While there are countless books on the topic of caloric or need-based eating, obesity and overeating can also result from eating that is not driven by hunger - but by behavioral, biological and social rewards of food.

Dr Avena introduces recent research that found excess food intake to be largely driven by the palatability of food and the pleasure derived from eating. She explains the neurochemistry of food reward and the hotly debated concept of 'food addiction', while providing up-to-date information from the body of scientific literature regarding food reward.