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The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin, by Ellen Ruppel Shell
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Americans spend $33 billion annually on diet and exercise programs, yet we are fatter than ever -- and it's killing us. According to a recent Surgeon General's report, more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight, including a growing number of children, all of whom face such increased, potentially life-threatening health risks as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. The Hungry Gene takes an unflinching look at the spreading obesity pandemic, guiding readers through the ongoing quest to unravel the genetic and behavioral basis of one of the most vexing scientific mysteries of our time. Acclaimed science journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell goes to the front lines of the struggle against fat -- from the quiet facility in Maine where the first superobese mice were bred more than thirty years ago, to Rockefeller University in New York where scientists worked around the clock to isolate the gene that causes obesity. Along the way Shell looks at how medicine is dealing with the fat crisis with radical and controversial surgical techniques, what the incidence of mordant obesity among native islanders in Micronesia tells us about its evolutionary roots, and how drug companies are racing to create a pill to cure this "Trillion Dollar Disease." She also takes aim at the increasingly obesity-enabling culture that lies behind the crisis -- from the expanding suburban sprawl that has fostered America's car-centered sedentary lifestyle to the fast-food marketers who prey on the jammed schedules of today's two-income families. Weaving science, history, and personal stories, the narrative builds to a powerful conclusion that reveals how we can beat the obesity pandemic before it beats us. Gripping and provocative, The Hungry Gene is the unsettling saga of how the world got fat -- and what we can do about it. "An indefatigable reporter with a novelist's sense of character and drama ..." -- John Horgan, author of The End of Science
- Sales Rank: #4923165 in Books
- Published on: 2002-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.19" h x 6.30" w x 9.52" l, .1 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
From Publishers Weekly
More than 1.1 billion people worldwide are overweight or obese. How and why did the world get so fat? Shell, a journalist and codirector of the Program in Science Journalism at Boston University, explores the issue from many angles including the roles of genetics, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry and social class. She charts the growth in scientific research on obesity and obesity treatments in the last decade (from stomach stapling to the notoriously dangerous drug Fen-Phen), explaining the biology of metabolism that makes it so difficult to circumvent the body's appetite. Shell also explores the lifestyle culprits behind obesity, traveling to Micronesia to document the residents of the island of Kosrae, whose average life span has plummeted in recent years due to the introduction of high-fat Western food. Though she lucidly explains the physiology of fat, Shell fills the book with chatty profiles of patients and doctors ("Rudy Leibel is a small man and trim... He has a degree in English literature, and a weakness for poetry") and her prose reads like that of a glossy magazine. There is also much in the book that may be familiar to readers; the spotlights on new obesity treatments are compelling, but it will come as no surprise that too much high-fat, calorie-dense food and too little exercise trigger obesity. On the other hand, given that Big-Tobacco-style class-action lawsuits against fast food companies are under consideration, some may find Shell's arguments for the regulation of junk-food TV advertising, among other measures, timely and provocative.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This is not quick-fix diet book. It's a science journalist's study of why we are fatter than ever (60 percent of Americans should be skipping dessert today) and what is being done about it.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Science journalist Shell brings science, history, and economics to bear in this penetrating look at how and why an increasing number of people in developed nations are obese and what can be done about it. Shell outlines the life-threatening illnesses posed by obesity--hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. She explores historic public and medical opinions on obesity--from attributing it to lack of moral fortitude to classifying it as a genetic disorder--and the various cures, including starvation and stomach stapling. Shell also offers a fascinating cast in the scientists, doctors, and patients who are tracking down the causes of obesity. Despite the general lack of public sympathy for the obese, the predicted profits to be made on weight reduction are fueling a growing conflict between scientific discovery and commercial interests. Readers interested in health and science will enjoy this fascinating book, although be forewarned that some descriptions may be too graphic for some readers' tastes. Vanessa Bush
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
An important book with a few problems...
By Sarah Brodwall
In the spirit of revealing any biases I might have about the material discussed in this book, I must state that I'm both fat and a fat-acceptance activist. I'm giving this book four stars--albeit grudgingly, because despite my disgust with some of the author's assumptions and language use, the scholarship is generally solid and the facts she puts forth are very important in understanding the epidemiology of the current "obesity epidemic".
One of the problems I have with "The Hungry Gene" is the author's use of degrading language in her descriptions of fat people. When the author discusses the experience of watching a fat woman undergoing weight-loss surgery , she uses sentences like "The flesh ripples thickly, like a cr�me br�l�e", and characterizes the smell of the incision made by a cauterizing scalpel as being "like hamburgers spitting on a grill". Honest, perhaps, but not "compassionate"--a term used by a previous reviewer of this book.
A much bigger problem with this book, however, is the conclusions the author reaches after consideration of all she's learned from her research. Throughout the book, the author discusses the causes of the obesity epidemic: genetic tendencies, fetal environment, too little exercise, too much processed convenience food. The research is excellent in depth and breadth, if at times recounted in rather, ah, bombastic language. Certainly all these causes are at the root of the many ailments associated with obesity--but the problem is not obesity *itself*. Correlation is not the same as causation. Numerous studies have demonstrated that it's not fat itself that's bad for health, but rather those things that *cause* obesity that account for health problems (Check out Glenn Gaesser's "Big Fat Lies", for example, for more confirmation of this statement). Obesity can be a symptom of poor lifestyle choices, yes. But obesity *itself* isn't what we should be fighting a war against, as the author concludes. Instead, we should be doing everything in our power to fight the causes of obesity, and the author does a good job of discussion solutions to these causes. Choosing fat itself as our target, on the other hand, actually ends up making us fatter than ever, a fact which the author actually discusses in the book. The conclusion that fat itself is the enemy, however, really undermines the book's primary message.
So, with a couple caveats, I do recommend this book for anyone interested in why people get fat, and what can be done to counteract the health problems associated with obesity. It's a highly entertaining read, and a very important one in this day of ubiquitous McDonalds and 4-hour TV-watching marathons.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
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By whimsilly
Lot of info
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Phat start...thin finish
By Gabriel J. Pereira
Keeping the food theme alive, I'll start by way of analogy...
Have you ever dined at a fine restaurant, had a well planned, beautifully executed and thought provoking meal, only to have the entire experience scuttled by a ho-hum dessert and a burnt cup of coffee? Such was my encounter with The Hungry Gene.
Author Ellen Shell, a consistent contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, is among the top science writers in the United States today and she adroitly demonstrates her literary and research skills in every piece she creates. This book is no exception as she sets the stage with great finesse and takes us through a brief monograph of the philosophy and treatment of obesity from ancient history to the mid twentieth century. She then moves to the early theories of genetics and obesity and on to the core of her book, the absolutely riveting story (full of juicy back-stabbing details and deal making) of Dr. Jeffrey Friedman and his research team's obsessive search for the magic genetic bullet to cure obesity, and the resulting avarice of the pharmaceutical industry in trying to procure and apply the research.
Shell then elaborates on the genetic ties to obesity through a chapter dedicated to the Kosrae people (an indigenous Micronesian population brought to obesity by the Westernization of their foodways) and a chapter concerning pediatric and adolescent obesity illustrated through the study of children conceived and born during the Nazi siege of Holland of 1944-45 and additional prenatal research performed by Dr. David Barker, a Southampton, UK based epidemiologist. These studies are sited in support of the strong correlation between a pregnant mother's food intake and a child's pre-disposition towards obesity.
It's at this point the waiter pulls up the rather Spartan dessert cart featuring a tired looking cheesecake, a lonely slice of apple pie and coffee made fresh...this morning. Because in what reads like stream of consciousness, Shell tries to use childhood obesity as a bridge to the final chapters which are essentially a political harangue of the food industry and food marketing. Her points for the most part are well taken and quite valid, but they seem out of context for the case she was building previously on scientific and empirical evidence. Also there are several authors who frankly wear the mantle of angry reformer better than she: Greg Critser's, "Fat Land", Marion Nestle's, "Food Politics" and Eric Shlosser's, "Fast Food Nation" are infinitely better articulated and have more compelling arguments condemning the big business of food. There's a telling line in Shell's Acknowledgements section: "Current Atlantic Monthly editor Mike Kelly not only ran excerpts of this book in the magazine, but suggested that I direct at least some attention to what he called the 'marketing of obesity' - a brilliant stroke". That's exactly what the conclusion of this book feels like - a well intentioned afterthought encouraged by an editor.
For me, perhaps the greatest irony to be savored from the swelling (excuse the back to back puns) number of publications concerning the weight problem and obesity pandemic, is that even after all the scientific, psychological, and sociological pundits have weighed in, we're still faced with the same admonishments our mothers gave us starting as far back as the Eisenhower administration, namely turn off the television, go play outside, no candy before dinner, don't eat so fast, and finish your veggies.
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