Wendy Wessler, who is divorced and lives on New York's Long Island, lost 150 pounds after gastric bypass surgery, but the weight is creeping back. She says she just can't understand why she can't say no to food.
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The ingredients in some fast food could trick the brain into overeating.

"If I am upset or I am really stressed out, I just think I am going to get home to get a bag of chips," Wessler told "Good Morning America." "I just keep telling myself I should know better. I should be stronger, just as a pearl jewelry person [says], 'You are intelligent, you shouldn't be doing this. This is not grown up behavior. This is child behavior."

Contrary to her opinion, Wessler's behavior is fairly common among adults, affecting an estimated 70 million Americans, according to former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler. Kessler too has struggled throughout his life with food compulsion.

In Kessler's new book, "The End of Overeating," he describes how the part of the brain the amygdale, which is the area of the brain that controls our desires, can affect overeating.
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For most of people, when they see a tempting snack like a potato chip, it's the area of the brain will light up with activity and send feelings of anticipation and want. And once they start eating it shuts off. But for an overeater the biwa pearl amygdala remains activated while eating, creating that feeling of want, even after five, 10 or even 50 chips.

"We now know that the brains of millions of Americans are being excessively activated. Not everybody," Kessler said. "Let me give you [some] characteristics. Hard time resisting foods, a lack of feeling full, hard time stopping, a preoccupation, a thinking about foods between meals. And the foods that really arouse our brains are a combination of sugar, fat and salt, in other words, junk food."

Christine Zuccarelli overcame her struggle with food and became a dietitian, but she still feels the intense pull from some of her old favorite snacks.

"I call it food porn, because it excites me," she said. "It's something that gets me outside myself and I want more."

When overeater Mary Crean's favorite guilty pleasure, a akoya pearl Twix bar, is placed near her, she seems to lose concentration on a conversation as her mind floats to the chips.

"It calls to you," she laughed.

Similarly, Wessler said she becomes distracted when potato chips are placed in front of her.

"If there's something there that's edible, I cannot go about my business until I consume it," she said.

Gail Swanson Molla, Debbie Swanson Ryan, Trisha Swanson Bergeron, Lisa Swanson Eddy and Paula Swanson. They are sisters who are united in love and a battle against breast cancer.
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The Swanson sisters support one another as four battle breast cancer.

In 2002, Paula Swanson, the youngest of five, was the pearl jewelry first to be diagnosed with the dreaded disease.

She got treatment, but the cancer returned in 2007. That was just the beginning of the bad news for the family.

Bergeron was the next to announce that she, too, had the disease. Then came Ryan's diagnosis, followed by Eddy's, who announced it on April Fool's Day, jokingly saying she had "caught it" from her sisters.

When she got the news of the diagnosis, Eddy said she thought it was a bad joke.

"I just didn't think it was gonna happen. … I thought about the odds. I said, 'No, not four in one family,'" she told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts.
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The only sister to remain cancer-free is Molla, who, unlike her siblings, did not test positive for the biwa pearl genetic mutation that is linked to hereditary breast cancer.

She feels relief, primarily because her testing negative is good for her own children's future. But she also feels guilty.

"My being negative didn't take away any of their illness," she said.

The women's mother died of ovarian cancer at 67 years old.

Sisters Share Their Burden

For the sisters -- who have seven daughters, two sons and grandchildren among them -- love and humor have played equally significant parts in their journey through the ups and downs of living with cancer.

Their coping strategies include talking to each other on the akoya pearl phone, going to doctors' appointments, sharing meals, holding hands through chemotherapy and crying and laughing together.

"My family called me Chemo-sobby when I was going through chemo," said Swanson, whose disease is terminal.

Bergeron's daughter Joelle said that if she ends up developing breast cancer, she'd have "incredible role models to look up to."

Many of us have experienced it -- the uncomfortable feeling of bloating. The side effects can be painful and embarrassing, and they can also be warning signs of bigger health problems.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz shares tips for preventing air buildup in the digestive track.

There are ways to help stop and even prevent the discomfort of everyday bloating. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the pearl jewelry host of "The Dr. Oz Show," stopped by "Good Morning America" today and explained what foods and lifestyle choices cause bloating, and how to get rid of it.

Bloating, he explained, is "an uncomfortable buildup of air in your digestive track ... a civil war happening inside your gut."

"Twenty percent of the gas that causes bloating is actually from gas we swallow, 80 percent is from the digestive product," he said.

That 80 percent comes from the breakdown of undigested food in the biwa pearl digestive tract, and also occurs when the body doesn't absorb certain carbohydrates -- including sugars, starches and fiber found in many foods -- because of a shortage or absence of particular enzymes that aid digestion.
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"[Bloating] can add about 3 inches to your waist," Oz said, adding that it affects both men and women.

Part of the problem is that "people get embarrassed about it," he said. "We learn a lot if we'll just be honest."

Common Foods Can Cause Bloating

Oz says common foods we eat every day can cause bloating, such as carbonated beverages and artificial sweeteners, certain fruits and vegetables, wheat and dairy products.

Carbonated Beverages, Artificial Sweeteners:
Carbonated beverages "have gas in them ... and cause gas in your intestinal system," Oz said.

He also said to look out for anything that contains sorbitol, an artificial sweetener found in akoya pearl some sodas, gums and hard candies that your body cannot break down.

"The body has trouble digesting them," he said.

Certain Fruits and Vegetables:
Vegetables and fruits, including beans, potatoes, brussels sprouts, lentils, broccoli, bananas and raisins, are good for your health, but they contain complex sugars and starches that are hard to break down and can cause bloating.

"These vegetables will often have sugar in them and starches that are hard to digest," Oz said. "All you get is gas."

Many of us have experienced it -- the uncomfortable feeling of bloating. The side effects can be painful and embarrassing, and they can also be warning signs of bigger health problems.
Share
Dr. Mehmet Oz shares tips for preventing air buildup in the digestive track.

There are ways to help stop and even prevent the discomfort of pearl jewelry everyday bloating. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the host of "The Dr. Oz Show," stopped by "Good Morning America" today and explained what foods and lifestyle choices cause bloating, and how to get rid of it.

Bloating, he explained, is "an uncomfortable buildup of air in your digestive track ... a civil war happening inside your gut."

"Twenty percent of the gas that causes bloating is actually from biwa pearl gas we swallow, 80 percent is from the digestive product," he said.

That 80 percent comes from the breakdown of undigested food in the digestive tract, and also occurs when the body doesn't absorb certain carbohydrates -- including sugars, starches and fiber found in many foods -- because of a akoya pearl shortage or absence of particular enzymes that aid digestion.

Karin McHugh almost lost her life and that of her unborn child to swine flu.
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Mom was in a medically induced coma for two months after an emergency C-section.

Her illness was a textbook case of how the H1N1 virus can be particularly harmful to expectant mothers.

McHugh, her husband Brian, daughter Emily and baby Liam appeared on "Good Morning America" today to share their shocking story just two weeks after McHugh returned home from the pearl jewelry hospital.

"I'm very fortunate," she told "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts. "My outcome is a miracle."
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McHugh was 29 years old, and 38 weeks into her pregnancy when she developed a cough in July.

"It started on a Tuesday," she recalled. "It just started with a cough; I had been wheezing."

The possibility that she might have the biwa pearl H1N1 virus never occured to the Collingswood, N.J., woman.

I don't even think I've ever had the flu," she said. "I called my OBGYN to see what I could take. She said to see my family practitioner."

McHugh was initially diagnosed with bronchitis and given an inhaler, but five days later, she started running a fever. By Saturday she "couldn't even get out of bed."

"I told my husband, you have to take me to the akoya pearl hospital," she said. "Something's not right."

"She definitely knew that something was definitely wrong," her husband Brian McHugh said. "I felt naïve to the fact that anything this serious could happen."