Losing It False Hopes and Fat Profits in the Diet Industry
A reformed dieter and an exbulimic, Laura Fraser traces our fixation with thinness to the images that began appearing a hundred years ago in magazines like Ladies Home Journal and Cosmopolitan. Fraser chronicles the corresponding growth of a $50 billion a year industry that provides false hope in exchange for cash. In this meticulously researched journey through Dietland, Fraser gives the inside scoop on:
Diet drugs, including the controversial phen/fen
Diet gurus Richard Simmons, Susan Powter, and Dean Ornish
Commercial weight loss centers, including Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers
Weightloss products like thigh creams and diet cookies
Provocative, political, and personal, this revealing book is a remarkable work of investigative journalism and an enthralling, compelling story with almost universal relevance.
The hardcover edition of Losing It received major television coverage, including appearances on “NBC Nightly News,” the “Today” show, “Home and Family,” and “Good Day New York.” Excerpts of Losing It and related articles by Laura Fraser appeared in Mirabella, Vogue, Glamour, Fitness, Good Housekeeping, Self, Mademoiselle, and Health.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Factually Incorrect
I have yet to finish reading this book; however I was incensed when I came across a glearing inaccuracy on page 101. This says tons against this ‘writer’ who obviously did NOT do her homework when writing this book.
It is very hard to find credibility in a book which lacks a factual background.
Further -
Calling Paul Raford a ‘..public health specialist..” is like calling your family doctor a public health specialist. Dr Raford had written nothing on diet pills before the Wyden hearings. His critique was seriously flawed and poorly written.
Incidentally aspirin has far more adverse effects and overdoses per doses consumed than diet pills ever have. Ms Fraser implies that all overdoses were from PPA. Far from it. A lot more attention should have been paid to products like ephedra way back then!
Sure the diet industry is not perfect. I am horrified at how the public accepts new diets that come on the market; but I am also disappointed with writers who go to the trouble to write a book yet make little effort to check their facts.
4 Stars Just Finished Losing It
She covers nearly everything, doesn’t talk much about Type II diabetes, doesn’t cover liposuction at all, and she DOES say that losing weight is deleterious to your health (directly negating what a previous reviewer wrote). She talks about dieting causing more fat to be layered on when it fails, but also about how dieting to lose weight actually kills the heart muscle, and can cause heart attacks (John Candy is cited). Her thing is not that it is unhealthy to “lose weight if you are meant to once you start eating healthy and exercising regularly”, but that repetitively starving the body’s muscles and other tissues is simply bad for your health. She says some people will stay round and plump looking even when eating normally (i.e., not overeating all the time, not undereating all the time, but eating till your satisfied and knowing when you are hungry.)
What I really liked was that she talks about the healthfulness of eating plenty of nutritious calories and getting plenty of exercise, as in “eat your veggies and then go outside and play.” Seems so commonsensical, but most of us would rather wait for a pill to solve our problems and to do it fast. We would rather change to fit society than tell society to start accepting ALL sorts of bodies and types. Probably, because this is the USA, we will never get around to letting go of our puritanical viewpoints (part of which is denying the self=godlike), and we will continue to be thrown an onslaught of thin, plastic surgery girls to look at in the media. The only way we can stop feeling bad about ourselves is probably to just get over it and live our lives to the fullest.
I like what she says about living.
5 Stars Wake-up America!
The book goes behind the closed doors of the diet industry and reveals what’s really going on in the world of dieting. This book really is a wake-up call to all those who have fallen into the American diet trap. I was astonished at some of the tricks and gimmicks used by the diet industry! The book even gives some steps to becoming a healthy eater by relying on yourself, rather than following someone else’s diet.
5 Stars Freedom from Guilt!
Fraser traces the history of what’s been considered acceptable weight (surprise, it hasn’t always been the Kate Moss figure), as well as debunking all those “diet gurus” out there. Goodbye Richard Simmons, Weight Watchers and Susan Powter! She presents all the negatives associated with gastic bypass (not only do they fail, but they bring about huge health problems). Finally, she offers guidelines on how to live DIET FREE! Yes, she actually promotes how to just eat normally (who’s have thought?). BUY THIS BOOK, you will not regret it!
5 Stars An excellent read for anybody
As a fat person, I was particularly interested in this book and it did not disappoint me. The author’s engaging style and thorough research draw in the reader and make this book a quick read. I was convinced after reading this book that weight loss surgery would be the absolute worst thing for me and that I should concentrate on living an active life and enjoying myself instead of going on yet another frustrating and difficult diet. There is no “quick and easy answer” to weight loss, which is amply illustrated by this book.
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