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Obesity is one of the most pressing health issues affecting our country. This unique volume is the first to apply behavioral economicsóthe integration of psychological and economic knowledgeóto the study of eating behavior. The text demonstrates how this discipline can be used to understand why it so difficult for individuals to control their eating habits, and helps readers use this knowledge to create and improve public health nutrition programs and policies. The text examines dietary choices and obesity through a multidisciplinary lens of biological, psychological, and social factors, and draws from the disciplines of behavioral economics, nutrition, public health, and health promotion. Based on the premise that humans are hardwired to make judgment errors and need a ìnudgeî to make decisions in their best interests, the book argues that increasing consumer well-being requires changing an individualís personal environment. It describes the power of irrational forces that compete with sensible judgment in regard to food choices, and provides strategies for improving decisions and health habits. Highly accessible, the text will be of interest to students, professors, and practitioners in nutrition-related health programs, as well as to public health policy makers. Key Features: Assesses the social determinants that affect nutrition choices, including food availability, nutrition education, income, culture, and other key factors Demonstrates how flawed decisions and self-control difficulties can affect eating behavior Provides a valuable framework for improving public health through understanding and changing the way individuals make food decisions Explains the link between obesity rates and economics of food choice (fast food, food marketing, and social factors) Provides strategies and tools to help people improve their decision-making and health habits

Pediatric Food Preferences and Eating Behaviors reviews scientific works that investigate why children eat the way they do and whether eating behaviors are modifiable. The book begins with an introduction and historical perspective, and then delves into the development of flavor preferences, the role of repeated exposure and other types of learning, the effects of modeling eating behavior, picky eating, food neophobia, and food selectivity. Other sections discuss appetite regulation, the role of reward pathways, genetic contributions to eating behaviors, environmental influences, cognitive aspects, the development of loss of control eating, and food cognitions and nutrition knowledge. Written by leading researchers in the field, each chapter presents basic concepts and definitions, methodological issues pertaining to measurement, and the current state of scientific knowledge as well as directions for future research. Delivers an up-to-date synthesis of the research evidence addressing the development of children’s eating behaviors, from birth to age 18 years Provides an in-depth synthesis of the basic eating behaviors that contribute to consumption patterns Translates the complex and sometimes conflicting research in this area to clinical and public health practice Concludes each chapter with practical implications for practice Presents the limits of current knowledge and the next steps in scientific inquiry

We are not born knowing what to eat; as omnivores it is something we each have to figure out for ourselves. From childhood onward, we learn how big a "portion" is and how sweet is too sweet. We learn to enjoy green vegetables -- or not. But how does this education happen? What are the origins of taste? In First Bite, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists, and nutritionists to reveal that our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors: family and culture, memory and gender, hunger and love. Taking the reader on a journey across the globe, Wilson introduces us to people who can only eat foods of a certain color; prisoners of war whose deepest yearning is for Mom's apple pie; a nine year old anosmia sufferer who has no memory of the flavor of her mother's cooking; toddlers who will eat nothing but hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches; and researchers and doctors who have pioneered new and effective ways to persuade children to try new vegetables. Wilson examines why the Japanese eat so healthily, whereas the vast majority of teenage boys in Kuwait have a weight problem -- and what these facts can tell Americans about how to eat better. The way we learn to eat holds the key to why food has gone so disastrously wrong for so many people. But Wilson also shows that both adults and children have immense potential for learning new, healthy eating habits. An exploration of the extraordinary and surprising origins of our tastes and eating habits, First Bite also shows us how we can change our palates to lead healthier, happier lives.

This handbook is a comprehensive collection of measures and assessment tools intended for use by researchers and clinicians that work with people with problem eating behaviors, obese clients, and the associated psychological issues that underlie these problems.

Compulsive Eating Behavior and Food Addiction: Emerging Pathological Constructs is the first book of its kind to emphasize food addiction as an addictive disorder. This book focuses on the preclinical aspects of food addiction research, shifting the focus towards a more complex behavioral expression of pathological feeding and combining it with current research on neurobiological substrates. This book will become an invaluable reference for researchers in food addiction and compulsive eating constructs. Compulsive eating behavior is a pathological form of feeding that phenotypically and neurobiologically resembles the compulsive-like behaviors associated with both drug abuse and behavioral addictions. Compulsive eating behavior, including Binge Eating Disorder (BED), certain forms of obesity, and ‘food addiction’ affect an estimated 70 million individuals worldwide. Synthesizes clinical and preclinical perspectives on addictive eating behavior Identifies how food addiction is similar and/or different from other addictions Focuses on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms Provides information on therapeutic interventions for patients with food addiction