Rethinking Thin

[tikistitch]

So, if you're on a diet. Or if you're thinking about going on a diet. Or if you've been on a diet and lost some weight. Or if you've just regained the weight you lost on the last diet. Again.

And especially, if you're a thin person who's kind of mystified by all this...

You ought to read this book.

Speaking as a scientist, most science writing in the mainstream media ranges from bad to worse. You can't blame journalists for all of it, as they're not the experts, and scientists sometimes add to the stupidity by emphasizing the selling points from their grant proposals, for example, how the miracle compound that gobbled up cancer cells in a test tube is gonna save humanity, that is, if we ever work out the small issue of feeding it to humans without killing them.

But a lot of science journalism is just....stupid. And since we happen to know an awful lot about eating and diets and that kind of stuff, it seems to us extra stupid. Every time they discover a new chemical floating around in your gut that makes rats eat more chow, or makes rats eat less chow, or makes rats form their chow into little replicas of Devil's Tower, it's the new magic bullet for weight loss. Ya know, it's dumb.

Gina Kolata, a long time New York Times reporter, tends to get things right a lot. It's quite refreshing. We haven't finished Rethinking Thin yet, but she's already gotten a lot of things very right. Like the simple fact that after decades of trying (actually, if you read the book, it's more like centuries of trying) diets don't really help people lose weight.

It's something that's infinitely more annoying when you're constantly exposed to news articles, like this one, for example, where someone is telling you to lose weight. Uh, yeah, ok, how?

There's also a bit on why dieters tend to perseverate, despite the fact that most people end up trying diet after diet after diet to no permanent effect.

It's definitely a little depressing. And we don't really agree with her conclusions (ok, we skipped ahead a bit). But it's really well written, and it might help change how you think about your body.

You can read a book review here, and a sample chapter. Though, you may be only able to see it if you get Times Select.