Books › Fat Land
Fat Land
First published 2003 · 256 pages
An impassioned, gimlet-eyed expose that blends hard-hitting nutritional science with disarmingly funny cultural critique.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like receiving an urgent, eye-opening wake-up call delivered by a remarkably witty and unflinching investigative journalist. The narrative moves at a brisk, engaging pace, fueled by impassioned reporting and a wry, disarming humor that keeps the heavy subject matter accessible. Readers are immersed in a provocative exploration of American food habits, feeling the weight of institutional failures while appreciating the author's sharp, gimlet-eyed observations on everything from diet fads to parenting myths. The prose is sharp and discerning, balancing alarming scientific realities with incisive cultural commentary. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour hard-hitting critiques that challenge societal norms and demand a reevaluation of the everyday choices we make about health and consumption.
- Mood
- urgent
- provocative
- eye-opening
- Tone
- impassioned
- wry
- critical
- discerning
- unflinching
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- cultural critique · food politics · societal norms · parenting myths · public health
- The writing
- Sharp, discerning journalistic prose that balances hard-hitting facts with disarmingly funny, gimlet-eyed observations.
- The arc
- Moves from an alarming realization of systemic failures to an impassioned, pragmatic call for personal and societal change.
- Who it's for
- Readers who devour witty, hard-hitting journalistic exposes on American culture, food politics, and public health.
Content notes
- discussions of obesity
- diet culture
- childhood health
About the book
"Fat Land highlights the groundbreaking research that implicates cheap fats and sugars as the alarming new metabolic factors making our calories stick, and shows how and why children are too often the chief metabolic victims of such foods. No one else writing on obesity in America takes as hard a line as Critser on the institutionalized lies we've been telling ourselves about how much we can eat and how little we can exercise.
His expose of the Los Angeles schools' opening of the nutritional floodgates in the lunchroom and his examination of the political and cultural forces that have set the bar on American fitness low, and then lower, are both discerning reporting and impassioned wake-up calls.".
"Disarmingly funny, Fat Land leaves no diet books - including Dr. Atkins's - unturned. Fashions, both leisure and street, and American-style religion are subject to Critser's gimlet eye as well. Memorably, Fat Land takes on baby-boomer parenting shibboleths - that young children won't eat past the point of being full and that the dinner table isn't the place to talk about food rules - and gives advice many families will use to lose."--BOOK JACKET.
Description from Open Library.
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