Treating Obesity: Focus on Eating Behaviors

Obesity, defined as the excessive accumulation of fat in the body, remains a public health concern due to its association with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Obesity is a disease of multifactorial etiology including, but not limited to, genetics, epigenetics, hormones, food environment and eating behavior - food cravings, response to food cues, and food addictions. The obesogenic environment in which we live provides easy access to ultra-processed, hyperpalatable foods at all times of the day. Combine this constant abundance of food with our primitive Stone Age brains, which drive our cravings for sweet, fatty and salty flavors, and you have the perfect setting overeating and, subsequently, weight gain. Thankfully, there are strategies we can use to help with our food cravings and addictions, without denying ourselves of the foods we love. 

After years as an adjunct professor, Jill R. Silverman ’97 became an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at SUNY Farmingdale in 2020. She has been practicing as a certified Registered Dietitian Nutritionist since 2002. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Binghamton University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and received her PhD in nutritional biochemistry from Columbia University in 2002. Her dissertation topic was on the association between lipoprotein(a) and heart disease. Her current research interests are nutrition, weight, and eating behaviors. She is a member of the Obesity Medicine Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.