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Diets and Dieting
A Cultural Encyclopedia
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Diets and Dieting
A Cultural Encyclopedia
Sander L. Gilman
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First published 2008
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2008 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gilman, Sander L.
Diets and dieting : a cultural encyclopedia / Sander L. Gilman.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–415–97420–2 (hardback)
ISBN–10: 0–415–97420–8 (hardback)
1. Diets—History—Encyclopedias. 2. Dieting—History—Encyclopedias. 3. Diet therapy—History—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Diet Therapy—history—Encyclopedias—English. 2. Diet—history—Encyclopedias—English. 3. Famous
Persons—Encyclopedias—English. 4. History, Modern 1601—Encyclopedias—English. 5. Nutrition Disorders—diet therapy—
Encyclopedias—English. 6. Nutrition Disorders—history—Encyclopedias—English. WB 13 G487d 2008]
RM214.5.G55 2008
613.2′503—dc22
2007027896
ISBN 0-203-93550-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–97420–8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–93550–0 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–97420–2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–93550–7 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
List of Entries vii
Introduction ix
Entries A–Z 1–289
Supplemental Resources 291
Index 295
v
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LIST OF ENTRIES
Aboulia Craig, Jenny and Sid
Advertising Davis, Adelle
Alternative Medicine Detoxification
Anorexia Developing World
Atkins, Robert Diana, Princess of Wales
Atlas, Charles Disability
Atwater, Wilbur Olin Dublin, Louis
Banting, William Eating Competitions
Bariatic Surgery Electrotherapy
Barr, Roseanne Elisabeth von Wittelsbach, Empress
Beaumont, William of Austria
Beecher, Catharine Emaciated Body Images in the
Behavior Media
Benedict, Francis Gano Enlightenment Dietetics
Binge-Eating Fashion
Blood-Type Diet Fast Food
Bodybuilding Fat Assessment in Adults
Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme Fat Camps
Bruch, Hilde Fat-Positive
Bulik, Cynthia Fat Tax
Butz, Earl Fletcher, Horace
Byron, George Gordon Flockhart, Calista
Cabbage Soup Diet Fogle, Jared
Callas, Maria Fonda, Jane
Calorie Food Choice
Cannon, William Bradford Food Pyramid
Carpenter, Karen Franklin, Benjamin
Celebrities Friedman, Jeffrey
Cheyne, George Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand
Children Genetics
China in the Early Twentieth Globalization
Century Gold, Tracy
China Today Graham, Sylvester
Chittenden, Russell Henry Greek Medicine and Dieting
Christianity Grunberger, George
Cornaro, Luigi Gull, William
vii
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viii list of entries
Hauser, Gayelord Old Age and Obesity
Hay, William Ornish, Dean
Homeostasis Paleolithic Diet
Hopkins, Frederick Gowland Peters, Lulu Hunt
Hormone Pets
Hormones Used in Dieting Phytochemicals
Hornby, Lesley (Twiggy) Post, C.W.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Pregnancy
Imes-Jackson, Mo’Nique Pritikin, Nathan
Infectobesity Processed Foods
Internet Professionalization of Dieting
Israeli, Isaac ben Salomon Psychotherapy and Weight Change
Jews Religion and Dieting
Johnson, Samuel Risks Associated with Dieting
Kellogg, John Harvey Roman Medicine and Dieting
Kneipp, Sebastian Russell, Lillian
LaLanne, Jack Scales and Public Weighing
Lambert, Daniel Schwarzenegger, Arnold
Leibel, Rudolph Self-Help
Lessius, Leonard Sex
Lindlahr, Henry Sexual Orientation
Linn, Robert Sigler, Jamie Lynn
Literature and Fat Bodies Simmons, Richard
Low-Fat and Fat-Free Foods Sinclair, Upton
Luther, Martin Smoking
Macfadden, Bernarr Socioeconomic Status
McGraw, Phil (Dr. Phil) Southern Fat
Manheim, Camryn Sports
Marcé, Louis-Victor Spurlock, Morgan
Mazel, Judy Stress
Media Sugar Busters
Medical Use of Dieting Sweeteners
Medieval Diets Taft, William Howard
Men Tarnower, Herman
Metabolism Thomson, Samuel
Metcalfe, William Trall, Russell
Milk Van Helmont, Johannes
Mitchell, S. Weir Vegetarianism
Monroe, Marilyn Very-Low-Calorie Diets
Morton, Richard Weight Gain
Murray, George Wesley, John
Natural Man White, Ellen G.
Nidetch, Jean Wigmore, Ann
Noorden, Carl von William the Conqueror
Obesity Epidemic Winfrey, Oprah
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Zone Diet
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INTRODUCTION
Some Weighty Thoughts on Dieting and Epidemics
I n July 2004, the then-American Health and Human logical therapy, surgery, or pharmaceuticals to control
Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced that (increase or decrease) body weight, strength, health, and/
Medicare was abandoning a long-held policy that said or shape. From the mid-nineteenth century to today,
obesity was not a disease, opening the way for the Gov- medical specialists and lay practitioners have tried to
ernment to pay for a whole range of possible treatments. claim too fat or too thin people (however defined) as
Soon after Thompson’s decision, a cartoon by Dick their patients. Fat and thinness is truly in the eye of
Locher of Tribune Media Services appeared. A portly lit- the beholder. Each age, culture, and tradition defines
tle boy having read the newspaper with the headline unacceptable weight for itself: Yet, all do have a point
“Obesity Now Considered a Disease” announces into beyond which excess or inadequate weight is unaccept-
the telephone, “Hello, Principal’s office? This is Tommy able—unhealthy, ugly, or corrupt. Today, we call this
Frobish . . . I won’t be in school today, I got a disease.” “morbid obesity or anorexia,” and both are always seen
We know what type of disease Tommy Frobish had. As as an issue of health. Thus, dieting today may also limit
early as 1987, the media began to evoke the specter of a the intake of foods, such as salt or transfats, that are
forthcoming epidemic of obesity: “Childhood obesity labeled unhealthy.
is epidemic in the United States,” stated Dr. William H. Yet health, as we well know, is a code word for a posi-
Dietz Jr. of New England Medical Center. The World tive range of qualities that any given society wishes to see
Health Organization declared obesity the new “global in its citizens: From beauty to loyalty to responsibility to
epidemic” in 1998. By 2004, headlines such as “Obesity fecundity (and the list marches on). Thus, today, the very
Epidemic Raises Risk of Children Developing Diabetes” opposite illness, anorexia nervosa, it would seem, has
grabbed (and continue to grab) the attention of readers. become what George Devereux in the 1950s called a pre-
Scientists at the American Association for the Advance- scribed template for mental illness: “Don’t go crazy, but
ment of Science annual meeting in February 2002 had if you do, do it this way.” Obesity has precisely the
already warned the Government that obesity was now opposite quality. The morbidly obese do not figure in
a “global epidemic”—no longer confined to Western, society as a socially acceptable form of mental illness in
industrialized societies. This reflected a growing consensus any way. The asymmetry between today’s image of obes-
in the 1990s that obesity (not smoking) was going to be ity and of anorexia points to the complex meanings given
the major public health issue of the new millennium. to weight and body shape over history. All of these
Parallel to the seemingly unstoppable spread of this impact and are impacted by the culture of diet and dieting
new epidemic was the development of new, radical cures: in which individuals find themselves.
Would it be surgical (stomach stapling), genetic (the “ob From the 1860s, it was the diet culture that dominated
[esity]-gene”) or would it be the old, tried and true the market even as biomedical science developed tools
“cure” of dieting? In the twenty-first century, dieting has to understand the biochemical nature of metabolism,
come to mean the control of the intake of nutrients and endrocrinological imbalance, and, more recently, genet-
the use of parallel interventions such as exercise, psycho- ics. Dieting was the tool of the physician, but it was also
ix
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x introduction
the means by which lay practitioners of the modern they saw in the modern manufacture of food the intro-
“health culture” were able to claim the too fat and the duction of the principles of hygiene. And they were
very thin as their clients. Dieting, or (more recently) “life- certainly right—boiled, condensed milk was certainly
style change,” became a way to halt the obesity epidemic, healthier than milk from tuberculosis-infected cows.
to intervene to improve the private life of the individual Well, if you discounted the lead that leached into the milk
and, thus, the health of the nation. in the early containers.
These two qualities were regularly linked. Whether All aimed and aim at healthier, better citizens. And all
through claims that morbid obesity impacted on the succeed in making a profit doing it. The cereal manu-
health of the mother and child and thus weakened the facturers of the nineteenth century, like Post and Kellogg,
state or whether the fat man and the thin man could not moved from fringe-food-fad operations in “Wellville”
fulfill their civic and military duty and became a drain on (read T. Coraghessan Boyle’s 1993 novel The Road to
the state, the obese, from at least mid-nineteenth century, Wellville, the title of which is taken from a pamphlet by
were seen as a danger to themselves as well as others. C. W. Post) to dominate the food market; “organic” food
When it was clear that too many men had failed the draft today may well rescue the small farm as it returns much
physical in World War II because of malnutrition, Harry greater profit than “traditional” food. Health and wealth
S Truman created the school lunch program in 1946, are linked by more than a rhyme.
which stood accused in the 1990s of being one of the Dieting aims at both cure and profit. It is, thus, very
causes of obesity. The general stigma associated with a modern. Certainly, fasting as a religious observance was
potentially unhealthy body that stood out because of its part and parcel of Western Christianity, beginning with
size made it imperative that the fat and the thin seek or be Paul. (It also became part of both rabbinic Judaism and
forced to treatment. Thus, there were financial incentives Islam.) But religious fasting is not dieting. It was (and is)
to seek this group out and rehabilitate them. Too fat and a sign of man’s relationship to God and to God’s complex
too skinny people could be made productive and healthy world. Ironically, this is not much different from the
people through the interventions of medical professionals ancient Greeks who saw food (and food reduction) as
but also lay specialists. In France, the modern food cul- part of a complex web that spanned human beings and
ture, without its sauces and exotic ingredients, was cre- the gods through the humors. Dieting arises in the post-
ated in the 1820s by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Copernican world when scientists and lay people from
whose The Physiology of Taste or, Meditations on Tran- the late seventeenth to early nineteenth century began to
scendental Gastronomy was a fat man’s confession about think of the human body more as a machine and then as a
how he tried to lose weight. It was a self-help book that collection of chemical processes. The dieting body is not
created the French cult of modern food. “Obesity,” as necessarily an extension of the divine. Here we can evoke
Brillat-Savarin states, “is not actually a disease, it is at Zygmunt Bauman’s distinction in his 1998 Globaliza-
least a most unpleasant state of ill health, and one into tion: The Human Consequences between “pilgrims” and
which we almost always fall because of our own fault.” It “tourists.” In a real sense, fasters are pilgrims who
was a change in the way one ate that could control one’s believe that their world is bounded by God (or the gods)
weight. and fasting will bind them to that world. Dieters are
The American food faddists of the late nineteenth cen- tourists in the new economy of the body.
tury, who produced “modern” machine-made foods such The rise of the modern dieting culture comes to hold
as “corn flakes,” sought to reform the body politic; today powerful metaphoric implications for all bodies, includ-
we hear their heirs advocate “natural” or “organic” ing, as Thomas Hobbes observes in The Leviathan
food. Their argument is that unprocessed food is close to (1651), the body politic. Hobbes observes that (like
nature and, thus, healthier. In 1894, Will Keith Kellogg human beings) “Commonwealths can endure no diet: for
was trying to improve the vegetarian diet of sanatorium seeing their expense is not limited by their own appetite
patients when he invented Corn Flakes; one of them, but by external accidents, and the appetites of their
Charles William Post invented Postum cereal beverage in neighbours, the public riches cannot be limited by other
1895. Two years later, Post developed Grape-Nuts cereal, limits than those which the emergent occasions shall
part of the new health-industrial complex. They followed require.” Here is perhaps the best sense of the conflict
the lead of those who first canned milk at mid-century; between the desire for food and the difficulty (if not
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introduction xi
impossibility) of diet. For as the diet industry of the mod- twenty-first century—but now with a twist. You need the
ern era shows, its greatest failure would be the elimin- social structure to accomplish this because—and now it is
ation of actual or perceived unhappiness with weight, for Arthur Schopenhauer’s turn—fat is also a sign of another
with this success would come the end to the dieting indus- disease process: the lack of will. The will becomes that
try. For Hobbes, a nation’s appetite is actually enhanced which is healed by the dieting process and enables the
by the increase in its consumption of the “commodities of rational mind to control the body—or quite the opposite.
sea and land”. The more you have, the more you want; so Certain studies have shown that dieters as a class have
much for a world limited by self-control. lower self-esteem than non-dieters and that they scored
Dieting becomes the means of self-liberation or self- much higher on Albert Ellis’s “irrational thoughts
control or self-limitation. It is a process by which the measure,” having radically unrealistic expectations about
individual claims control over his or her body and thus self-improvement following weight loss. Most truly
shows their ability to fulfill their role in society. From the believe that weight loss will change their lives rather than
Enlightenment to the present, the healthy body is also the their belt size.
body in control of its own destiny—a basic claim of Today fat is dangerous because it is now globalized.
Enlightenment ideology. The aging philosopher Kant Fat is now (as smoking was) a sign of the deleterious
actually wrote a study of diet and self-control in response effect of the modern (read: the American) on the body.
to the appearance of one of the first modern diet books in We have to restore the healthy mind and, thus, heal the
the 1790s. His essay on “Overcoming Unpleasant Sensa- unhealthy body. McDonald’s weakens the will through
tions by Mere Reasoning” (1797) argued that you could, advertising: Tsung O. Cheng claimed recently that child-
as an old man, rationally control your frequent trips to hood obesity in China is the result of globalization: “All
the toilet at night by radically restricting your liquid of the children in China recognize the image of Ronald
intake before bed. A century later, another German phil- Macdonald, even though they may not be able to read
osopher of note, Friedrich Nietzsche, in his Twilight of English.” This may certainly be true in the growing urban
the Gods (1888), denied any possibility of a conscious middle class, but there is a concomitant decrease of
control of the body through dieting. Inheritance domin- body weight among children in the countryside. Is it
ates, and rational claims by diet gurus only provide the McDonald’s or the one-child policy and economic “lib-
illusion of control. By the 1960s, it was not age but eralization” that is at the root of the “epidemic” in
gender that seemed to determine the contours of the diet- China?
ing culture. With the rise of the women’s movement in Dieting is modern. Dieting is ancient. Food is therapy.
the 1960s, the standard model for the study of the rela- Food is the source of illness. We diet. We can cure our-
tionship between gender and obesity has obsessively selves and improve the world. We can live a “hundred
focused on women’s bodies. The central theme focused years” and be a productive member of society. We know
on how patriarchal society (men) abhors fat women and, where the weapons of mass destruction are hidden. They
thus, causes all women to hate their own bodies. In this are within us, and we can seek to control or even destroy
rhetoric, no woman’s body could be slim enough. As them—with a little help from our friends in the dieting
Susie Orbach entitled her Fat is a Feminist Issue: How to culture.
Lose Weight Permanently without Dieting (1978) thirty The present volume is a dictionary of diets and dieting:
years ago, fat is a problem for women! Kim Chernin in It is not a handbook to be followed to lose or to gain
her The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slen- weight (though it may point to approaches to avoid). It is
derness (1981) coined the phrase a “tyranny of slender- a cultural history. It points out some of the signposts in a
ness” to reflect American society’s growing preoccupa- comprehensive history of dieting down to the present.
tion with thinness and the attendant issues for the fat The science it reflects is, for the most part, calibrated on
female body. The view that dieting is a women’s issue has the science of the twenty-first century. Science (including
dominated the political reaction to the diet culture. But medicine) is part of culture and, like other aspects of cul-
this was an artifact of seeing patriarchy as pro-dieting tural history, reflects and shapes the dieting cultures
and feminism as anti-dieting. In the new age of the “obes- reflected in this encyclopedia. Science, like literature, cin-
ity epidemic,” the politics of dieting has begun to shift. ema, popular, mass, and high culture of all kinds, inhabits
Mind over body is the key to “lifestyle changes” in the both its own sphere of reference as well as that of the
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xii introduction
totality of our culture. You can’t escape from science the historical record of the history of dieting. It is the
when you are interested in dieting—whether that science product of an unusual collaboration with a group of stu-
is academic or alternative. dents at Emory University whose project was to learn this
This encyclopedia of dieting includes biographies of history with me. In the end, I am responsible for the con-
the famous, the celebrated, the glamorous, of scholars, tent of the volume as I have edited and rewritten (often-
scientists and the merely very fat or very thin. It tries to times radically) all of the contributions. Of great help in
provide some insight into the world of dieting in the past this project was Suzanne Judd, whose work on it con-
as we see it today. And the one thing that we are certain tinued well into the conclusion of her graduate work in
of is that the world of today will quickly become part of nutrition and public health.
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14. Page 1
A
Aboulia
Diseases of the Will
T oday there seems still to be an assumption that “fat there is no ability to move from motive and desire to
equals lazy, weak-willed and unattractive” (Large 2006: execution.
1). According to this view “obesity [is] the fault of weak- Fat people suffer from “aboulia” once they acknow-
willed, gluttonous individuals” (Metcalf 2006: 53). Yet ledge their impairment. “Obesity,” as the French writer
are the “3.2 million New Yorkers who are overweight or on taste Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826)
obese . . . all lazy, weak-willed people?” (Louis 2006: states in his handbook on food and diet at the beginning
21). For many it is clearly the obese who are at fault for of the nineteenth century, “is not actually a disease, it is
their state: “Fat people are thought to be gluttonous, lust- at least a most unpleasant state of ill health, and one into
ful, greedy, lazy, weak-willed, and lacking any kind of which we almost always fall because of our own fault”
self-control. If fat people are targets of our contempt, it is (Brillat-Savarin 1999: 245).
only because they have brought this on themselves with By the middle of the nineteenth century, “aboulia” had
their unwillingness to take responsibility for their own become a sign of a disease of the will, but it is a disease
actions” (Oliver 2005: B01). more of men than of women. It affects the strength of
“You have no self-control!” has long been the charge men and the beauty of women disproportionately,
against the severely over- and the severely underweight. according to Brillat-Savarin. This is the new illness that is
Such views of the “will” and its diseases were first for- ascribed to the obese and it is in the promise of execution,
mulated in the nineteenth century when psychology of being able to act, that the fat man now shows his
turned obesity and extreme thinness into a truly volun- masculinity.
tary act in which (according to the psychologist Contemporary psychiatry does not consider “simple
Thomas Reid [1710–96]) “every man is conscious of a obesity” as “consistently associated with a psychological
power to determine, in things which he conceives of to or behavioral syndrome” (American Psychiatric Associ-
depend upon his determination” (Reid 1854). This fac- ation, DSM-IV-TR 2000: 583). Today, we popularly
ulty could become ill, and pathologies of the will speak of obsessive-compulsive disorders or addiction to
resulted. The major psychiatrists wrote of this, from food (Miller 1980; Kassel and Schiffman 1992). In all
J.E.D. Esquirol (1772–1840) to Théodule Ribot (1839– cases, it places the desire to eat beyond the control of the
1916) in his The Diseases of the Will (1884) and Henry individual. In such cases, behavioral therapy, such as a
Maudsley (1835–1918) in his Body and Mind: An twelve-step program (Food Addicts Anonymous) has
Inquiry into their Connection and Mutual Influence been proposed in analogy to the control (rather than
(1870). The psychiatric diagnosis that resulted was the treatment) of alcoholism (Wilson and Brownell
“aboulia,” the inability to execute what one wants to 2002). Such therapies aim at modifying eating habits, as
do, without any sign of physical impairment. In this, if habituation were the sole cause of obesity or thinness.
1
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2 aboulia
One of Food Addicts Anonymous’s goals is that “we will one moment in history is excessive, is for another
no longer attempt to fill our emotional and spiritual appropriate behavior (Offer 2006).
needs through our mouths. Instead, we will use our SLG
mouths along with our hearts to ask for what we need
and deserve as children of God” (<http://www.food See also Binge-eating; Brillat-Savarin; Genetics; Men
addictsanonymous.org>).
Here, the move to a metaphysics of cure is borrowed
from Alcoholics Anonymous, which places “food addic- References and Further Reading
tion” as possible only if self-willed self-control is a pos- American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and
sible response to a weakness of “will.” My will is weak, Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn, text
the argument goes, but knowing that, I have control over revision (IV-R), Washington, DC: American
my life. Diet advocates argue quite differently. The Psychiatric Association.
assumption underlying dieting is often the overcoming of Bray, M.S. and Allison, D.B. (2001) “Obesity
a lack of will: Syndromes,” in John B. Owen, Janet Treasure and
David A. Collier (eds), Animal Models: Disorders of
Eating Behavior and Body Composition, Dordrecht:
Those who have been on any sort of diet will know
Kluwer, pp. 1–18.
that common buzzword, “will power.” When I went
Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme (1999) The Physiology of
down the diet track, I believed I had to manage
Taste or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy,
what I ate, how much I ate and when I ate. All
trans. M.F.K. Fisher, Washington, DC: Counterpoint.
fine, except that diets are usually embarked on in
Kassel, Jon D. and Schiffman, Saul (1992) “What Can
isolation, without addressing other major issues
Hunger Teach Us About Drug Craving? A
i.e. our general health and levels of fitness, our
Comparative Analysis of the Two Constructs,”
levels of activity, or the attitudes we have about our
Advanced Behavior Research Therapy 14: 141–67.
food.
Large, Jerry (2006) “You Can’t Be a Fat Cat until You
(Lim 2007: 7)
Shed a Few Pounds,” The Seattle Times (December
10): 1.
Eat right, and the illusion that you have a disease of the Lim, Tessie (2007) “Miss Piggy is All Grown Up,” New
will vanishes! Straits Times (Malaysia) (June 24): 7.
Yet, we know well that one form of “self-control,” in Louis, Errol (2006) “Food Lures Add to Girth of a
the form of an awareness that one is full (satiety) is a Nation,” Daily News (New York) (July 4): 21.
feature programmed into us. In some genetically trans- Metcalf, Fran (2006) “Fat Chance Genes Are to Blame,”
mitted disorders such as Prader-Willy Syndrome and The Courier Mail (Australia) (September 9): 53.
other chromosome-15q-deletion syndromes, affected Miller, William R. (ed.) (1980) The Addictive
individuals do not feel the same sense of satiety as people Behaviours: Treatment of Alcoholism, Drug
without the genetic error (Prader et al. 1956). But the Abuse, Smoking and Obesity, Oxford: Pergamon
question of how an individual who has the ability to “feel Press.
full” is able to deal with food is as much a question of Offer, Avner (2006) The Challenge of Affluence: Self-
the cultural meanings attributed to eating (and over- or Control and Well-Being in the United States and
undereating) as it is to individual psychology. There are Britain Since 1950, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
over forty different complex syndromes listed in the Oliver, J. Eric (2005) “Why We Hate Fat People,”
online “Mendelian Inheritance in Man” database that Chicago Sun Times (December 4): B01.
include “obesity” as one of their diagnostic criteria. In Prader, A., Labhart, A., Willi, H., and Fanconi, G. (1956)
each, the meaning of obesity reflects the culture in which Ein Syndrom von Adipositas, Kleinwuchs,
the gene is expressed as much as the ability of the gene to Kryptorchismus und Idiotie bei Kindern und
express obesity (Bray and Alison 2001 : 9). Self-control is Erwachsenen, die als Neugeborene ein
the model that any given society superimposes on the myotonieartiges Bild geboten haben, Copenhagen:
eating patterns of individuals in that society. What for VIII International Congress of Paediatrics.
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advertising 3
Reid, Thomas (1854) “Essay II, Chapter 1,” in Works, “Behavioral Treatment for Obesity,” in Christopher
edited by William Hamilton, Edinburgh: Maclachan G. Fairburn and Kelly D. Brownell (eds), Eating
and Stewart. Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook,
Wilson, G. Terence and Brownell, Kelly D. (2002) New York: Guilford Press, pp. 524–8.
Advertising
Regulation
A dvertising is a staple of modern, capitalist societies. food that have little to no nutritional value. Of the over-
Arising in the course of the nineteenth century, its goal 10,000 food and beverage commercials children see a
was to encourage the consumption of specific objects. year, less than 2 percent are for “foods that promote a
Celebrity advertising, begun in late-nineteenth-century balanced diet such as fruits, milk, vegetables, and cheese”
Britain, used glamour to sell things. Few or no questions (Sommer 2006). However, more than two-thirds of these
were asked about the safety or efficacy of the things sold. television commercials are for junk food. The U.S. Gov-
It has become the way that producers communicate with ernment claims that “an estimated 10% of America’s
their consumers. However, today, many pose the ques- preschoolers are dangerously overweight and that obesity
tion of where the line should be drawn in regard to poten- rates for elementary school students have tripled in the
tially dangerous advertisements. In recent decades, the last three decades” (Anon. 2005). Thus, some argue that
nation witnessed the battle between antismoking lobby- the Government should get involved in censoring televi-
ists advocating the censorship of tobacco ads and the sion ads for specific foods aimed at children.
tobacco industry’s marketing platform. This came as a The traditional food logos and icons aimed at children,
result of research regarding the links between cancer and such as “Ronald McDonald” and “Captain Crunch,”
smoking cigarettes. designed to persuade children to demand certain foods,
Similarly, some people are up in arms at the “irrespon- have become “one of the most contentious aspects of the
sible behavior” of the food industry in relation to its nation’s struggle with obesity” (Mishra 2005). Similar to
advertisements of junk food. The basis of their argument the controversy that raged regarding the use of the “Joe
is that “advertising of food products alters consumers’ Camel” cartoon as a marketing ploy of Camel cigarettes
preferences for foods so that they consume more of the from 1987 to 1997 aimed at younger smokers, the food
advertised foods than they would have absent the adver- industry creates “cool” “pop” culture icons aimed at
tising” (Zywicki et al. 2004). Thus, advertising is theor- children which are viewed as causing them to make poor
ized to play a powerful role in shaping the behavior of food choices. (Like many of the “junk food” manu-
denizens of society. Advertisers, as a result, are charged facturers, the R.J. Reynolds Company, which manu-
with the responsibility of ensuring morality in what they factures Camels, denied any intention in appealing to the
endorse. When they fail at this, the American Federal youngest members of their audience.)
Trade Commission (FTC) gets involved in regulating The food industry spends over 10 billion dollars a year
what the public sees. trying to shape the appetite of children (Mishra 2005).
In light of the obesity epidemic that is claimed to be However, parallel to the claims of the tobacco companies
sweeping the nation, there has been fierce controversy in denying the relationship between tobacco and lung
regarding whether or not the Government should inter- cancer (Brandt 2007), the food industry insists that there
vene to curb advertising of “junk food” to children. Junk is no direct linkage between junk-food marketing and
food can be understood as snacks, candy, and breakfast childhood obesity.
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17. Page 4
4 advertising
Yet, some companies are taking responsibility for the large. However, fast-fix diet promotions that promise
effect of their marketing campaigns. For example, Lance impossible results are becoming more and more common.
Friedmann, Senior Vice President at Kraft, admits that For example, diet pills are the new miracle weight-loss
“advertising plays a role” in influencing children’s eating solution, or at least this is what their commercials guaran-
habits (Mishra 2005). Thus, Kraft—as well as Coca- tee. On December 9, 2003, the FTC announced its “Red
Cola—is voluntarily limiting its advertisements aimed at Flag” education campaign “to assist media outlets volun-
children (especially those aimed at kids younger than tarily to screen out weight-loss product ads containing
twelve years of age). Kraft now “only runs commercials claims that are too good to be true” (Cleland and Mack
featuring healthy foods such as sugar-free drinks, low-fat 2003). The FTC’s primary goal is to weed out false advert-
meat products, and whole-grain products” (Mishra 2005) isements from those that promise realistic weight-loss
aimed at children. This is a drastic change from their products. The weight-loss industry earns 30 billion dol-
traditional advertising campaigns, which gained success lars in its products and services. Thus, there exists a huge
through products like Oreos (with excess saturated fats) incentive to come up with products that appeal to the
and Kool-Aid (with excess sugar). consumer—especially those that are supposedly quicker,
Additionally, McDonald’s, the home of Ronald easier, and more effective than the competition.
McDonald, has altered its advertising, and even its menu. The problem is that what many of these companies
In 2004, McDonald’s announced its program committed claim is simply not true. The proliferation of ads that
to “balanced lifestyles.” The fast-food franchises added offer false promises have “proceeded in the face of, and in
healthy options, such as salads and fruit, to its menu in spite of, an unprecedented level of FTC enforcement
order to afford its customers more options. However, it activity, including the filing of more than 80 cases during
may be the case that McDonald’s adopted healthy alter- the last decade” (Cleland et al. 2002: 2). This poses a
natives in order to avoid class-action law suits. In 2002, huge problem in terms of both ethical advertising and,
McDonald’s faced a landmark lawsuit, in which the more importantly, public health. The existence of “mir-
teenage plaintiffs accused the restaurant of fraud. They acle drugs” gives people hope that they can shed the
claimed that McDonald’s failure to “disclose clearly and necessary pounds to get to a healthy weight. However,
conspicuously the ingredients” (Wald 2003) of its ham- when these drugs fail to work, people are left with hope-
burgers was a violation of New York state’s consumer lessness and may give up on weight loss entirely.
fraud statutes. They, therefore, claimed that the restaur- Government interventions of any kind in the com-
ant should be liable for their health conditions: obesity, mercial sector of society raise questions and debates
heart disease, high blood pressure, and elevated choles- regarding laissez-faire, the notion of a free economy, and
terol. Although the case was thrown out by the judge, it the free market. However, in this case, because censorship
still set a precedent in regard to responsibility of food is also being instituted to some degree, some challenge
distributors and advertisers. The teens’ lawyer, Samuel that their First Amendment rights are being violated as
Hirsch, made an interesting point that, “young indi- well. In early 2005, a group called the Alliance for Ameri-
viduals are not in a position to make a choice after the can Advertising—consisting of the American Advertising
onslaught of advertising and promotions” (Wald 2003). Federation, the American Association of Advertising
Another possible reason for McDonald’s menu change is Agencies, the Association of National Advertising and the
Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me, which Grocery Manufacturers Association—was created in
demonstrated the health damage that a McDonald’s-only order to persuade legislators not to introduce bills that
diet could do. After the film’s release, McDonald’s would restrict food ads targeted to children (Anon.
dropped the “super size” option from their menu. There- 2005). Moreover, networks, advertisers, ad agencies, and
fore, it is not accurate to say that McDonald’s voluntarily their trade associations vigorously opposed the FTC
made their menu and advertisements more health- proposals, “claiming that the FTC had no authority to
minded. Rather, the company was forced to respond to ban truthful advertising for lawful products” (Sommer
public pressure to reform. 2006).
On the other hand, there are those that promote
SLG/Jessica Rissman
weight-loss methods to excess. In fact, diet advertisements
are ubiquitous in magazines, television, and the media at
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18. Page 5
alternative medicine 5
See also Celebrities; Children; Diet Pills; Obesity Consumer. Available online at <http://www.ftc.gov/
Epidemic; Smoking; Spurlock opa/2003/12/weightlossrpt.htm> (accessed May 6,
2006).
References and Further Reading Mishra, Raja (2005) “Push Grows to Limit Food Ads to
Anon. (2005) “Food Fight: Obesity Raises Difficult Children,” Campaign for a Commercial-Free
Marketing Questions,” Knowledge @ Wharton. Childhood. Available online at <http://
Available online at <http:// www.commercialexploitation.org/news/articles/push-
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm- tolimitfoodads.htm> (accessed May 6, 2006).
?fa=viewfeature&id=1149> (accessed May 5, 2006). Sommer, Ralph (2006) “TV Food Messages and
Brandt, Alan (2007) The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, Children’s Diets,” Center for Media Literacy.
and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined Available online at <http://www.medialit.org/
America, New York: Basic Books. reading_room/article145.html> (accessed May 4,
Cleland, Richard L., Gross, Walter C., Koss, Laura D., 2006).
Daynard, Matthew, and Muoio, Karen M. (2002) Wald, Jonathan (2003) “McDonald’s Obesity Suit
“Weight-Loss Advertising: An Analysis of Current Tossed,” Cable News Network. Available online at
Trends. A Report of the Staff of the Federal Trade <http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/22/news/companies/
Commission.” Available online at <http://files.findlaw. mcdonalds/index.htm> (accessed May 6, 2006).
com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/ftc/902weightlos Zywicki, Todd J., Holt, Debra, and Ohlhausen, Maureen
sadsrpt.pdf> (accessed May 6, 2006). (2004) “Obesity and Advertising Policy,” George
Cleland, Richard and Mack, Brenda (2003) “FTC Mason Law Review 12 (4): 979–1011. Available
Releases Guidance to Media on False Weight-Loss online at <http://ssrn.com/abstract = 604781>
Claims,” Federal Trade Commission for the (accessed May 4, 2006).
Alternative Medicine
A lternative and complementary medicine (CAM) are and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), diets such as the
two different but interrelated approaches to health. Atkins, Zone and Ornish diets fall into the category of
Alternative medicine refers to those therapeutic practices, CAM, though they form only 3.5 percent of the totality
systems, and products that are employed instead of of CAM. This is, nevertheless, a reflection on the inter-
conventional or allopathic “medical” means, while com- connections between CAM and dieting culture and a
plementary medicine refers to those practices used in demonstration of how various complementary and alter-
conjunction with allopathic (“medical”) treatment. “Con- native therapies have been mobilized toward weight loss,
ventional or allopathic” medicine is practiced by MDs their texts and practitioners forming an integral part of
(doctors of medicine) or DOs (doctors of osteopathy) and the contemporary dieting milieu.
their allied health professionals. Ayurveda, acupuncture, The immensely popular Deepak Chopra (1947–), an
and homeopathy fall into the category of alternative allopath by training, is now a widely read proponent of
medicine, as they are based on systems of medicine contemporary versions of the Indian Ayurvedic systems
radically different to the allopathic approach. Yoga and of healing in books such as Perfect Weight: The Complete
meditation, for example, would be characterized as “com- Mind/Body Program for Achieving and Maintaining
plementary” therapies in that many hospitals and medical Your Perfect Weight (2004). Chopra draws on what is
centers incorporate them into their treatment programs. also referred to as the “holistic health” model, where
According to the National Center for Complementary there is a strong emphasis on the relationship between
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6 alternative medicine
one’s mind, body, and lifestyle practices in general. He trates how close to Western ideals such approaches actu-
advocates diets and yogic exercises based on the type of ally are.
constitution or “dosha” one has; dosha theory is similar Other CAM approaches abound as the claim of “pla-
to the Western therapeutic model of “humors” popular cing one’s own weight in one’s own hands” recognizes
before the advent of biomedicine. Chopra recommends the anxiety about weight gain (or loss) as a sign of a
other holistic lifestyle changes in conjunction with weakness of will, as a highly stigmatized form of mental
changes in diet, including: sleeping and waking early, illness. Andrew Weil (1942–), a popular health guru, also
doing deep breathing and other gentle yogic exercises, trained as an allopathic physician, writes books dedi-
avoiding alcohol and caffeine and eating freshly prepared cated to holistic ways of maintaining the perfect body
food in accordance with one’s dosha requirements. weight. Weil sees alternative approaches as preventative
One can also note that there are a number of alterna- but also advocates the use of allopathic medicine for
tive approaches to weight loss that stress exercise as the treatment of pathologies. In 1994, he created the Pro-
central means for weight loss. These approaches are gram in Integrative Medicine in Tucson, Arizona, which
“anti-dieting” in their assumptions and, as with many of focuses on nutrition, “natural” medicine, and “mind–
the alternative approaches, assume that all allopathic body interventions” (Weil 2004: 4).
medical interventions are faulty and are in many ways Paul Ernsberger and Richard Koletsky from the Case
part of a behavioral endorsement of the cultural norms Western Reserve School of Medicine argue that the nega-
that stress thinness over a “healthy,” if larger body. tive impacts of obesity, “though real, are overstated”
Indeed, such approaches see dieting as harmful, as inef- (1999: 222). They also posit that many of the negative
fective, and as rooted in a set of false assumptions, such side effects can be attributed to “weight-cycling”—the
as the corollary between pathological medical conditions tendency of dieters to repeatedly put on and lose weight.
and overweight (Foster 2002). Other problems, such as heart disease, may be the result
Such Western appropriations of “Eastern” medicine, of obesity treatments, such as diet pills, rather than obes-
whether from India or China or Japan, ignore the fact ity itself. As an alternative, Ernsberger and Koletsky
that the systematization of such approaches was and is in suggest a “wellness approach” to health. According to
the light of responding to the dominance of allopathic them, weight loss itself is often not the best way to deal
medicine and the marginalization of “traditional forms” with health issues such as hypertension, type-2 diabetes,
of treatment. The importation and refashioning of Ayur- hyperlipidemia and sleep apnea because, “although many
vedic medicine from India in the seventeenth century, fol- diseases are more chronic in obese patients, in many cases
lowing Sir Thomas Roe’s mission to the Mughal Court, a direct causal link cannot be made” (1999: 222). Health
created a powerful association between such “alterna- can best be improved though “lifestyle enhancement
tive” forms of dieting and mystical vegetarianism, which [which] can improve health independent of loss of body
linked health and ethics. fat” (1999: 222). There is a gendered dimension to this
Ironically, the vegetarianism of Mahatma Gandhi phenomenon as well. According to a 2002 survey con-
(1869–1948), which is one of the most powerful repre- ducted by the National Institute for Health Statistics
sentations of an authentic “Indian” link between health (NIHS), more women than men make use of CAM
and morality for alternative medicine has, according (Anon. 2004).
to Gandhi, its origins in his reading of Percy Bysshe Shel-
SLG/Shruthi Vissa
ley’s (1792–1822) advocacy of a “bloodless regimen” in
1812 (Stuart 2006). While virtually all of these trad-
See also China in the Early Twentieth Century; Gandhi;
itional systems recognized massive weight loss as a patho-
Greek Medicine and Dieting; Vegetarianism
logical sign, most were highly ambivalent about the
meanings of weight gain. Thus, approaches such as
acupuncture for the treatment of obesity come to repre- References and Further Reading
sent a merging of CAM and allopathic goals in seeing Anon. (2004) “The Use of Complementary and
obesity as clearly defined and inherently dangerous. Alternative Medicine in the United States,” Bethesda,
Only the approaches vary, and the appropriateness of Md.: National Center for Complementary and
complementary treatments in allopathic medicine illus- Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health,
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anorexia 7
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. GPO Christopher G. Fairburn and Kelly D. Brownell (eds),
item number: 0507. Available online at <http:// Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive
purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS58156> (accessed May Handbook, 2nd edn, New York: Guilford Press,
7, 2006). pp. 604–8.
Chopra, Deepak (2004) Perfect Weight: The Complete Stuart, Tristram (2006) The Bloodless Revolution:
Mind/Body Program for Achieving and Maintaining Radical Vegetarianism and the Discovery of India,
Your Perfect Weight, New York: Rider & Co. New York: HarperCollins.
Ernsberger, Paul and Koletsky, Richard J. (1999) Weil, Andrew (2004) Natural Health, Natural Medicine:
“Biomedical Rationale for a Wellness Approach to The Complete Guide to Wellness and Self-Care for
Obesity,” Journal of Social Issues 55 (2): 221–59. Optimum Health, New York: Houghton Mifflin
Foster, Gary D. (2002) “Nondieting Approaches,” in Company.
Anorexia
T he medicalization of disorders of eating begins in the was added to the mix of eating disorders, having a similar
seventeenth century. The Christian tradition of self- tangled history (Russell 1997). Certainly, the use of
abnegation meant that fasting became a common form of purges and emetics in this context has its origin in ancient
religious practice in the Middle Ages with spiritual rather medicine and cultural practices concerning excessive eat-
than pathological implications (Ove 2002). In the course ing. By this point, eating disorders such as anorexia and
of the nineteenth century, self-imposed starvation came bulimia had become acceptable vehicles for the expres-
to be a syndrome clearly delineated by physical signs and sion of mental illness in Western, industrialized culture,
symptoms and which was understood to have a psycho- what George Devereux calls a prescribed template for
genic origin. This idea that food had a special status was mental illness: “Don’t go crazy, but if you, do it this way”
uncontested. Some theoreticians saw the manipulation of (Devereux 1980).
the middle-class family by their daughters as the place Today, if one were to play a word-association game,
where rebellion could most meaningfully take place anorexia would be linked to words like: starved, skinny,
(Brumberg 1988). Yet anorexia nervosa, a name coined malnourished, or excessive self-control. While the term
by William Gull in 1868, was still a rare and therefore “anorexia” technically refers only to low body weight or
clinically fascinating aberration. In the 1920s, the view of lack of appetite, anorexia nervosa is a syndrome with
Morris Simmonds dominated: Anorexia was the result of both psychological and physical aspects. The latter is a
a lesion of the pituitary gland. This endocrinological def- relatively rare illness, as it occurs, even in high-risk groups
inition of radical thinness fitted well with the redefinition such as middle-class adolescent girls and young women,
of obesity as the result of metabolic imbalance. It was in only about 0.05 percent of that population. Consider-
only after World War II that Hilde Bruch began to speak ably more, however, suffer from the broader definition. In
of the lack of self-esteem and a distorted body image contemporary culture, the term “anorexia” is generally
caused by maternal rejection in such patients. By the mid- used interchangeably with anorexia nervosa. The import-
1970s, “anorexia” had become a household word ance of this is that the frequency (or at least the perceived
through her popular writings. During the 1980s, it was frequency) of the disorder has increased significantly dur-
“widely publicized, glamorized, and to some extent ing the past fifty years (Walsh 2003). The creation of the
romanticized” (Gordon 2000: 3). In 1979, the diagnostic EAT scale (Eating Attitudes Test) by Garner, Olmstead
category of “bulimia nervosa,” binge-eating and purging, and Polivy in 1983, provided a scale for evaluating spe-
was coined by the British psychiatrist Gerald Russell and cific (culture-bound) actions from “cutting one’s food up
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8 anorexia
into small pieces” to believing that “food controls my identity (Garner and Gerborg 2004). While many of
life.” The score on the EAT seemed to provide documen- these factors are truly suspect as “causal,” even in the
tation for the existence of a specific eating disorder. broadest sense of the word, an addictive model needs to
In the twenty-first century, it is seen as a “mental dis- have a set of primary causes, which are amenable to
ease.” The standard American presentation of mental ill- therapeutic interventions. To simply label such addictions
nesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental as “genetic,” following the older model for the medicali-
Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric Association 2000) zation of alcoholism, leaves little space for psychological
defines anorexia nervosa as: intervention. The newer model of addiction now does.
The treatment of such an addiction to dieting/starvation
1. “Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a min- is “interpersonal therapy,” emphasizing the “inner world
imally normal weight for age and height.” Specifically, and dynamics of the patient” (Petrucelli 2004: 312). The
a person with a body weight less than 85 percent of irony, of course, is that as obesity is not listed in the
what is expected. DSM-IV-TR, an addiction to food rather than its avoid-
2. “An intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, ance is missing in such approaches.
even though underweight.” Such a narrow scope constructs the illness in a way
3. “Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight is that can limit the patients’ understanding of their own
experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape condition. Anorexia, like other eating disorders, can, and
on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the does, vary greatly between individuals. A person may
current low body weight.” exhibit eating-disordered behavior or emotions without
4. “In post-menarcheal females, amenorrhea, i.e., the meeting the DSM definition. This has led to questioning
absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles. of the criteria’s absolute nature. Therefore, we must ask
A woman is considered to have amenorrhea if her where the line should be drawn—and how to go about
periods occur only following hormone, e.g., estrogen drawing it—between dieting behavior and anorexia. In
administration.” light of these difficulties, encapsulating all aspects of
(American Psychiatric Association 2000: 583–9) eating-disordered behavior into a working definition is
problematic.
While the DSM requires all four of these for a clinical Anorexia nervosa is often claimed to overlap with clini-
diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, individuals suffering from cal depression. It is not clear, however, what is causative:
only some of these symptoms are still at serious mental Is the depression the cause of the eating disorder or is it
and physical risk. the eating disorder that is the result of the depression, or
Following the DSM-IV-TR criteria, anorexia nervosa do they merely share a common cause? Depression is
and bulimia can be seen as “addictive behaviors,” in ana- commonly cited as one of the psychological symptoms
logy to other psychological states such as chemical that can coexist with anorexia. Additionally, the obses-
dependence, compulsive gambling, sex addiction, work- sion with thinness is a defining aspect of this illness, and it
aholism, and compulsive buying (Coombs 2004). As is possible to exhibit eating-disordered behavior without
such, it is seen to have a multifactorial cause. The actually being underweight or taking extreme weight-loss
environment factors are the sociocultural emphasis on measures. Psychiatrist Hilde Bruch, who in the 1970s
thinness, the association between dieting and self-control popularized modern notions of anorexia in her book
and self-discipline, participation in sports emphasizing Eating Disorders, states that its core elements are:
thinness, sexual or physical abuse, and the need for atten-
tion from others. The individual risk factors include A distorted body image, which consists of the virtually
genetic vulnerability; depression; obsessive-compulsive delusional misperception of the body as fat;
traits; a cognitive style preferring order, exactness, preci-
An inability to identify internal feelings and need states,
sion, and sameness; impulse control problems; low self-
particularly hunger, but more generally the whole range
esteem; extreme need for approval; perfectionism; early
of emotions; and
onset of puberty; sexual maturation; restrictive dieting;
fear of psychosocial maturity; extreme need for control; An all-pervasive sense of ineffectiveness, a feeling that
harm and risk avoidance; pursuit of an eating-disorder one’s actions, thoughts, and feelings do not actively
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anorexia 9
originate within the self but rather are passive reflections go down on the scale is the only thing in the world
of external expectations and demands. that matters to you. It’s the center of your life, the
(Gordon 2000: 18–19) only meaning to your existence. Pursuing it takes all
your time, and energy.
Bruch has analyzed the emotional side of anorexia via her (Way 1996: 21)
psychological training. Specifically, she claims that child-
hood experiences and problems in psychological matur- The excessive need to shed pounds at an ever-increasing
ation can foster eating disorders, which often manifest in rate is the result of a desire to a gain control over life.
adolescence. Psychiatrist Richard Gordon reinforces Ironically, this obsession with weight loss becomes life
Bruch’s limited time scope in his argument about why and spirals out of control.
teenagers are most vulnerable to a “deficient sense of self” It is further noted in the DSM-IV-TR that a dieting
(Gordon 2000: 19). Adolescence is the time period where culture is where “being considered attractive is linked
self-autonomy is usually developed. Thus, refusal to with being thin” (American Psychiatric Association
become an active agent in this process can result in an iden- 2000: 587). In these circumstances, “weight loss is
tity centered on control of one’s environment, specifically viewed as an impressive achievement and a sign of extra-
eating. While there is certainly a prevalence of anorexia in ordinary self-discipline, whereas weight gain is perceived
teenagers, the illness can present itself at any stage of life. as an unacceptable failure of self-control” (American
A possible explanation of anorexia offered in our age Psychiatric Association 2000: 584). This seems simply
that desires to reduce mental illness to physiological a misplaced extension of the underlying claims of
causes is that it is caused by serotonin imbalance in the twentieth-century (Western, industrialized) diet culture:
brain. Here, the notion of the common cause of depres- that thin is beautiful, that thin is good. If some self-
sion and eating disorders is located in brain chemistry. control, even in starvation, is a sign of control, total
This theory implies that anorexia can be remedied through self-control must be better.
pharmacological means, specifically selective serotonin Interestingly, a group known as “pro-ana” (pro-
reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (Hoek et al. 1998). If a lack of anorexia) resonates with this tenet of the illness in their
serotonin has a causal effect on the existence of anorexia, belief system. This small faction of people believes that
then the increase in serotonin should eliminate all side excessive thinness is a “lifestyle choice” (Shafran 2002;
effects, including the eating disorder. Another school of Ana’s Underground Grotto 2005). In short, one who
thought is more multifaceted than this cause-and-effect lives a pro-ana lifestyle is someone who has purposely
relationship. Patient advocates, such as Mary Ann Mar- chosen to adopt permanently an extremely limited,
razzi, believe that those suffering from anorexia are low-calorie diet. Pro-ana followers commonly feel that
“predisposed to an addiction cycle that is set into motion thinness should take precedence above all else and will
by chronic dieting [. . . whereupon] the brain releases voluntarily make sacrifices to that end.
opioids, known to cause a ‘high’ ” (Psychology Today Cultural pressures foster both dieting and anorexia.
Staff 1995). They claim that although such an addiction Contrary to popular opinion, anorexia is not only a
can be offset by SSRIs, psychological therapy is a crucial disease that affects the very young, the very rich, the very
phase of the treatment of anorexia. white. It is true, however, that anorexia is more common
Yet another view sees a person suffering from anorexia among cultures that value thinness as beautiful (Kalodner
as having an obsessive need to be thin stemming from the 2000: 55). One can add that it appears in those sub-
need for control (Kalodner 2000: 12–13). Eating often cultures that acquire such ideals in their integration into a
can seem to be more easily controlled than many other majority view of the body. Thus, the shift in body image
aspects of a person’s life. Food and body become obses- and the sudden appearance of anorexia in the African
sions that permeate every facet of a person’s life, some- American community at the end of the twentieth century
times even intruding into dreams. Karen Way’s book follows African American women entering more and
Anorexia Nervosa and Recovery, explains, more into the mainstream image of what an appropriate
body must be. In 1960, Hilde Bruch found a “conspicuous
thinness is the obsession and losing weight is the absence of Negro patients” (Bruch 1966). By the mid-
fix. When you’re anorexic, watching the numbers 1990s, the rates had begun to approach the numbers in
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10 anorexia
white middle-class (Pumariega et al. 1994). Anorexia (Tiggemann and Rothblum 1988: 76). When asked about
does not discriminate, and many groups within modern their ideal weight, the women on average wanted to be 9
Western culture are affected by it. Indeed, some groups, pounds thinner, while the men wanted to be 1 pound
such as Jews and Italians in America, living in traditions heavier. While only 20 percent of the participants actu-
where food is a major ethnic marker, seem to actually ally were overweight, 50 percent felt themselves to be so,
have higher rates of the syndrome (Rowland 1970). The and women comprised the majority of this percentage.
attraction of thinness as a body type has not been preva- The second part of the project examined to what extent
lent throughout history. Throughout the twentieth cen- stereotypes about the obese are prevalent in Western
tury, an ideal of thinness has been constantly evolving society. On average, fat men and women were perceived
throughout the West (Gordon 2000: 135). The incidence by all participants as being warm, friendly, lazy, less self-
of anorexia in non-Western cultures has increased in confident and not as attractive as their thinner counter-
recent years. As globalization has caused popular culture parts. The authors concluded that women have “higher
to infiltrate non-Western cultures, thinness as a necessity public body consciousness” (Tiggemann and Rothblum
of beauty is further popularized, and the attractiveness of 1988: 85) than men and that stereotyping persists, lead-
anorexia as a “prescribed template for mental illness” ing possibly to social adjustment problems.
also is available. The question of whether there are cul- Anorexia is often viewed as a diet gone too far, resulting
tural “pathofacilitative effects” that underlie the appear- in virtual starvation. The boundary between anorexia and
ance of eating disorders has been the subject of studies in dieting is hazy. Dieting is comparable to anorexia in the
India and China. In India at least, while the EAT (Eating strict sense that it is, by nature, a controlling act. When
Attitudes Test) labeled “cutting one’s food into small one is dieting, food is being restricted in a variety of differ-
pieces” as pathological behavior, it was clear that this ent ways, and, if followed, the diet is controlling a facet of
was understood as appropriate etiquette among those life. While dieting does play a large part in life, there is a
questioned and was in no way a sign of pathology. Like- difference between dieting and an irrational obsession
wise, the category of “food controlling one’s life” was with food. A nonobsessive average dieter’s personality
read in terms of Hindu religious fasting practices, rather and lifestyle are not affected by their dieting regimen.
than individual anxiety about dieting and body appear- However, someone with anorexia undergoes a radical
ance (Tseng 2003: 183–9). change in lifestyle. This is due to the controlling nature of
In addition to cultural biases, anorexia has been gen- the illness. For instance, people with anorexia often plan
der biased as well. While the prevalence among men is out their meals when they wake up for the day and cannot
much lower than women, it is still evident amongst a waver at all from this schedule. By contrast, an average
faction of the male population. Anorexia and other eat- dieter’s daily routine does not solely revolve around food.
ing disorders in men have often been neglected by society Another important difference between anorexia and
as well as clinical researchers. Arnold Anderson explains dieting is that most people with anorexia must receive
that, “Males with eating disorders may have sought pro- treatment in order to recover. Eating disorders are seen
fessional help so infrequently that they have become a today as psychological problems that often require the
statistical rarity” (Anderson 1999: 73). Moreover, typical intervention of mental-health professionals and phys-
symptoms of anorexia that are present in females are icians. In general, a combination of treatments—such as
usually correctly identified, whilst the same indicators in individual psychotherapy, group therapy, family therapy,
males are overlooked. This is due, in part, to the socio- medication, nutritional counseling, support groups, self-
cultural beliefs held in the Western world about men and help groups, and classes—may be used (Ellis-Ordway
the assumption that extreme thinness is only a feminine 1999: 189). Treatment of the problem has to start with
desire. Similarly, dieting culture sidelines men, while it addressing the underlying emotional and mental states.
focuses primarily on women. Physicians provide instructions that are necessary to rem-
Thus, men imagine themselves thin, while women edy physical consequences.
imagine themselves fat. By interviewing a selected group SLG/Laura Goldstein and Jessica Rissman
of undergraduates at comparable American and Austral-
ian universities, Marika Tiggemann and Esther Rothblum See also Aboulia; Binge-Eating; Bruch; China Today;
tested the “social consequences of perceived weight” Globalization; Gull; Marcé; Morton
14:27:24:10:07 Page 10

24. Page 11
anorexia 11
References and Further Reading Hsu, George L.K. (1990) Eating Disorders, New York:
American Psychiatric Association (2000) “Eating The Guilford Press.
Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa,” in Diagnostic and Kalodner, Cynthia R. (2000) Too Fat or Too Thin?
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn, Text Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Revision IV-R, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Ove, Marcia K. (2002) “The Evolution of Self-Starvation
Association, pp. 583–9. Behaviors into the Present-Day Diagnosis of Anorexia
Ana’s Underground Grotto (2005). Available online at Nervosa: A Critical Literature Review,” Dissertation,
<http://www.plagueangel.org/grotto/id1.html> California School of Professional Psychology.
(accessed April 17, 2006). Petrucelli, Jean (2004) “Treating Eating Disorders,” in
Anderson, Arnold E. (1999) “Eating Disorders in Males: Robert Holman Coombs (ed.) Handbook of Addictive
Critical Questions,” in Raymond Lemberg (ed.), Disorders, New York: John Wiley, pp. 312–52.
Eating Disorders: A Reference Sourcebook, Phoenix, Psychology Today Staff (1995) “Treating Anorexia Like
Ariz.: Oryx Press, pp. 189–92. Addiction,” Psychology Today. March/April. Available
Bruch, Hilde (1966) “Anorexia Nervosa and Its online at <http://www.psychologytoday.com/ articles/
Differential Diagnosis,” Journal of Nervous and pto-19950301-000008.html> (accessed April 30,
Mental Diseases 141: 555–66. 2004).
Brumberg, Joan (1988) Fasting Girls: The History of Pumariega, A., Gustavson, C.R., Gustavson, J.C., Stone
Anorexia Nervosa, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Motes, P. and Ayers, S. (1994) “Eating Attitudes in
University Press. African-American Women: The Essence Eating
Coombs, Robert Holman (ed.) (2004) Handbook of Disorders Survey,” Eating Disorders 2 (1): 5–16.
Addictive Disorders, New York: John Wiley. Rowland, C.V. (1970) “Anorexia and Obesity,”
Devereux, George (1980) “Normal and Abnormal,” in International Psychiatry Clinics 7 (1): 37–137.
his Basic Problems of Ethnopsychiatry, trans. Basia Russell, Gerald F.M. (1997) “The History of Bulimia
Miller Gulati and George Devereux, Chicago, Ill.: Nervosa,” in David M. Garner and Paul E. Garfinkel
University of Chicago Press, pp. 3–71. (eds), Handbook of Treatment for Eating Disorders,
Ellis-Ordway, Nancy (1999) “How To Find Treatment New York: Guilford Press, pp. 11–24.
for an Eating Disorder,” in Raymond Lemberg (ed.), Russell, Sherman Apt (2005) Hunger: An Unnatural
Eating Disorders: A Reference Sourcebook, Phoenix, History, New York: Basic Books.
Ariz.: Oryx Press, pp. 189–92. Shafran, Roz (2002) “Eating Disorders and the Internet,”
Garner, David M. and Gerborg, Anna (2004) in Christopher G. Fairburn and Kelly D. Brownell
“Understanding and Diagnosing Eating Disorders,” in (eds), Eating Disorders and Obesity: A
Robert Holman Coombs (ed.) Handbook of Addictive Comprehensive Handbook, 2nd edn, New York:
Disorders, New York: John Wiley, pp. 275–311. Guilford Press, pp. 362–6.
Garner, David M., Olmstead, M.P., and Polivy, J. (1983) Tiggemann, Marika and Esther Rothblum (1988)
“Development and Validation of a Multidimensional “Gender Differences in Social Consequences of
Eating Disorder Inventory for Anorexia Nervosa and Perceived Overweight in the United States and
Bulimia,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 2: Australia,” Sex Roles 18 (1/2): 75–86.
15–34. Tseng, Wen-Shing (2003) Clinician’s Guide to Cultural
Gordon, Richard A. (2000) Eating Disorders: Anatomy Psychiatry, Amsterdam: Academic Press.
of a Social Epidemic, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Walsh, B. Timothy (2003) “Eating Disorders,” in Allan
Heywood, Leslie (1996) Dedication to Hunger: The Tasman, Jerald Kay, and Jeffrey A. Lieberman (eds),
Anorexic Aesthetic in Modern Culture, Berkeley, Psychiatry, 2nd edn, New York: John Wiley, Vol. II,
Calif.: University of California Press. pp. 1501–18.
Hoek, H.W., Treasure, J.L., and Katzman, M.A. (eds) Way, Karen (1996) Anorexia Nervosa and Recovery:
(1998) Neurobiology in the Treatment of Eating A Hunger for Meaning, Binghamton, NY: Haworth
Disorders, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Press.
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25. Page 12
12 atkins, robert
Atkins, Robert, MD (1930–2003)
American doctor and cardiologist, best known for his unconventional and controversial
Atkins Nutritional Approach diet
A tkins first proposed his high-protein, high-fat, low- Atkins’ death in 2003, attributed to a heart attack,
carbohydrate diet in 1972 in his book, Dr. Atkin’s Diet was used by many critics of his diet as evidence of the
Revolution: The High Calorie Way to Stay Thin Forever. danger of high-fat, high-protein diets. While there has
This radical approach in the 1970s told dieters they could been much controversy over the true cause of his death,
eat as much red meat, eggs, cheese, and other high-fat as well as the report that Atkins weighed 258 pounds at
foods as they desired but not eat pasta, cereal, bread or his death, no consensus has been reached about the
other carbohydrates. The diet was relatively popular as a effects of his diet on his own health.
fad diet, but “low-carb” would not become a buzz word
SLG/Sarah Gardiner
for several decades. Even though it was originally
designed as a diet to maintain blood-sugar levels for dia- See also Banting; Sugar Busters; Zone Diet
betics, it became a popular weight-loss strategy that
started the “low-carb” movement.
Over the next twenty years, Atkins founded the Atkins References and Further Reading
Center for Complementary Medicine and continued to McConnell, Tandy (ed.) (2001) “Robert C. Atkins,”
write new books. However, it was the revised versions of American Decades 1990–1999, Detroit, Mich.:
his original book that he published in 1992 and 1999, Manly.
respectively, that brought the diet guru back into the pub- Anon. (2000) “Robert C. Atkins,” Biography resource
lic eye (Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Dr. Atkins’ center online. Detroit: Gale Group. Available online at
New Diet Revolution: Revised and Updated). Atkins <http://www.galenet.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/
faced intense criticism about the updated books, with servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=contains&locID=emory
many health organizations, doctors, and dieticians &srchtp=name&ca=5&c=3&AI=U13424901&NA=
attacking the lack of balance prescribed in his diet. Major atkins+robert&ste=12&tbst=prp&tab=1&docNum=
critics included the American Medical Association, the K1650000877&bConts=47> (accessed June 23,
American Dietetic Association, and the American Heart 2007)
Association. Despite these various denunciations of the Anon. (2003) “Robert Coleman Atkins: Obituary,”
diet, the book was wildly popular: its various versions British Medical Journal 326 (5): 1090.
spent five years on the New York Times’s bestseller list Anon. (2004) “The Diet Fad of the 21st Century.”
and earned a place among the top fifty bestselling books Available online at <http://www.atkinsexposed.org/
in history (Womble and Wadden 2002). atkins/11/The_Diet_Fad_of_the_21st_Century.htm>
Even in the face of such controversy and criticism, (accessed March 12, 2007).
according to the British Medical Journal’s obituary of Womble, Leslie G. and Wadden, Thomas (2002)
Atkins, the various editions of his New Diet Revolution “Commercial and Self-Help Weight Loss Programs,”
book sold 12 million copies, making it the bestselling fad- in Christopher G. Fairburn and Kelly D. Brownell
diet book ever written. In addition to the success of his (eds), Eating Disorders and Obesity: A
books, Atkins saw more than 600,000 patients since Comprehensive Handbook, 2nd edn, New York:
receiving his medical degree in 1955; he also had his Guilford Press, pp. 546–50.
own syndicated radio program, Your Health Choices,
and his own monthly newsletter, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet
Revolution.
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