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The Obesity Epidemic
Increasing obesity levels are currently big news but do we think carefully enough about what this trend actually means? Everybody – including doctors, parents, teachers, sports clubs, businesses and governments – has a role to play in the ‘war on obesity’. But is talk of an obesity ‘crisis’ justified? Is it the product of measured scientific reasoning or age-old ‘habits of mind’? Why is it happening now? And are there potential risks associated with talking about obesity as an ‘epidemic’? The Obesity Epidemic proposes that obesity science and the popular media present a complex mix of ambiguous knowledge, familiar (yet unstated) moral agendas and ideological assumptions.
232 pages, Paperback
First published February 8, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 11, 2014
This book was rare and expensive but it's among the best money I have ever dropped on a nonfiction book.
I have spent years trying unsuccessfully to convince people that the obesity "problem" is a lot more complicated than simply choosing the right diet & forcing yourself to exercise. I have tried to convince self-professed experts that real people in everyday life experience far different results than are promised by everybody from doctors, insurers, personal gym trainers, and all the way on down to snake-oil fly-by-night diet buskers. Furthermore, I have tried unsuccessfully to argue to people that obesity and eating itself are enmeshed in a maze of hidden biases, social attitudes and moral judgments. These two authors did all that work for me seven years ago when they published this book, and I didn't even know it at the time.
Although the language was professional, I found it very accessible and clear, and to my surprise their writing offered many subtle hidden treasures of wit for those who can approach the subject with a light heart. But the real point of the book is to cite concrete exmples that show that we have not achieved the certainty with which ancient canards and old saws about fat are presented as fact today, even in peer-reviewed large-scale scientific studies published in leading journals by gigantic institutes like hospitals and universities. The book's overarching implication, that science does not necessarily free its adherents from bias and ideology, has huge consequences for our entire top-down, expert-driven culture today. But that's a whole different topic that the authors barely brush on.
Nevertheless, I wish I could bolt a copy of this book (at comfortable reading distance) to the heads of anyone who says that weight gain is a simple matter of calories-in-versus-calories-out, in such a manner that they can't remove the bolts until they finish the book.
I have spent years trying unsuccessfully to convince people that the obesity "problem" is a lot more complicated than simply choosing the right diet & forcing yourself to exercise. I have tried to convince self-professed experts that real people in everyday life experience far different results than are promised by everybody from doctors, insurers, personal gym trainers, and all the way on down to snake-oil fly-by-night diet buskers. Furthermore, I have tried unsuccessfully to argue to people that obesity and eating itself are enmeshed in a maze of hidden biases, social attitudes and moral judgments. These two authors did all that work for me seven years ago when they published this book, and I didn't even know it at the time.
Although the language was professional, I found it very accessible and clear, and to my surprise their writing offered many subtle hidden treasures of wit for those who can approach the subject with a light heart. But the real point of the book is to cite concrete exmples that show that we have not achieved the certainty with which ancient canards and old saws about fat are presented as fact today, even in peer-reviewed large-scale scientific studies published in leading journals by gigantic institutes like hospitals and universities. The book's overarching implication, that science does not necessarily free its adherents from bias and ideology, has huge consequences for our entire top-down, expert-driven culture today. But that's a whole different topic that the authors barely brush on.
Nevertheless, I wish I could bolt a copy of this book (at comfortable reading distance) to the heads of anyone who says that weight gain is a simple matter of calories-in-versus-calories-out, in such a manner that they can't remove the bolts until they finish the book.
December 19, 2010
Each chapter is fascinating - great reading for commuters who don't like looking at people
July 28, 2012
Impressive antidote to the current moral panic on 'obesity'. Shows how problematic claims around the 'science' of 'obesity' are, and how ideology informs the so-called scientific discourse.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews