How the ideology of low fat conquered America

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 139-177

  La Berge, Ann F ^a  

^a VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Cardiovascular disease; Cholesterol; Diet heart hypothesis; Fat and fats; Low fat diet; Obesity; Popular health; Weight loss

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE; FAT INTAKE; HEALTH PROMOTION; HISTORY; HUMAN; LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIET; LOW FAT DIET; OBESITY; RISK FACTOR; UNITED STATES; WEIGHT REDUCTION;

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES; DIET, CARBOHYDRATE-RESTRICTED; DIET, FAT-RESTRICTED; DIETARY FATS; HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, PRACTICE; HEALTH PROMOTION; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; HUMANS; OBESITY; RISK FACTORS; UNITED STATES; WEIGHT LOSS;

EID: 46849097531     PISSN: 00225045     EISSN: 14684373     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jhmas/jrn001     Document Type: Review

References (184)

1. William Coleman, "Health and Hygiene in the Encyclopé die: A Medical Doctrine for the Bourgeoisie," J. Hist. Med. Allied Sci., 1974, 29, 399-421.
2. See also Steven Shapin, "How to Eat Like a Gentleman: Dieting and Ethics in Early Modern England," in Right Living: An Anglo-American Tradition of Self-Help Medicine and Hygiene, ed. Charles Rosenberg (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 21-58.
3. General background can be found in Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies, and Fat (1986; New York: Anchor, 1990);
4. Peter Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (New York: New York University Press, 1997);
5. Harvey Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America (1993; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
6. For the reducing diet habits of college women, see Margaret A. Lowe, Looking Good: College Women and Body Image, 1875-1930 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
7. Theodore M. Porter, The Rise of Statistical Thinking (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), 52-54;
8. Ian Hacking, The Taming of Chance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), ch. 13.
9. The classic nineteenth-century source is Adolphe Quetelet, De l'homme et de développement de ses facultés ou essai de physique sociale, 2 vols. (Paris: Bachelier, 1835).
10. See also Louis-René Villermé, "Mémoire sur la taille de l'homme en France," Annales d'hygiène publique et de médecine légale, 1829, 1, 351-99.
11. On Villermé, see William Coleman, Death Is a Social Disease: Public Health and Political Economy in Early Industrial France (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), esp. 182-87;
12. and Ann F. La Berge, Mission and Method: The Early Nineteenth-Century French Public Health Movement (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), esp. 59-75.
13. Schwartz, Never Satisfied, 164-77, 336-38;
14. Stearns, Fat History, 111-14.
15. Katherine Flegal et al., "Excess Deaths Associated with Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity," J. Am. Med. Assoc., 20 April 2005, 293:15, 1861-67.
16. For reports on this article, see Gina Kolata, "Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says," http:// www.nytimes.com, 20 April 2005, and Editorial, "You Can Be Too Thin After All," http://www.nytimes.com, 22 April 2005, both accessed 22 April 2005.
17. On the idea that one's lifelong weight should remain the same as it was at age of eighteen or twenty-five - if that was a normal weight, see Walter C. Willett, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy (New York: Free Press, 2001), 41.Women's clothing sizes have gotten larger: Schwartz says (Never Satisfied, 337) that in 1939 a misses size 12 was for women whose measurements were 34-25-36; by 1971, measurements for size 12 were 35-26-37; the Lands' End catalog for June 2005 (65) gives the following measurements for size 12:37 and 1/2-30-40. Curiously, the location of women's waists has not remained constant. While, for most of the twentieth century, the waist was located a couple of inches above the navel, in some recent catalogs, such as Eddie Bauer, the waist is now measured around the navel. Lack of agreement on where the waist is located has consequences for health and disease because one of the ominous signs of cardiovascular disease, part of the so-called metabolic syndrome, is a waist measurement greater than 35 inches for a woman.
18. For a full explanation of this phenomenon, see Anonymous, "In Brief - Waist better than Weight as Measure of Health Risk," Harvard Women's Health Watch, January 2003, 10.5, o. InfoTrac OneFile, accessed 7 February 2006. In this publication women are directed: "To find your waist circumference, stand up straight, relax your stomach muscles, hold a tape measure at the level of your navel and circle your waist with it. The tape measure should lay snug (not pulled tight) against your skin."
19. The response from readers was swift. In the March 2003 issue, the editors reported: "We've heard from several readers who take issue with our measuring instructions in 'Whither thy waist?' (Harvard Women's Health Watch, January 2003, 7), a sidebar to an article about measures of health risk." The editors explained that readers took exception to their directions that the waist should be measured around the navel, arguing "that a woman's waist is at the narrowest part of her torso, likely well above the navel." Readers suggested that measuring at the navel might suggest a risk when in fact there was none. The editors contacted the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) to get the exact instructions for measuring waists. They provided an abbreviation of the instructions: "First, the researcher or technician palpates (feels by pressing gently) the right hip bone to locate and mark the high point of the ilium at the midaxillary line. She or he then places the lower edge of the tape measure just above the mark and extends the tape around the abdomen, keeping it parallel to the floor." The editors pointed out that this is about at the navel on most people, but a little below the navel on thin people. The editors then explain the conundrum: the waist is in a different location in terms of clothing and health. For clothing, the waist is indeed at the "narrowest part of the torso." But for scientists the waist is at the navel, because they have observed that is where "fat is typically deposited." Scientists refer to this as the "waist circumference," with NHANES III labeling it "abdominal circumference." In short, "It approximates the navel, but the official landmark for locating it is on the hip bone." This shift in tape measure location is bad news for most women because many more will have waists 35 inches or greater, the size identified for health risks. This discrepancy is rarely explained in either the scientific of popular health literature. In fact, this is the first full explanation I have seen anywhere.
20. See Anonymous, "In Brief-Readers Question Waist Whereabouts," Harvard Women's Health Watch, March 2003, 10.7, o. Infotrac OneFile, accessed 7 February 2006.
21. Daniel Levy and Susan Brink, A Change of Heart: How the People of Framingham, Massachusetts Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) 180, 182.
22. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001; New York: Perennial, 2002), esp. ch. 1.
23. Anne Barone, Chic and Slim: How those Chic French Women Eat all That Rich Food and Still Stay Slim (Austin, TX: Nouvelles Editions, 2001), 18.
24. Ibid., 19. On Americans' penchant for quantity over quality, see Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. and abridged by Richard D. Heffner (New York: Mentor, 1956), ch. 32, "Of the Taste for Physical Well-Being in America."
25. See the classic article, W. B. Kannel et al., "Factors of Risk in the Development of Coronary Heart Disease - Six-Year Follow-Up Experience: The Framingham Study," Ann. Intern. Med., 1961, 55, 33-50.
26. On coronary heart disease risk factors, see also Robert Aronowitz, Making Sense of Illness: Science, Society, and Disease (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), ch. 5, 111-44.
27. See also, William G. Rothstein, Public Health and the Risk Factor: A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2003).
28. Daniel Levy and Thomas J. Thom, "Disease Rates from Coronary Diseases-Progress and a Puzzling Paradox," N. Engl. J. Med., 24 September 1998, 339:13, 915-17.
29. Ancel Keys, Seven Countries: A Multivariate Analysis of Death and Coronary Heart Disease (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980);
30. Harry Marks, The Progress of Experiment and Therapeutic Reform in the United States, 1900-1990 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997);
31. Levy and Brink, Change of Heart.
32. This story is also recounted and analyzed in Rothstein, Public Health and the Risk Factor, esp. 192-367.
33. For a detailed account of the early years of the Framingham Study, see Gerald Oppenheimer, "Becoming the Framingham Study, 1947-1950," Am. J. Public Health, April 2005, 95, 603-10.
34. Walter Willett, Nutritional Epidemiology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 414;
35. William Rothstein, Public Health and the Risk Factor, 315.
36. Ancel Keys and Margaret Keys, How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way (New York: Doubleday, 1975).
37. American Heart Association, "Dietary Guidelines for Healthy American Adults," Circulation, 1996, 94, 1795-1800.
38. Kannel et al., "Factors of Risk."
39. t; 16. Irvine H. Page et al., "Dietary Fat and its Relation to Heart Attacks and Strokes," Report by the Central Committee for Medical and Community Program of the American Heart Association, Ad Hoc Committee on Dietary Fat and Atherosclerosis. Circulation, 1961, 23, 133-36, 133, 134.
40. Levy and Brink, Change of Heart, 184.
41. McGovern quotation cited in ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Marks, Progress of Experiment, 181-96.
44. Helen B. Hubert et al., "Obesity as an Independent Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease: A 26-Year Follow-Up of Participants in the Framingham Heart Study," Circulation, 1983, 67, 968-77.
45. "Lowering Blood Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease." NIH Consensus Statement Online 1984, http://consensus.nih.gov/1984/ 1984Cholesterol047html.htm, accessed 22 July 2007.
46. E. H. Ahrens, Jr. "The Diet-Heart Question in 1985: Has It Really Been Settled?" Lancet, 11 May 1985, 325, 1085-87;
47. Gary Taubes, "The Soft Science of Dietary Fat," Science, 30 March 2001, 291, 236-45;
48. see also Gary Taubes, "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" N. Y. Times Mag., 7 July 2002, viewed at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ fullpage.html?res=9F04E2D61F3EF934A35754C0A96498B63&sec=health&spon= &pagewanted=all, accessed 27 July 2007;
49. Willett, Nutritional Epidemiology, 422-23.
50. See, for example, George Bray and B. M. Popkin, "Dietary Fat Does Affect Obesity!" Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 1998, 68, 1157-73. But the low-fat diet was being challenged by a minority of scientists.
51. See, for example, Walter Willett, "Is Dietary Fat a Major Determinant of Body Fat?" Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 1998, 67, suppl., S556-62.
52. Jeremy Greene tells this story in some detail. See Jeremy A. Greene, Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 171-73 and 196-99.
53. Marion Nestle, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 31.
54. Ibid., 34-37.
55. Ibid., 38-42; Taubes, "Soft Science."
56. Ibid. Both Nestle and Taubes recount this part of the story. See Nestle, Food Politics, 40-42;
57. Taubes, "Soft Science."
58. "Lowering Blood Cholesterol"; Nestle, Food Politics, 46-50.
59. For the term "Snackwell's phenomenon," see Tamar Haspel, "Stealth Shopping: Insider Tips for Finding and Buying the Healthiest Groceries," Prevention, February 2005, 57, 208. The actual product name is SnackWell's.
60. Nestle, Food Politics, 65-66. See Nestle's ch. 2, esp. 51-60, for discussion of the food pyramid in the early 1990s.
61. Ibid., 123-25; Rothstein, Public Health and the Risk Factor, 331-32; Walter Willett and other scientists have maintained that in overweight, sedentary people refined carbohydrates and high-carbohydrate diets have different effects than in thin, active people. Such diets may increase appetite and discourage any weight loss.
62. See Willett, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, 86.
63. Rothstein, Public Health and the Risk Factor, 336-37.
64. Tom Shealey, "Coexisting with Fat," Prevention, December 1985, 37, 53-54;
65. Gale Malesky, ed., "Five Ways to Cut the Fat," Prevention, February 1987, 39, 34-56, 38;
66. Hans Fischer, "Dietary Fats: A Primer," Prevention, March 1987, 39, 98-100, 104-05.
67. Jane Brody, "U.S. Acts to Reshape Diets of Americans," N. Y. Times, 5 February 1980, A1, B16;
68. for a related article on the federal dietary guidelines, see Seth S. King, "Federal Role Is Expanding as Adviser on Nutrition," N. Y. Times, 5 February 1980, C1, C8.
69. For Brody's personal health column, see Jane E. Brody, "Hidden Fat: the Hazards," N. Y. Times, 18 June 1980, C1.
70. Her 1981 book, Jane Brody's Nutrition Book, with a section on fats and one entitled "How to Eat Health the Low-Fat Way," elaborated on her principal message.
71. Jane E. Brody, Jane Brody's Nutrition Book (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1981), esp. ch. 3 and 4.
72. Jane Brody, "America Leans to a Healthier Diet," N. Y. Times, 13 October 1985, Section 6, 32, column 1.
73. Jane E. Brody, "High Cholesterol Poses Heart Risk in a Third of Adults, New Study says," N. Y. Times, 7 June 1989, Section A, 8, column 5.
74. The study was published in the 7 July 1989 issue of J. Am. Med. Assoc. as P. W. Wilson et al., "Impact of National Guidelines for Cholesterol Risk Factor Screening: The Framingham Offspring Study," J. Am. Med. Assoc., 1989, 262, 41-44.
75. Gina Kolata, "Ideas and Trends; Advice about Cholesterol is Finding an Easy Market," N. Y. Times, 11 October 1987, Section 4, 8, column 1.
76. Daniel Goleman, "New Study Says Diet Can Heal Arteries," N. Y. Times, 15 November 1988, Section C, 1, column 1.
77. In the 1980s, clinical research did not have to include different population groups. Typically, white males could stand in for the whole population. Scientists assumed that one could extrapolate from these findings to other population groups. Underlying this assumption was the positivist universalizing notion that all human bodies were basically the same. See Steven Epstein, "Institutionalizing the New Politics of Difference in U.S. Biomedical Research," in The New Political Sociology of Science: Institutions, Networks, and Power, ed. Scott Frickel and Kelly Moore (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 327-50.
78. Goleman, "New Study."
79. Gina Kolata, "Proof that a Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Saves Lives," in The N. Y. Times Book of Health: How to Feel Fitter, Eat Better, and Live Longer (New York: Random House, 1998), 95-98, hereafter cited as NYT Book of Health.
80. Dr. George Blackburn, "Getting Your One-A-Day Fiber Booster," Prevention, November 1990, 42, 94.
81. Mark Bricklin, "The New Nonfat 'Miracle' Foods", Prevention, December 1991, 43, 30-31.
82. Mark Bricklin, "The Top 10 Health Stories of the Year," Prevention, December 1992, 44, 30-32, 30.
83. Mark Bricklin, "From Low to No," Prevention, January 1994, 46, 39-44, 41;
84. Bricklin, "Low-Fat Heaven: Shakes, Steak, Chili, Pizza and More," Prevention, February 1996, 46, 65-73.
85. Colleen Pierre, "The Secret of High-Protein Diets: What You Need to Know Before You Give Up Pasta," Prevention, June 1997, 49, 85-91.
86. Jane E. Brody, "Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat," N. Y. Times, 8 May 1990, Section C, 1, column 5.
87. Jane E. Brody, "Common Sense When Health Studies Conflict," in NYT Book of Health, 89-92.
88. Jane E. Brody, "Women's Different Pattern of Heart Disease," in NYT Book of Health, 220-22.
89. Gina Kolata, "Less Risk from Obesity," N. Y. Times, 4 June 1998, Section 4, 2, column 1.
90. Jane E. Brody, "For Most Trying to Lose Weight, Dieting Only Makes Things Worse," N. Y. Times, 23 November 1992, Section A, 1, column 4.
91. On set-point theory, see Jerome P. Kassirer and Marcia Angell, "Losing Weight - An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution," N. Engl. J. Med., 1 January 1998, 338, 52-54.
92. See also, Robert Pool, Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), ch. 3.
93. For some of the research on set-point theory, see Rudolph L. Leibel, Michael Rosenbaum, and Jules Hirsch, "Changes in Energy Expenditure Resulting from Altered Body Weight," N. Engl. J. Med., 9 March 1995, 332, 621-28.
94. Jane E. Brody, "The Rights and Wrongs of Dietary Fat," in NYT Book of Health, 92-95.
95. Gina Kolata, "Proof that a Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Saves Lives," in NYT Book of Health, 95-98.
96. See Jeremy Greene's account of this story in Prescribing by Numbers, 149-219.
97. Gina Kolata, "Critic Doubts Benefit of Standard Low-Fat Diet," in NYT Book of Health, 107-11.
98. For an excellent overview of this topic, see Frank B. Hu, JoAnn E. Manson, and Walter C. Willett, "Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review," J. Am. Coll. Nutr., 2001, 20, 5-19.
99. Ibid. For an overview and discussion of the research on the conversion of carbohydrates to saturated fats in the body, see Walter C. Willett and Rudolph L. Leibel, "Dietary Fat Is Not a Major Determinant of Body Fat," Am. J. Med., 30 December 2002, 113, S47-S59.
100. Jane E. Brody, "How to Control Cholesterol Levels," in NYT Book of Health, 111-13.
101. On the Mediterranean diet, see Walter C. Willett, "Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: A Cultural Model for Healthy Eating," Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 1995, 61, suppl., S1402-06.
102. Gina Kolata, "Vulnerable Hearts Face Advice Crisis," N. Y. Times, 17 February 1999, Section G, 9, column 3.
103. See also Bray and Popkin, "Dietary Fat,"
104. and Willett, "Is Dietary Fat a Major Determinant of Body Fat?"
105. Brody has recently revealed her earlier struggle with binge eating. She must have decided that if she could overcome this problem, so could others. If a moderate calorie-reduction diet and regular exercise schedule worked for her, it should work for everyone. It is often a mistake to generalize from one's own experience, however. See Jane E. Brody, "Out of Control: A True Story of Binge Eating," http://www.nytimes.com, accessed 20 February 2007. Brody wrote this on the occasion of the publication by Harvard researchers of a survey that found that binge eating is the most common eating disorder, affecting 1/35 adults. This disorder occurs in 2.8% of the population, a figure almost twice the rate for anexoria at .6% and bulimia at 1%, combined. This is curious, given the huge amount of attention that has been paid to anexoria and bulimia to the neglect of binge eating. Brody points out that binge eating is still not considered an eating disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, which fails to recognize the condition as a formal diagnosis. The Harvard survey was published in the 1 February issue of Biological Psychiatry, James I. Hudson et al., "The Prevalence and Correlation of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication," Biol. Psychiatry, February 2007, 61, 348-58.
106. On the study, see Nicholas Bakalar, "Survey Puts New Focus on Binge Eating as a Diagnosis," http://www.nytimes.com, accessed 13 February 2007. The general media response was swift.
107. See for example, Karen Springen, "Battle of the Binge," Newsweek, 19 February 2007, CXLVIII, 76-77.
108. Jane E. Brody, "Weight Loss Report: Personal Health; Doubts Fail to Deter 'The Diet Revolution'," N. Y. Times, 25 May 1999, Section F, 7, column 1.
109. On Atkins, see the review essay by historian of science Steven Shapin, "The Great Neurotic Art," London Rev. Books, 5 August 2004, 26, viewed at: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n15/shap01_.html, accessed 16 January 2006.
110. Letter to the Editor, "Dr. Atkins Responds," N. Y. Times, 1 June 1999, Section F, 8, column 4.
111. Jane E. Brody, "Weight Loss Report; New Look at Dieting: Fat Can Be a Friend," N. Y. Times, 25 May 1999, Section F, 1, column 1.
112. Barry Sears, The Zone: A Dietary Road Map (New York: Harper Collins, 1995);
113. Barbara Rolls and Robert A. Barnett, The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan (New York: Harper Collins, 2000);
114. William Wolcott and Trish Fahey, The Metabolic Typing Diet (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
115. On customized diets, see also Lisa Sanders, M. D., The Perfect Fit Diet (Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2004).
116. H. Leighton Steward et al., Sugar Busters: Cut Sugar to Trim Fat (New York: Random House, 1998);
117. and also, H. Leighton Steward et al., The New Sugar Busters: Cut Sugar to Trim Fat (New York: Ballantine Books, 2003);
118. Shawn M. Talbott, The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health and What You Can Do about It (New York: Hunter House, 2002).
119. Janis Jibrin, R. D., "The Great Carbs; Amazing New Rx for (Just about) Everything," Prevention, May 2001, 53, 142-49; the pullout guide was inserted between 144 and 145.
120. Gina Kolata, "True Secret of Fad Diets: It's Calories," N. Y. Times, 18 January 2000, Section F, 7, column 5. Experiments were carried out at Rockefeller University, with results published in 1992 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
121. See Rudolph L. Leibel et al., "Energy Intake Required to Maintain Body Weight Is Not Affected by Wide Variation in Diet Composition," Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 1992, 55, 350-55.
122. Jane E. Brody, "In a Fat-Filled World, Some Sound Advice," N. Y. Times, 25 July 2000, Section F, 8, column 1, Health and Fitness.
123. Jane E. Brody, "High-Fat Diet: Count Calories and Think Twice," N. Y. Times, 10 September 2002, Section F, 6, column 3, Health and Fitness; Taubes, "Big Fat Lie." For more on the increase in calorie consumption,
124. see Anahad O'Connor, "Study Details 30-Year Increase in Calorie Consumption," N. Y. Times, 12 February 2002, accessed 9 February 2004.
125. Jane E. Brody, "Personal Health; Dietary Advice Takes on Mediterranean Flavor," N. Y. Times, 3 December 2002, Section F, 7, column 1, Health and Fitness.
126. See Willett, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy.
127. Jane E. Brody, "Personal Health: Pounds Lost on Atkins Diet May Quickly Return," N. Y. Times, 27 May 2003, Section F, 7, column 1, Health and Fitness.
128. David Kritchevsky, "History of Recommendations to the Public about Dietary Fat," J. Nutr., February 1998, 128, S449-52.
129. Wayne D. Rosamond et al., "Trends in the Incidence of Myocardial Infarction and in Mortality Due to Coronary Heart Disease, 1987 to 1994," N. Engl. J. Med., 24 September 1998, 339, 861-67. Secondary prevention is the prevention of further heart attacks in patients who have already experienced a heart attack.
130. Levy and Thom, "Disease Rates from Coronary Diseases."
131. Gina Kolata, "Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds," N. Y. Times, 8 February 2006, A1, A17.
132. See also Rob Stein, "Low-Fat Diet's Benefits Rejected," Washington Post, 8 February 2006, AO1, www.washingtonpost.com, accessed 8 February 2006. Both articles were based on three articles published in the 8 February issue of J. Am. Med. Assoc., one of which dealt with the low-fat diet as a preventive for cardiovascular disease.
133. See Barbara V. Howard et al., "Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: The Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial," J. Am. Med. Assoc., 8 February 2006, 295, 655-66. There were a number of limitations to this low-fat diet study. For one, the study covered only women older than fifty; for another, many of the women did not adhere to the prescribed (24% fat) diet, but ended up consuming a diet of 29% fat, not that different from the control group. Finally, fats were not differentiated between what have come to be considered "good" fats, that is, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, and "bad" fats, or, saturated and trans fats.
134. See Tara Parker-Pope, "In Study of Women's Health, Design Flaws Raise Questions," Wall Street J., 28 February 2006, A1, A13;
135. and Barbara Kantrowitz and Claudia Kalb, "Food News Blues," Newsweek, 13 March 2006, 44-55.
136. Robert C. Atkins, Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution (New York: David McKay Publishers, 1972);
137. Irwin Maxwell Stillman and Samm Sinclair Baker, The Doctor's Quick Weight-Loss Diet (1967; New York: Dell Publishing, 1968).
138. On Atkins, see the Editors of Consumer's Guide and Theodore Berland, Rating the Diets (New York: Beekman House, 1980), 110-20 and on Stillman, 92-95.
139. See also the original Vogue diet, devised with the guidance of Robert C. Atkins, in Jean Pierson, "How to Stay 10 Lbs. Thinner," Vogue, June 1970, 158-59, and then the actual diet, on 184, plus three recipes on 185.
140. Michael Fumento, The Fat of the Land: The Obesity Epidemic and How Overweight Americans Can Help Themselves (New York: Viking, 1997);
141. Gary Taubes, "Soft Science," and "Big Fat Lie";
142. Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health (New York: Gotham Books, 2003);
143. Eric Oliver, Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006);
144. and see the review of Oliver's book by Steven Shapin, "Eat and Run: Why We're So Fat," The New Yorker, 16 January 2006, 76-82.
145. Greg Critser, Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003), esp. 136-40.
146. Most recently Michael Pollan has made the same point in The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 103-4.
147. Kassirer and Angell, "Losing Weight-An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution."
148. Kelly Brownell, Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do about It (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2004), esp. part 2, 69-239.
149. C. Edgley and D. Brissett, "Health Nazis and the Cult of the Perfect Body: Some Polemical Observations," Symbolic Interaction, 1990, 31, 257-80.
150. See also Peter Marsh, "In Praise of Bad Habits," Institute for Cultural Research Lecture, 17 November 2001. Outline of Peter Marsh's lecture at the Institute for Cultural Research at the King's Fund, London, 17 November 2001, available at: http://www.sirc.org/publik/bad_habits.shtml, accessed 25 July 2007.
151. For a historical perspective, see Matthew Ramsey, "Antihygié nisme et libéralisme: vers une histoire comparée," in Les hygiénistes: enjeux, modèles, et pratiques (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), ed. Patrice Bourdelais (Paris: Belin, 2001), 319-40 and 494-97 (notes).
152. See also F. T. Fitzgerald, "The Tyranny of Health," N. Engl. J. Med., 1994, 331, 196-98.
153. See for example, the recent article about the traditional African-American diet: Associated Press, "Hungry to Change the South," The Roanoke Times, 14 February 2005, A3.
154. See also Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, The Gift of Southern Cooking (New York: Alfred Knopf, 2003). According to a short obituary for Edna Lewis, who died on 13 February 2006, critics had pointed out that Lewis used items in her cookbook that were "no longer considered fashionable in a health-conscious era, including pig's ear, large quantities of butter, and home-rendered lard." Lewis's response to critics was: "Some think the ingredients are too heavy or out of date. But I don't think we should throw away our culture because of some fad or new ideas."
155. See Anonymous, "The Chef Who Was the Dean of Southern Cooking," The Week, 24 February 2006, 33. Quotes cited in this article.
156. See also Eric Asimov and Kim Severson, "Edna Lewis, 89, Dies; Wrote Cookbook that Revived Refined Southern Cuisine," N. Y. Times, 14 February 2006, A19.
157. Michael F. Jacobson and Jayne G. Hurley, Restaurant Confidential (New York: Workman, 2002).
158. On French cuisine as part of the American diet, see Harvey Levenstein, Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (1988; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), ch. 1;
159. and also Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, 137-43.
160. Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, 137-43;
161. Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1 (1961; London: Penguin, 1966);
162. and Child, The French Chef Cookbook (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1968).
163. Arthur Agatston, The South Beach Diet (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2003).
164. Dena M. Bravata et al., "Efficacy and Safety of Low-Carbohydrate Diets: A Systematic Review," J. Am. Med. Assoc., 9 April 2003, 289, 1837-50;
165. George Bray, "Low-Carb Diets and Realities of Weight Loss," J. Am. Med. Assoc., 9 April 2003, 289, 1853-55.
166. Carole Piscezak, "The Fat Fighter's Bible: Prevention's Complete Guide to Eating Plans," Prevention, May-August 1989, 41, 5-8. For May, 83-90; for June, 77-83; for July, 65-70; for August, 83-88.
167. Sally Squires, "The Flip-Flop Files," Washington Post, 16 March 2004, HE 01. A recent example of this phenomenon is the recent news that the CDC may have greatly exaggerated the number of deaths from obesity.
168. "Bread Starts to Rise Again after Diets Deflate Sales," Associated Press Release in The Roanoke Times, 2 February 2005, Business 8 and 7.
169. An article from February 2004 reflects the peak of the low-carb movement: Kate Zernike and Marian Burros, "Low-Carb Boom Isn't Just for Dieters Anymore," N. Y. Times, 19 February 2004. www. nytimes.com, accessed 19 February 2004.
170. On bread and its demise in the American diet, see also the lament of Michael Pollan in Omnivore's Dilemma, 1-3. 91.
171. Associated Press Release, "Diet Food Is Food: Charity gets Loads," The Roanoke Times, 1 April 2005, A3.
172. Melanie Warner, "Atkins Diet Saga Now at Chapter 11," N. Y. Times, 3 August 2005, F2.
173. For an excellent overview of low-fat, high-protein, and moderate fat, or Mediterranean, diets, along with other dietary approaches, see Angela P. Makris and Gary D. Foster, "Dietary Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity," Psychiatr. Clin. North Am., 2005, 28, 117-39;
174. see also Walter C. Willett and Patrick J. Skerrett, "Going beyond Atkins: There's No Question that Carbs Can Make You Fat. But Are Bunless Burgers the Best Alternative?" Newsweek, 13 January 2004;
175. and especially, Walter Willett, "Concepts and Controversies on Diet: Stop Recommending Low-Fat Diets!" The Permanente Journal, Summer 2003, 7, 24-33.
176. For a real rant against Walter Willett, see Barry Glassner's new book, The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know about Food Is Wrong (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), 3-5, and at other points throughout the book. Willett stands in for joyless nutritionists.
177. See also on this very same theme, Michael Pollan, "Unhappy Meals," 28 January 2007, www.nytimes.com, accessed 28 January 2007. Glassner starts the book with Willett, to whom he gives the dubious honor of developing, along with fellow nutritionists, what Glassner calls "the doctrine of naught." This is the idea that self-denial is the key to good health, and Willett emerges as a champion of what Glassner calls "pleasurebusting suggestions" (3).
178. See above section on N. Y. Times popular health and science writers.
179. Melanie Warner and Julie Bosman, "Another Fad Hits the Wall: Marketers Start to Emphasize Good Fats over Bad Fats," N. Y. Times, 11 February 2006, C1, C4, quotes on C1.
180. See also the more philosophical and historical article by Gina Kolata, "Maybe You're Not What You Eat," N. Y. Times, 14 February 2006, F1, F6.
181. USDA Dietary Guidelines website: www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/ dga2005/document/, accessed 25 July 2007.
182. See also Sally Squires, "Revised Diet Guidelines Urge Exercise," Washington Post, 13 January 2005, A01. www.washingtonpost.com, accessed 29 July 2007.
183. Also see Walter Willett's response and the alternative Harvard Pyramid, based on the Mediterranean diet: Walter Willett, "Harvard's New Eating Plan," Bottom Line Health, July 2005, 19, 1-3.
184. The latest effort, in an attempt to educate children with the goal of reducing childhood obesity, is a pyramid video game for children.