Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It
by Laura Fraser
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laura FraserEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-01-01
ISBN: 0525938915
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Book Reviews of Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It
Book Review: One Person's Opinion
Summary: 3 Stars
This book seems to be painted as some type of Expose' by some, but it's really more accurately described as one person's opinion. Actually, the book rather reminds me of the recent movie Supersize Me, in that it can be entertaining, and does have some facts to back up the content, but in the end is not really journalism or science, but is commentary. No one is perfectly objective, but there is a wide gulf between something like a science journal article and a book like this. That isn't to say that the book is worthless, of course; but only that it shouldn't be taken as the last word on the subject. Or the most important word.
Laura Fraser is a slightly overweight, city-dwelling, liberal, probably somewhat spiritual, somewhat iconoclastic, writer. She had some interesting experiences with weight early in life, and she still struggles with some of those issues that began decades ago. In a way, saying that is merely repeating what Laura Fraser herself says in the book. However, it needs repeating because more than once she goes into a somewhat polemical mode in which everything is painted in black and white, leaving no room for grey. In those cases, it's important to know where she's coming from, and where she wants to take us (the readers). For example, that food and diet industry tries to milk money out of consumers is undoubtedly true: ALL businesses try to milk as much money out of consumers as they think they can. For better or worse, that's capitalism. But, that these same companies are as hell-bent on trapping people in vicious cycles, creating problems that they can then provide solutions to, etc. seems a bit less likely. Leastwise, it's hard to believe that there are so many people out to get less than ideally weighted women, as Laura Fraser seems to believe.
Overall I liked the book, though it had a certain unevenness to it. I don't just mean that it started somewhat slow--history is often like that, no matter who the author. By uneven, I meant that the best and most insightful parts were the ones which were most personal (e.g., overviews of when she personally met people like Richard Simmons and Susan Powter); and oddly enough, the worse parts (often seeming more like diatribes than anything) were the ones in which she probably genuinely tried to be most objective and provide references to scientific findings. So, I guess I would have enjoyed the book more had it been more openly subjective, providing commentary, and tried less to be something scientific or journalistic. In the end it just came off as subjective pseudo-science, neither having the power and persuasion of personal testimony, nor the persuasive factualness of hard evidence.
I think the book is a good counter-weight of sorts to some of the information that we get bombarded with as consumers--but then no information can necessary be taken as the last word we need on a subject. As an example, the book is decidedly anti-fasting. And many recent studies seem to support the idea that many smaller meals are better than great lengths of time between meals. Yet I have also seen studies which praise the healthy and cleansing benefits of fasting, and my own religious tradition (Eastern Orthodox) has been fasting since that Jesus fellow told his disciples to do it a few thousand years ago. The answer to the problems raised in this book probably can be found somewhere between the black painted by the food and diet industries and the white painted by Laura Fraser.
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