If you didn't become a food psychologist, what would you be?
I would probably work at Goldman Sachs, I think they should change their name to “Goldman Fats” because everyone seems to get fat from all the stress there.

What is food psychology?
Using psychological techniques to change the food habits and programming of a lifetime. Diets are just words on a page, you don't change the thinking and feelings of decades with a piece of paper. As children, many of us were given a cookie as a treat; you were never bad when you got a cookie. Think about the words that represent love such as "cookie" and "sweetie" we are trained to eat to feel better from our earliest life.

What is your favorite food?
Why have just one favorite? I sometimes enjoy a dessert on a Friday night or a weekend but never keep it in my house.

Do you believe in food deprivation?
My work is about substitution, not deprivation. I teach my patients to be "food smart". I study the foods that they love and I find them great tasting substitutes. We want the taste without the calories.

What is weight control really about?
Weight control is about how we should behave. Everyone I have ever seen could write a diet book, we do not have a knowledge problem. The foods that make us heavy are well known and universally recognized. Weight loss is about "calories in" and "calories out"— but success at weight control is about strategy, not will power!

What are the unique characteristics of your practice?
My patients have lost weight before but they have never changed their thinking. If you think a cookie is a treat every time you get upset, you will gain weight back. What works for weight control is not a "food pyramid" but a mosaic that looks at your food history, the neurochemistry of foods that trigger cravings, behavioral strategies that teach you how to prevent cravings and feelings of deprivation. People don't come to me just to lose weight, they come to lose the problem! The unique weight control techniques I have developed are about liberation not deprivation.

Why are your diet strategies unique? What makes them different from other nutritionists and dietitians?
I don't teach my patients typical restaurant strategy such as "when dining out, to eat half and leave the other half on the plate." This runs contrary to human behavior. I look at the strategies that help people to become winners and, most importantly, I teach them what to do if they can't eat half and leave the other half on the plate, and still be a winner. We don't have a problem in counting calories and knowing what to eat. We have a problem in knowing how to stop the counting. It is a lifestyle and thinking problem.

Many dietitians suggest nuts as a healthy snack? Do you agree?
Yes. Nuts are a healthy snack if you have about 7 to 10. The problem is, people eat nuts by the handful, they don't count them and I have found them to be one of the biggest trigger foods for many people. If this applies to you, the advice may be a prime example of great nutrition but lousy psychology. So much of the advice given for weight control is dismissive of human experience, that is why it fails.

What is your best advice to someone trying to lose weight?
Ask yourself "what is my history with these foods" and you will have found the north star, the GPS that will guide you through the world of food.

How are mood and food related?
Whatever you have to deal with in your life today, you will deal with better if you are in control of your weight and eating. Eating has not made us happy, it has only made us heavy!