Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-278) and index.

An obesity and neuroscience researcher explores how food choices are often influenced by brain circuits that control survival instincts and draws on cutting-edge neuroscience to offer guidelines for eating well and maintaining a healthy weight.

Even though we know better. we often eat too much. Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? No one wants to overeat. And certainly no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight, and end up with a high risk of diabetes or heart disease--yet two-thirds of Americans do precisely that. The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan J. Guyenet, is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat. Rather, our appetites and food choices are led astray by ancient, instinctive brain circuits that play by the rules of a survival game that no longer exists. And these circuits don't care about how you look in a bathing suit next summer. To make the case, The Hungry Brain takes readers on an eye-opening journey through cutting-edge neuroscience that has never before been available to a general audience. The Hungry Brain delivers profound insights into why the brain undermines our weight goals and transforms these insights into practical guidelines for eating well and staying slim. Along the way, it explores how the human brain works, revealing how this mysterious organ makes us who we are.