Weighing In takes on the "obesity epidemic," challenging many widely held assumptions about its causes and consequences. Julie Guthman examines fatness and its relationship to health outcomes to ask if our efforts to prevent "obesity" are sensible, efficacious, or ethical. She also focuses the lens of obesity on the broader food system to understand why we produce cheap, over-processed food, as well as why we eat it. Guthman takes issue with the currently touted remedy to obesity--promoting food that is local, organic, and farm fresh. While such fare may be tastier and grown in more ecologically sustainable ways, this approach can also reinforce class and race inequalities and neglect other possible explanations for the rise in obesity, including environmental toxins. Arguing that ours is a political economy of bulimia--one that promotes consumption while also insisting upon thinness--Guthman offers a complex analysis of our entire economic system.
Weighing In (California Studies in Food and Culture)
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Weighing In is the book that fat studies and critical geographers of fat have been waiting for."--Social & Cultural Geography
"Guthman usefully challenges healthism in obesity research and food movements where consumption eclipses production."--Sociology of Health & Illness
From the Inside Flap
"A bold, compelling challenge to conventional thinking about obesity and its fixes, Weighing In is one of the most important books on food politics to hit the shelves in a long time." --Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History
"Weighing In is filled with counterintuitive surprises that should make us skeptics of all kinds of food -- whether local, fast, slow, junk or health -- but also gives us the practical tools to effectively scrutinize the stale buffet of popularly-accepted health wisdom before we digest it." --Paul Robbins, professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona
"If you liked Michael Pollan, this should be your next read. Guthman gives us the research behind the questions we should be asking, but, falling all over ourselves in the rush to consensus, we have overlooked. A self-described Berkeley foodie, Guthman takes on the self-satisfaction of the alternative food movement and places it in rich context, drawing on research in health, economics, labor, agriculture, sociology, and politics. This marvelous, surprising book is a true game-changer in our national conversation about food and justice." --Anna Kirkland, author of Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood
"This groundbreaking book calls into question the ubiquitous claim that 'good food' will solve the social and health dilemmas of today. Combining political economic analysis, cultural critique, and clear explanation of scientific discoveries, the author challenges our deeply held convictions about society, food, bodies, and environments." --Becky Mansfield, editor of Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations
"Step back from that farmer's market -- Guthman shows us that good foods and good eating are not enough. By questioning the fuzzy facts on obesity, the impact of environment, and capitalism's relentless push to consume, Weighing In challenges us to think harder, and better, about what it really takes to be healthy in the modern age." --Carolyn de la Peña, author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweetener from Saccharin to Splenda
"Weighing In is filled with counterintuitive surprises that should make us skeptics of all kinds of food -- whether local, fast, slow, junk or health -- but also gives us the practical tools to effectively scrutinize the stale buffet of popularly-accepted health wisdom before we digest it." --Paul Robbins, professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona
"If you liked Michael Pollan, this should be your next read. Guthman gives us the research behind the questions we should be asking, but, falling all over ourselves in the rush to consensus, we have overlooked. A self-described Berkeley foodie, Guthman takes on the self-satisfaction of the alternative food movement and places it in rich context, drawing on research in health, economics, labor, agriculture, sociology, and politics. This marvelous, surprising book is a true game-changer in our national conversation about food and justice." --Anna Kirkland, author of Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood
"This groundbreaking book calls into question the ubiquitous claim that 'good food' will solve the social and health dilemmas of today. Combining political economic analysis, cultural critique, and clear explanation of scientific discoveries, the author challenges our deeply held convictions about society, food, bodies, and environments." --Becky Mansfield, editor of Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations
"Step back from that farmer's market -- Guthman shows us that good foods and good eating are not enough. By questioning the fuzzy facts on obesity, the impact of environment, and capitalism's relentless push to consume, Weighing In challenges us to think harder, and better, about what it really takes to be healthy in the modern age." --Carolyn de la Peña, author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweetener from Saccharin to Splenda
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By C. Ackerman
Format:Paperback
Erratic
Guthman's second book is one of the most wildly uneven works of nonfiction I have read. Parts of it border on brilliant. Others are clumsily assembled and hardly convincing. The strong sections are the ones in which she applies a political economy perspective to her personal research and experience in agriculture and what she calls the `alternative-food movement' (farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens, etc.). She has consider insight into this, though it's easy to tell when she's moved beyond her own work -- e.g., not as thorough exposure to the food justice movement and a few sloppy sentences like one commenting on how Obama agreed to cut food stamps in 2014 [actually, the time that a temporary increase in benefits meant to cover the Great Recession is scheduled to end, though the current 2012 Farm Bill may very well have such cuts and be signed by him].) In these chapters, Guthman gores many a sacred cow.
Then there are the chapters that are more theoretical or are focused obesity. They're so bad that it's hard to believe that the author of this book also wrote the excellent _Agrarian Dreams_. These parts tend to be toward the beginning. The prose in these academic in the worst sense, and the arguments are not persuasive. For instance, Guthman rejects the `balanced energy model' explanation for the rise of obesity since the 1980s. That is, she does not accept that people are fatter because they are eating more. The way she handles this is odd, however. She talks at length as if she's going to disprove this, but then when she gets to it, she devotes two pages to it, relying heavily on a single USDA study about demographics of calorie consumption. Then she acts as if she has demonstrated this as false and moves into her preferred theory that synthetic chemicals are wrecking havoc with a hormones, causing our bodies to store even more energy in fat tissue. Given that Guthman recognizes that the balanced energy model is dominant, she could have done this much better. First, explain the theory, then give a history of how people came to believe it, demonstrating that how a mistake swelled and spread across time, then do clean up of other possible arguments in support of that theory and THEN give your pet theory. This takes a long time. It should: people don't abandon deeply held beliefs in two pages.
And then there's the jumbled and straining discussion of BMI (Body Mass Index), which basically throws at it every trite argument against the reality of a phenomenon by reverse engineering its social construction (e.g., if everyone just below the arbitrary division between obesity and simply overweight gains a couple of pounds, it'll look like rampant obesity.) She doesn't, however, demonstrate that these possible problems can in fact explain the spread of obesity. The whole BMI critique doesn't even seem to fit into her overall arguments and in fact muddles the issue considerably.
If you're interested in the obesity or the local food movement, this is an important book. If you start it and feel tempted to put it down, however, skip ahead. It'll get much, much better.
Guthman's second book is one of the most wildly uneven works of nonfiction I have read. Parts of it border on brilliant. Others are clumsily assembled and hardly convincing. The strong sections are the ones in which she applies a political economy perspective to her personal research and experience in agriculture and what she calls the `alternative-food movement' (farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens, etc.). She has consider insight into this, though it's easy to tell when she's moved beyond her own work -- e.g., not as thorough exposure to the food justice movement and a few sloppy sentences like one commenting on how Obama agreed to cut food stamps in 2014 [actually, the time that a temporary increase in benefits meant to cover the Great Recession is scheduled to end, though the current 2012 Farm Bill may very well have such cuts and be signed by him].) In these chapters, Guthman gores many a sacred cow.
Then there are the chapters that are more theoretical or are focused obesity. They're so bad that it's hard to believe that the author of this book also wrote the excellent _Agrarian Dreams_. These parts tend to be toward the beginning. The prose in these academic in the worst sense, and the arguments are not persuasive. For instance, Guthman rejects the `balanced energy model' explanation for the rise of obesity since the 1980s. That is, she does not accept that people are fatter because they are eating more. The way she handles this is odd, however. She talks at length as if she's going to disprove this, but then when she gets to it, she devotes two pages to it, relying heavily on a single USDA study about demographics of calorie consumption. Then she acts as if she has demonstrated this as false and moves into her preferred theory that synthetic chemicals are wrecking havoc with a hormones, causing our bodies to store even more energy in fat tissue. Given that Guthman recognizes that the balanced energy model is dominant, she could have done this much better. First, explain the theory, then give a history of how people came to believe it, demonstrating that how a mistake swelled and spread across time, then do clean up of other possible arguments in support of that theory and THEN give your pet theory. This takes a long time. It should: people don't abandon deeply held beliefs in two pages.
And then there's the jumbled and straining discussion of BMI (Body Mass Index), which basically throws at it every trite argument against the reality of a phenomenon by reverse engineering its social construction (e.g., if everyone just below the arbitrary division between obesity and simply overweight gains a couple of pounds, it'll look like rampant obesity.) She doesn't, however, demonstrate that these possible problems can in fact explain the spread of obesity. The whole BMI critique doesn't even seem to fit into her overall arguments and in fact muddles the issue considerably.
If you're interested in the obesity or the local food movement, this is an important book. If you start it and feel tempted to put it down, however, skip ahead. It'll get much, much better.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Tyler Dratch
Format:Paperback
This was a really excellent book that challenges the ideas we have about health, obesity, and our entire political system. This book challenged some of my deeply held convictions about the issues, but forced me to honestly think about the issues at hand. Guthman convinces the reader that people should not solely blame obese people for rising health care costs but look at the entire political process that surrounds our food. The book is a call to action to get the government to work not only to maintain our capitalistic markets, but also to protect our health and wellbeing.
A lengthier review of the book can be found on my blog "The Pursuit of Politics" here:
http://pursuitofpolitics.com/2012/01/08/public-policy-book-review-julie-guthmans-weighing-in-obesity-food-justice-and-the-limits-of-capitalism/
A lengthier review of the book can be found on my blog "The Pursuit of Politics" here:
http://pursuitofpolitics.com/2012/01/08/public-policy-book-review-julie-guthmans-weighing-in-obesity-food-justice-and-the-limits-of-capitalism/
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Andrew
Format:Paperback
A wide-ranging and provocative book, which ought to be read not just by scholars but by food activists, skeptics, and policy makers. It raises compelling questions--some of them as chapter titles!--that undermine conventional wisdom in ways that will challenge readers whatever their preconceptions. She manages to bring together food (and fat) studies scholarship from a variety of disparate disciplines and integrate into a sequence of readable, compelling chapters. And she ties the whole thing together with a sophisticated conceptual framework that gets us beyond the tired assumptions about individual responsibility and consumer choice. Her class analysis is especially useful, and she shows readers the larger systemic social forces the shape and constrain both our individual choices and policy decisions. This is one of the best food studies books out there right now. Highly recommended!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book
This book looks at many aspects of the obesity problem. I wish that it dove deeper into the capitalism connection. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Venus Project
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging
Guthman levels a devastating critique of the food fetishist crowd. There will be no real change without the total reform of capitalism. Read more
Published 3 months ago by KarloMarx79
2.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult to follow.
I'm sorry to say that I put this book down after reading the first 50 pages or so & skimming through the rest. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Georgia Garden
