A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind the Obesity Epidemic—and How We Can End It

With a kind but brisk bedside manner, RAND Corporation scientist Cohen (co-author of Prescription for a Healthy Nation) delivers a diagnosis in layman’s terms in this powerful book: two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese, not because of a lack of self-control, but because of the “modern food environment” that makes it easy to consume too many calories. In the first half of the book, Cohen presents numerous research studies that level myths about “mindful” eating, instead arguing that we’re “biologically designed to overeat” and easily influenced by 24-hour fast-food drive-thrus, oversize restaurant portions, supermarket displays, candy in checkout aisles, and TV commercials. She argues for a “critical paradigm shift”: to view the epidemic as a public health crisis and institute controls that guide eaters to “choose health over heft.” Anticipating resistance, Cohen spends the rest of the book defending government interventions, citing examples like ratings for restaurant hygiene and conjecturing how “common-sense regulations” resembling those on alcohol sales might “make unhealthy foods” less accessible and enticing. While Cohen believes that collective action is the only real solution to epidemic, she also helpfully suggests ways to modify one’s food environment and offers dietary guidelines in the appendix. Photos. (Jan.)