The issue with Osama on the cover -- great article about Seth Roberts
and his discovery, through self-experimentation.

You can read more at the blog without a NY Times subscription:

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog.php

The idea is that when food is plentiful and flavorful, in the paleo
Summer, for instance, the body revs up and makes you hungry and puts
away the fat.

When food is scarce and not flavorful, in the paleo Winter for instance,
your body makes you not hungry.

Since we live in an era where we have flavors and calories always
available to us, is it a wonder that we have weight and health problems?

Dr. Roberts found that you can eat much less without going hungry, if
you consume flavorless calories between meals. He has experimented with
swallowing a bit of olive oil for several years, and lost lots of weight
without effort.

He posits that flavorful foods that have calories raise the body's
set-point and that this can be easily manipulated.

The link to his draft paper is at:

http://freakonomics.com/pdf/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf

--Richard