Price: $2.99
(as of Dec 06, 2024 12:20:19 UTC – Details)
In this eye-opening book, New York Times science writer Gina Kolata shows that our society’s obsession with dieting and weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals.
Rethinking Thin is at once an account of the place of diets in American society and a provocative critique of the weight-loss industry. Kolata’s account of four determined dieters’ progress through a study comparing the Atkins diet to a conventional low-calorie one becomes a broad tale of science and society, of social mores and social sanctions, and of politics and power.
Rethinking Thin asks whether words like willpower are really applicable when it comes to eating and body weight. It dramatizes what it feels like to spend a lifetime struggling with one’s weight and fantasizing about finally, at long last, getting thin. It tells the little-known story of the science of obesity and the history of diets and dieting—scientific and social phenomena that made some people rich and thin and left others fat and miserable. And it offers commonsense answers to questions about weight, eating habits, and obesity—giving us a better understanding of the weight that is right for our bodies.
ASIN : B004VMWJUC
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 29, 2008)
Publication date : April 29, 2008
Language : English
File size : 3051 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 274 pages
Customers say
Customers find the book well-researched, smart, and eye-opening. They say it presents material of importance. Opinions are mixed on the writing quality, with some finding it entertaining and talented, while others say it’s interesting but not insightful.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
