fix. Unfortunately a quick fix is never the answer to a lifelong problem. Compulsive overeaters know this because they have tried every diet and potion on the planet. After all is said and done, they are often faced with a single oversimplified solution, “Eat less and exercise more.” Just one problem though – it doesn’t work! Why? Because food addiction isn’t some fleeting personality quirk that’s easily reversed with motivational catch-phrases. It’s a distinct medical illness and it can be treated. In his book, Chocolate Is My Kryptonite, Matthew S. Keene, MD, a nationally known psychiatrist, eating disorder specialist, consultant, and speaker, tells you how to successfully treat this biologically-based disease. He focuses specifically… More >>
Chocolate Is My Kryptonite: Feeding Your Feelings How to Survive the Forces of Food
If you can plow through the disgustingly cutesy-poo writing style and boring background, you’ll find that Keene (who is a psychiatrist, NOT an MD) has two actual statements: Prozac is the best treatment for stubborn food addiction, and before resorting to Prozac, you should subject yourself to his extremely restrictive diet plan and never eat foods containing flour or any other processed ingredients again for the rest of your life. (Personally, I’d rather be fat than go without cookies for the rest of my life.) The book does seem well researched, but I only recommend it for those planning to strictly adhere to the diet plan — and even then, you should skip to the relevant chapter and avoid as much of the text as possible. Someone hire this guy a ghostwriter!
I liked the title of this book, and so started it predisposed to liking it. I thought perhaps it would have some humorous insight into the serious subject of obsessive eating. Instead, what I found was that I was talked down to and insulted on almost every page. Rather than explaining the chemistry he refers to, this author uses analogies he must think are cute but which struck me as insultingly simplified, for the most part. As the book goes on, the author gets increasingly obsessive about the plan of abstinence he proposes. At the end of the book, he includes a height/bone structure chart that purports to tell readers their “ideal” weight. Both this chart and the suggested lists of foods he provides strike me as sexist. He hasn’t updated his chart to show what nutritionists now recommend as a range of healthy weights, and he thinks that men can weigh 20 pounds more at the same height. His food lists specify things like “half a cup of cereal for women, one cup for men.” Anyone obsessed with food will be setting themselves up for disaster if they take this book seriously. It will promote dieting and then regaining in most cases. Try Anne Katherine’s much more respectful book on obsessive eating instead.
This has been very helpful in explaining the biology behind my food addiction. One quick response to a previous viewer: A psychiatrist IS an MD. Medical school, internships — the whole works. The difference is that they do their residency in psychiatry, as opposed to surgery, family practice, etc. I would feel very bad if others readers were swayed by the misinformation of the previous post.
English 101 taught me to open with a “headline grabber,” so I figure saying “saved my career” is a pretty good start. But it’s not too far from the truth. I am a Senior Airman with the United States Air Force and have struggled with emotional overeating and weight gain since the birth of my first child and separation from my husband.
The military is one of the few places where you can be fired if you are overweight. I had already failed two weigh-ins when I read an article in the Air Force Times about Dr. Keene’s belief that compulsive overeating is a chemically-based disease and not just a matter of will-power. I bought the book based on the article and have made great strides. I’m off the weight management program and have returned to my pre-pregnancy “fighting” weight. But more importantly, I’ve learned how to “feel” my feelings and not “feed” them. This is a wonderful book!
We at the Litchfield Pk Library found “Chocolate is my Kryptonite” very useful in understanding why most diets dont work and we wanted to share the book with our community.