Recognize the cues that tempt you to eat so that it’s easier to fight back against marketing tricks.

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WHAT IT MEANS: Your best interests—to eat right and be healthy—don’t coincide with food makers’ goals of selling you as much food as they can at the biggest possible profit. So it’s up to you to override the signals they send you. “Just because you’re being excessively stimulated doesn’t mean you should not take the responsibility to fight back and to prevent being manipulated,” Dr. Kessler says. The first step on the road to recovery is to understand that our brains are preprogrammed to want sugar, fat, and salt. And food companies play on that. “Once you understand that you’re being excessively stimulated and bombarded with cues, you can devise a strategy that works and you can avoid it.” Here are some starting points:

• Know what’s driving you to eat. “The next time you’re eating, try to figure out the cue,” Dr. Kessler says. Are you eating to satisfy a craving, or simply because you’re getting stressed? “For some people it’s sight, smell, location, the time of day—even being in the car can be a cue to eat something,” he adds.

• Avoid the stimuli. Once you know what’s stimulating you to eat, you can avoid it, Dr. Kessler says. One way to do that is to eat in structured settings. Sit down at a table at normal meal hours, rather than eat a sandwich as you walk down the street or drink a meal-replacement shake in the car on the way to work. This helps eliminate mindless eating habits that cause you to eat more food than you really need.

• Resist temptation—but not too much. One point Dr. Kessler makes in his book is that our biological impulses make it hard to blame overeating on a lack of willpower. In fact, resisting temptation can actually drive us to eat more. “The more you want [food], the more you pay attention to it,” he says. That starts an internal debate in your head—Yes, I want it. No, I shouldn’t have it. So how do you cut down on that wanting something? “Find something you want more that has greater value to you,” he says, such as a favorite food that has a better nutritional profile.

• Eat real food. There’s little hidden salt in an apple, or added fat on plate of farm-fresh vegetables. The less processed food you eat, and the more produce and whole grains you add, the less room you’ll have for those bacon cheeseburgers or deep-fried onions. Shop at local farmer’s markets for the best, freshest deals, and choose organic food, which is free of toxic chemicals and grown with a lighter impact on the planet.