Feeding an Addiction

MONTAGE one who had the chops and emotional OPEN BOOK As commissioner of connection to the music. Malcolm never the U.S. Food and Drug ceased to amaze me. Each time was a com- Administration, David A. pletely diff erent experience and he never Feeding an Kessler, M.D. ’77, sought turned his ear away from what I was sing- to regulate tobacco. ing, which made some really powerful His new passion is the music.” Campbell agrees, noting that in Addiction interaction of appetite jazz, “Your energy level is influenced by and food marketing in the person [soloist] who came before the current obesity epidemic. This excerpt comes from his recent book, The End of you.” Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Rodale, $25.95). He draws on a classical-music analogy to explain that “a jazz trio, quartet, ot long ago I flew to London the brain is wired to focus on the most or quintet is like a small chamber group, to talk with top executives of salient stimuli. “The more potent and and I’m enjoying the kind of interaction None of the world’s largest global multisensory you make your products, you get.” Even so, “I’ve never heard a clas- food companies. They were taking a the greater the reward and the greater sical pianist who sounded good in jazz,” beating from the British press about the the consumption,” I said bluntly. he says. “With jazz, the rhythm is so im- industry’s role in the obesity epidemic. By way of analogy, I described the portant—getting it into your soul. It’s Some members way nicotine an insult to a jazz musician to say, ‘Your of Parliament gains the power rhythm sounds like a classical musician were exploring to provoke de- trying to play jazz.’” their regulatory sire.…The sight Indeed, rhythm powerfully drives options, such of the packag- Campbell’s approach. For him, nirvana is as revising food ing, the crinkling “playing with a really ridiculous bass and labeling require- sound of the drummer who have the most solid swing- ments. The com- wrapper, the tac- ing rhythm. The ecstasy you can get from pany invited me, tile sensation as a combo like that—they just light a fire in along with Euro- you light a ciga- the room.” pean colleagues rette and hold Campbell continues to play classical who had govern- it between your works, partly because “Classical training ment experience fingers, and the addresses things that jazz training doesn’t with food regu- sensory char- address, like attention to tone quality and lation, to help acteristics of the subtlety of phrasing. You can pay at- them think about the first puff all tention to these things more easily when their responsi- bolster the re- the notes are all written out. With jazz, bilities. inforcement.… there’s so much else to deal with—impro- …I opened my Shifting back vising is mostly about knowing what to set of Power- to food, I told play, rather than how you play it. But the Point slides to my audience that best jazz musicians know what to play the one that showed a circle with the industry tactics and social norms bol- and how to play it.” names of deadly diseases listed around ster the reinforcing properties of sugar, In his own jazz compositions, Camp- its perimeter. At the center of the cir- fat, and salt in much the same way— bell works at the most fundamental level cle I’d written “obesity.” After outlining through their appeal to the senses, the of what to play. For example, the silky obesity’s role in stroke, hypertension, power of advertising, ready availability, surface texture of “Snow” moves over high cholesterol, and diabetes, I provided and cultural patterns that allow us to shifting rhythmic cadences that segue some numbers documenting the tre- eat all the time. from an unusual 7/4 meter into and out of mendous rise in the incidence of obesity Put it all together, I said, and “You other rhythms, all nuanced by Campbell’s and explained the flaws in the com- end up with a highly reinforcing product characteristic syncopated accents. In the monly held notion that our weight is set that provokes conditioned and driven piece, “There are three sections that peo- at a predetermined point. behavior.” ple solo over,” he explains. “Each has its …When I said that people tend to eat For a moment there was complete own space and harmony.” excessively if food is readily accessible, I silence in the room. Then one executive The Harvard-NEC program was the could see the executives’ facial expres- spoke up. “Everything that has made us deciding factor in convincing Campbell sions begin to change. They understood successful as a company is the problem,” to attend Harvard. “I needed to find a that I was going to the heart of their he said. way of doing music seriously,” he says. “It business model. I described the stimulat- And then, to their credit, they began keeps me in the Boston music scene, and ing qualities of sugar, fat, and salt, espe- to rethink their strategies about labeling I wouldn’t have met a lot of the people I cially in combination, and told them that and portion size. play with otherwise. Plus, the teachers © STEVEN MARK NEEDHAM/ENVISION/CORBIS are at such a high level.” (Campbell has 16 July - August 2009 Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard.

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