The anti-diet revolution is poised to sweep the nation, but are we really ready for a brave, plump new world? American dieting has it all — nearly every pathological strand in our national character twists into this banal tangle of obsessions. We’re the fattest country in the world, and the most diet-prone. Our fixation on eating and body size betrays our desire for saintly self-discipline and rampant consumption, conformity and self-expression, purity and pollution, quick fixes and bootstrap striving, the craving to be rescued and the impulse to rebel. Read up on it and you’ll find that nearly everything anyone has written on the subject (no matter what eating plan they advocate) fits one of two classic types of American public discourse: the declaration of independence and the evangelical personal testimony.
Menu
