Fat Land Review

The day I picked up Fat Land I had just returned from ten days in Paris. Even a short absence had recalibrated my eyes: everyone just looked BIG, back home on American soil. So it was with particular interest that I delved into Greg Critser's multi-faceted explanation of why Americans have become the fattest people in the world.

Fat Land stitches together an impressive collection of facts and studies in detailing how "boundary-free culture, class, free-market entrepreneurism and biology make modern man fat." Among Critser's reasons for our increasing girth are:
• the proliferation of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in the last 30 years. This low-cost sweetener enabled food companies to offer an explosion of new snacks and super-sized foods at affordable prices. This has resulted not only in extra calories but in specific health problems related to our metabolism of HFCS, which recent research shows may raise triglycerides and contribute to insulin resistance.
• a boundary-less society, in which endless snacking and huge portions are no longer considered gluttonous. Again, this may result not only in extra calories but in other health problems like diabetes from the almost-constant presence of elevated insulin in our bloodstreams.
• the elimination of phys ed and free play among most kids, and the substitution of TV for more active pursuits.

There is, in Critser's opinion, no one principal cause. In fact, as Jim Hill, a health specialist quoted in the book, says, "becoming obese is a normal response to the American environment."

Although many of Critser's themes come as no surprise, the information he uses to develop these themes is often eye-opening and fascinating. We hear the story of supersizing at McDonald's, and learn that the company's marketing goal is 20 visits per month, per customer. We compare our own child-raising approach to intriguing information on how French mothers establish their kids' eating patterns. We find out about innovative solutions, like the school in Downey, CA that set up a gym of video games powered by stationary bikes where kids could zap aliens as long as they could pedal. We review the development of High Fructose Corn Syrup and learn how it affects the liver differently from other sugars. Critser is, in most cases, an excellent writer who uses well-researched specifics and appropriate humor to make complex subjects, from metabolism to socio-economics, emminently readable.

Overall the book is well-done and highly recommended. Some parts of Fat Land, however, could have used another edit. The author has collected too many good anecdotes and seems loath to pare them down to keep his arguments moving. The section on exercise bogs down in an overly-long discussion of changing exercise recommendations, culminating in the perplexing statement that walking two miles briskly is "a far cry...from the reformers' original recommendation for 30-60 minutes a day of brisk walking." In fact, reliable sources define brisk walking as 4 mph—making two miles the same as 30 minutes, not a far cry at all. Critser's corollary theme that the poor suffer the brunt of our obesity epidemic is also unevenly developed. He's onto something in this area, but his rationale that new immigrants are more apt to possess the "thrifty gene" doesn't make sense. Genetics change slowly; too many of us "comfortable Caucasians" are just a few generations removed from starving Irish peasants and German mill workers for this argument to explain weight/class differences.

Critser wisely balances his discussion of eating too much with attention to exercising too little. But largely missing is any information on eating well. As a result, Fat Land leaves readers with the tired idea that we all must deprive ourselves mercilessly to lose weight, when in fact many people could drop excess pounds and regain health by switching to whole grains and a more plant-based diet. Generous helpings of the RIGHT foods might be more acceptable to Americans' Land-o'-Plenty mindset -- and in the end, require fewer sweeping changes in American society.

Those quibbles aside, Fat Land is a worthwhile overview of the complex subject of obesity in American society. Read it, be appropriately appalled, and then figure out how you can be part of the solution. Clean the junk food out of your cupboards. Walk whenever possible. Fight vending machines at your kids' schools. Plan family dinners without TV. Support your local Farmers' Market. If obesity is indeed a normal response to the American environment, our only hope is to change that environment in positive ways.

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Review © 2003 Cynthia Harriman.
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