Rethinking Thin

"This book will change your thinking about weight, whether you struggle with it or not." -- Publishers Weekly Review 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. 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. "An incisive, thought-provoking examination of a subject that concerns us all. This book will educate and illuminate those seeking solid information about the struggle to lose weight." -- Dr. Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think Gina Kolata is a senior writer for the New York Times who reports on science and medicine. She has won numerous awards for her reportage, and she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting in 2000. A former senior writer for Science magazine, she is the author of six books, including the national bestseller Flu. Ellen Archer is an acclaimed audiobook narrator, and winner of a coveted Audie Award for For the Love of a Dog. Her recent audiobooks include the New York Times bestseller Smashed by Koren Zailckas, Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami.