Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight
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(as of Dec 04, 2025 22:23:36 UTC – Details)
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Overeating comes an illuminating understanding of body weight, including the promise―and peril ―of the latest weight loss drugs.
The struggle is universal: we work hard to lose weight, only to find that it slowly creeps back. In America, body weight has become a pain point shrouded in self-recrimination and shame, not to mention bias from the medical community. For many, this battle not only takes a mental toll but also becomes a physical threat: three-quarters of American adults struggle with weight-related health conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. We know that diets don’t work, and yet we also know that excess weight starves us of years and quality of life. Where do we go from here?
In Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine, former FDA Commissioner Dr. David A. Kessler unpacks the mystery of weight in the most comprehensive work to date on this topic, giving readers the power to dramatically improve their health. Kessler, who has himself struggled with weight, suggests the new class of GLP-1 weight loss drugs have provided a breakthrough: they have radically altered our understanding of weight loss. They make lasting change possible, but they also have real disadvantages and must be considered as part of a comprehensive approach together with nutrition, behavior, and physical activity.
Critical to this new perspective is the insight that weight-loss drugs act on the part of the brain that is responsible for cravings. In essence, the drugs tamp down the addictive circuits that overwhelm rational decision-making and quiet the “food noise” that distracts us. Identifying these mechanisms allows us to develop a strategy for effective long-term weight loss, and that begins with naming the elephant in the room: ultraformulated foods are addictive. Losing weight is a process of treating addiction.
In this landmark book, one of the nation’s leading public health officials breaks taboos around this fraught conversation, giving readers the tools to unplug the brain’s addictive wiring and change their relationship with food. Dr. Kessler cautions that drugs, on their own, pose serious risks and are not a universal solution. But with this new understanding of the brain-body feedback loop comes new possibilities for our health and freedom from a lifelong struggle.
Eye-opening, provocative, and rigorous, this book is a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled to maintain their weight―which is to say, everyone.
From the Publisher
Publisher : Flatiron Books
Publication date : May 13, 2025
Language : English
Print length : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 1250381274
ISBN-13 : 978-1250381279
Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #54,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Self-Help for Eating Disorders & Body Image Issues (Books) #12 in Sociological Study of Medicine #31 in Weight Loss Diets (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (173) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers say
Customers find the book well-documented and helpful, with one noting it’s updated with current information and research. Moreover, the book is packed with information about weight loss, with one customer highlighting how it explains how GLP-1 drugs help control type 2 diabetes and body weight by reducing appetite. Additionally, customers appreciate the book’s approach to diet, with one noting it’s not another fad diet, and they find it easy to read and understand.
Lyrical –
Important and balanced
This book is not an easy read for those without medical background, but it was extremely helpful, enough for me to kick start a diet plan. This is not another fad diet, of which I’ve tried many. He goes into the source of our obesity epidemic in great detail, citing the most recent studies and science. He objectively evaluates various approaches for achieving and maintaining healthy weight and glucose levels. He does not tell you what to eat or provide a diet plan. He gives enough information to allow you to do that, and he dispels claims that many fad diets make. I think this book gives me the framework I need to improve my health through diet, and definitely motivated me. I have lost 3 pounds in the week I’ve been reading the book. Time will tell if my success will continue but I have all the information I need.He explains how addiction works and gives objective evaluations of drugs, surgery, and lifestyle options with honesty and compassion, having gone through the struggle himself.I strongly disagree with the reviewer who said he’s pushing GLP 1 drugs and bariatric surgery. He does neither, and based on the candid information in the book I know neither is right for me, although it may be for some. The book gave me hope, direction, and motivation.
Amazon Customer –
This is the book that will finally help you!
I am someone who has dealt with being overweight my entire life. I am so tired of my own expectations and those of my doctors and friends and family. I needed this book. Dr. Kessler brings clarity and hope to the reader. This book does not tell us what to do. It helps us to think. It helps us to understand. It helps us to evaluate. He provides valuable information about the tools needed to approach weight loss, the pros and cons of the diet drugs, and adds current research to back it all up. What meant a lot to me is Dr Kessler’s honesty about the benefits and risks of the GLP-1’s, diet, ultraformulated foods, the pharmaceutical industry, and his own journey with his weight. Have you have gone through the same battle as Dr. Kessler? Have you have been fat, and thin, and everything in between? Have you have gone through the same cycle of “despair, repair, and despair” about your weight? This book will help you decide what is best for you. It did for me. And Dr. Kessler did it in a way that, for the first time in my life, did not put the blame of my weight on me.
Sandy Brown –
Little mention of dopamine.
Knowledgeable author. Title is misleading. There is very little mention of dopamine
Otto Neely –
If you have a weight problem this is the best explanation what caused it and how to address it.
I am using Zep Bound, a Weight Loss product from Lily. I have lost 55 pounds and don’t want to go back to where I was.This book explains the everything about food, weight loss, eating habits, etc. Things I never knew! I now feel confident that I can wean myself off of this helpful medication and resume a normal life and not gain that weight back.
A. A. U. –
Interesting view & good advice
Once I got my copy, I read it quickly. I will say he definitely cites a lot of studies & research. I found the latter part of the book a bit easier to read than the beginning, though I think it’s good that he refers to the researchers & studies.I liked that he raises the question of how much food addiction plays a role in obesity & weight loss, going into why processed food seems addictive.He also covers things like menopause, reviews GLP-1 drugs, & diets (including keto, low-fat, & Mediterranean diets). He sprinkles in about his own weight struggle. Interesting fact he lists: the average is 7 attempts to lose weight.He doesn’t tell you what to do, but I think he gives information to better help your weight loss efforts. I appreciate that. (My primary tries, but gives one-size-fits-all advice).
Paul J. Lake –
Food companies are ripping us off
Great book. Very informative and necessary for all people.
Transom13 –
A Lot of Information!
I will admit that I’m not through with this book yet (it’s a lot to plow through), but I am very pleased with it. At first I thought it was just going to be a rehashing of Slow Carb, Fast Carb, but it is not. This is very updated with current information and research and explains why the GLPs that are so prevalent today are helpful. There’s also a LOT of information about why we get addicted to highly processed foods (hint: it’s not just one thing). Being armed with this information helps you to make decisions for yourself. I was surprised at his “support” (that’s kind of a strong word) for GLPs as a tool for weight loss. I’m focusing on the other tools he discusses, but appreciate all of the things I’ve learned so far. Kessler is a valuable asset to those who are healthy-minded!
Gerry –
I have read dozens of books on nutrition, addiction and dieting. This is far and away the most insightful, informative, thoroughly documented, and worthwhile book I have read. Every page drips with documentation and advice and observations that have been decades in the making. Big Food, like Big Tobacco before it, has ensnared our population with intentional addiction of what we eat and what we crave to eat, all for shareholder profit. David Kessler copiously documents how food addiction begins in the womb, how industrially palatable food hijacks our brains, and the extraordinary damage to our health and happiness as increasing proportions of our populations succumb to morbidity throughout life into our senior years. David Kessler has been head of the American FDA under two administrations and president of medical schools of Yale and UC at San Francisco. He speaks with unparalleled authority.Kessler doesn’t just cite literature. He speaks of his personal, lifelong battle with weight challenges, and he quotes hundreds of inperson conversations with America’s top scientists and researchers about every related aspect of food addiction and treatment imaginable. Few people in the world have the personal contacts that Kessler has amassed over his long professional careers. Few could have delivered the profusion of intimate observations of the world’s top minds and researchers to this or any topic.Kessler has set a bar so high for translating the fruits of research and reflection and wisdom on the science of a topic that it astonished me that I could become so fixated on each and every page. I am not sure if I am addicted to modern food as I eat mostly whole foods, but I am happily addicted to Kessler’s translation of the science of food addiction and obesity in ways that make the literature fully digestible for any lay audience willing to give it the time to read and contemplate that this book so richly deserves.This is so much more than yet another book on weight gain. This is the book that has the ability to launch a revolution to battle Big Food as we battled Big Tobacco in a campaign to rescue our individual and collective health and sanity in ever increasingly dangerous and scary world that contrives to twist our neurology to profit at any and all costs.