Hill native explores the psychology behind eating habits

by RYAN TEITMAN

Food aficionados and fans of the Food Network's Iron Chef series are long familiar with Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's oft-quoted phrase: "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." In Dr. Alexandra Logue's new book, The Psychology of Eating and Drinking, that phrase could best be rewritten as: "Tell me what you eat, and I will explain to you the biochemical processes involved in why you did." Dr. Logue's book explores the vast realm of what we eat, why we eat it and what it does to us once it begins the great trek through the human body. Does your stomach rumble because you are hungry, or are you hungry because your stomach is rumbling? To you, it may be an unimportant question -- you just reach for a cupcake -- but for the psychologist studying feeding behavior, how hunger occurs is a central question. Logue's first chapter epigram from William Shakespeare is particularly apt: "life consists of eating and drinking."

Dr. Alexandra Logue grew up in Chestnut Hill, attended Springside School, obtained her bachelor's and doctoral degrees at Harvard University and is now the provost and vice president of academic affairs at the New York Institute of Technology. Although her qualifications are sterling, the most inviting aspect of her book is that she does not completely distance herself from the text, as in most scientific writing. In fact, the preface begins with Logue's strange eating habits as a child: "When I was a year old I stopped eating everything except bread and milk." Most appropriately, in a book about human eating habits, the author is a self-professed finicky eater (although biochemically, this may not completely be her fault). While Logue does not possess ravenous tastes, she does have an extraordinary knowledge of the psychology of human feeding processes.

Readers should note that parts of this book may be over the head of even the curious, well-educated citizen; The Psychology of Eating and Drinking was meant as a companion piece for Logue's psychology course. Some of the material is not targeted for the average reader; it is intended for a psychology student in a mid-level college course. While readers without a college-level background in biology may not be able to fully comprehend the neuropeptide flowcharts, the science-heavy jargon does not occur with enough frequency to weigh down any casual reader willing to expend the extra effort. 

Many of Logue's observations challenge conventional folk wisdom about eating. Readers raising children might be interested to know that the frequently used ploy of "no dessert until you finish your vegetables" only succeeds in making children like vegetables less and like dessert more.

In the same vein, children decrying the awful taste of their vegetables might not simply be finicky about their food selection. As Logue explains, certain foods such green vegetables contain chemicals called PTC and PROP, to which some people (called "supertasters") are especially sensitive. When these supertasters were given a small test paper with a PROP coating to place in their mouths, they described the taste as being incredibly bitter. When other "nontasters" were giving the same experiment, they said that the paper tasted like paper. These nontasters are often voraciously indiscriminate eaters, since certain chemical compounds, bitter to some, have no detrimental effects on their eating preferences.

Throughout the book, Logue manages to break up the heavily scientific tracts with spurts of good-natured, clever humor. She relates this example from the well-known commercial for Life cereal: "Three brothers are in their kitchen faced with a box of cereal that they have never seen before. The youngest brother is named Mikey. "Let's get Mikey to try it!" the two older brothers exclaim. If he eats it and likes it, then they will eat it too. This is a smart move on the part of the older brothers. If the cereal is deadly poisonous, only Mikey will die."

Logue does not confine her analyses to amusing observations about our curious eating habits. She explores several serious issues related to food, including obesity, diabetes, eating disorders and alcoholism, but her discussions on obesity and eating disorders are the most tightly integrated into the content of the rest of the book. Of particular interest is Logue's explanation of the rival theories of treating alcoholism. Many groups advocate that going "cold turkey" is the only way for an alcoholic to stay sober, while some researchers believe that some alcoholics can control their drinking without completely eliminating it.

As a fair warning to readers, this book is not a number of things. First off, it is not a primer about dieting. While the book notes several studies about diet and exercise, those looking to lose weight would do best to look elsewhere for their methodology. Second, this book only briefly deals with the cultural aspects of food. The final chapter of the book briefly describes some of the more interesting aspects of human eating habits, such as why we are the only creatures to consume coffee and chile peppers, but the cultural value of food remains left for an entirely different book.

This book is not for everyone. While many will find Logue's many descriptions of animal behavior studies slightly past their interest level, the personal anecdotes about eating habits and food behavior make the book more accessible to the casual reader. So if that chocolate frosted cupcake across the table is making you hungry -- and you want to know why -- Dr. Logue's book may be for you.

The Psychology of Eating and Drinking by A.W. Logue (368 pages; $29.95) is published by Brunner-Routledge.