The Hundred Year Diet: America's Voracious Appetite for Losing Weight
A lively cultural history of the American weight loss industry that explores the origins of our obsession with dieting\ As a nation battling an obesity epidemic, we spend more than $35 billion annually on diets and diet regimens. Our weight is making us sick, unhappy, and bigger than ever, and we are willing to hand over our hard-earned money to fix the problem. But most people don’t know that the diet industry started cashing in long before the advent of the Whopper.\ The Hundred Year Diet...
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A lively cultural history of the American weight loss industry that explores the origins of our obsession with dietingAs a nation battling an obesity epidemic, we spend more than $35 billion annually on diets and diet regimens. Our weight is making us sick, unhappy, and bigger than ever, and we are willing to hand over our hard-earned money to fix the problem. But most people don’t know that the diet industry started cashing in long before the advent of the Whopper.The Hundred Year Diet is the story of America’s preoccupation with diet, deprivation, and weight loss. From the groundbreaking measurement of the calorie to World War I voluntary rationing to the Atkins craze, Susan Yager traces our relationship with food, weight, culture, science, and religion. She reveals that long before America became a Fast Food Nation or even a Weight Loss Nation, it was an Ascetic Nation, valuing convenience over culinary delight.Learn how one of the best-fed countries in the world developed some of the worst nutritional habits, and why the respect for food evident in other nations is lacking in America. Filled with food history, cultural trivia, and unforgettable personalities, The Hundred Year Diet sheds new light on an overlooked piece of our weight loss puzzle: its origins.
ForewordIntroductionPART ONE: THE FOUNDING FATHERS1 Sex, Indigestion, and Weight Loss 32 America, What's your Weight? 18PART TWO: YOU'RE PERFECT; NOW DIET!3 Prohibition, Depression, and Banana Cream Pie 394 Death by Dinitrophenol 485 Weight-Loss Moratorium 526 Who Needs Carbs? 60PART THREE: HOW TO START AN EPIDEMIC7 A Plague is Born 718 "How Do I Lose Weight Fast?" 889 Pure, White, and Deadly 10010 Dieting by the Book 10711 Eat Fat, Get Thin 11312 Don't Start the Revolution without Atkins 12313 The Thinking Man's Diet 12914 America, We Have a Situation 135PART FOUR: THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF OBESITY15 How Much Should I Weigh Again? 14716 Diets are Like Streetcars 15117 How Much Should I Exercise Again? 16018 Fat-Free Fat 16919 The Pill on the Cover of Time 17220 Any Other Options, Doctor? 17921 Are We Just Really Hungry? 18722 What Epidemic? 191PART FIVE: WEIGHING IN ON THE FUTURE23 The Mysterious Case of the Diet Doctor 19724 Genetics, Chemistry, and a Plastic World 20225 The 7 Percent Solution 20826 The 100-Year Diet 213Conclusion: The Obesity Triangle 220Bibliography 223Endnotes 227Acknowledgments 254Index 256
