Rating: 
Summary: Being fat is bad for you. Who'da thunk it?
Review: Critser has given us yet another book bemoaning the obesity of America. While very readable and somewhat entertaining, the book presents absolutely nothing new to the reader. Fat people experience more health problems than thin people, they die younger, they cost more to take care of, etc. All of these are painfully obvious in today's society, and have already been pointed out numerous times. This book lacks the same thing that all the other books lack.....a solution to the problem. Sure he tosses out a few examples of what has worked in certain small areas of the nation, but it obviously isn't enough. The problem is that the authors of these books are like most other American citizens....."forget about the cause, let's treat the symptoms". The problem isn't that Americans eat poorly and don't exercise. The problem is that Americans simply don't care. Throwing out new innovative diets and exercise programs won't solve anything. It only treats symptoms, and does a poor job of that. If America's obesity problem is to really be solved, the cause (America's apathy) must be confronted and defeated. That likely won't happen until the problem is much worse than it already is......until the pain of seeing people dropping like flies outweighs the pain of doing anything about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Supersizing ourselves and our kids
Review: About three-quarters of the way through this intensely felt jaunt through Krispy Kreme land and the Golden Arched environs of fat land America, journalist Greg Critser makes an interesting political observation. He's talking about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, recalling that Monica said the President always left his shirt untucked to hide his belly and how that was perhaps a connection between the two (their protruding bellies, that is). And then Critser reflects, "If the right wing in this country is still really moralistic about sex, the left is moralistic about food..." (p. 149)He goes on to note that educated people are supposed to be in control of the amount of body fat they have. This observation is in tune with the disturbing truth he chronicles: namely those people from the lowest educational and socioeconomic levels of society are the ones becoming the fattest. He cites studies showing that the percentage of obese African, Hispanic, and Native Americans is higher than that of other groups, and that those people who are living at or near poverty levels are the most likely to be obese and are the most likely to have obese children. Yet Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton are not exactly candidates for remedial education or payday advances. What is going on? Epidemic. Something as deadly as a killer virus is on the loose in America today, and although obesity is most prevalent at lower economic levels, it hits all segments of society. Since reading this book I have found myself eyeing the populace. Every time I pass by a Burger King or a Carl's Jr. or a McDonalds or a Taco Bell I check out the clientele, those walking up and those sitting high and large in their expensive SUVs at the drive-up window. And when I see them, I say to myself: they are being supersized. Just how bad is it? According to a table on pages 182-183, in the year 2000 19.8 percent of Americans were obese. That's one in every five. This figure shot up from 12 percent in 1991. But it's even worse than it appears. According to figures on page four, 61 percent of Americans are overweight. That's most of us! And about "25 percent of all Americans under age nineteen are overweight." We have supersized ourselves into a health care nightmare in which the total cost of obesity to HMOs is "$345.9 million annually, or 41 percent of the total" for just eight obesity-related diseases. (p. 148) But the larger cost to our society in terms premature death, reduced quality of life, and cost of work days lost due to obesity cannot be measured, but in dollar terms is well into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. How did it happen? First, as Critser observes, food got cheap, relatively speaking, thanks to the growth of big agriculture. And then came the use of corn syrup (fructose) in sodas and other fast and snack foods. This may have been the most significant development of all because fructose, according to Critser, is used by the body differently than other sugars and leads to changes in fat oxidation, insulin resistance and increased fat storage often resulting in Type 2 diabetes. (See pages 136-139 for how this apparently works.) Type 2 diabetes, long a threat to middle-aged, overweight men and women, is now a threat to children. Critser also points to the invasion of our schools by snack and fast food vendors as fostering the epidemic. They seduced financially-strapped school districts into allowing them to pepper the school with their ads and their products. TV advertising of junk foods to kids and the rise of sedentary video games are other factors. Shorter and non-existent physical education classes at our schools is perhaps as big a factor as any. Furthermore, quite frankly, we were looking the other way. In particular, while feminists and others were obsessing over anorexia and bulimia (a tragic but minuscule problem compared to obesity) and calling fat a feminist issue (p. 123), the real truth of a fat epidemic was sweeping the land. While fashion magazines and Hollywood were being condemned for giving women body image problems, the real media blitz was going on all around us, especially on Saturday morning TV where the fast and junk food purveyors were indoctrinating our children into supersizing themselves. What's to be done? Will the purveyors of high-fat, high-fructose foods be treated like the tobacco industry, their advertising drastically curtailed and their products demonized? Will home owners allow themselves to be taxed enough to pay for real physical education classes in our schools? Will being fat become such a social stigma that people will take it upon themselves to slim down? Critser sees education and parental involvement as the key to helping our kids avoid becoming overweight. I agree and believe that it will take nothing less than a sea change in our values from the worship of all things big to an appreciation of modesty and restraint and a realization that bigger is not necessarily better. In addition to this well presented and readable book, I also highly recommend The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin (2002) by Ellen Ruppel Shell for another view on the epidemic.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopefully a national awakening.
Review: While many cumulative factors inducing the ever increasing girth of Americans are noted, the introduction of High Fructose Corn syrup and it's use in nearly every food "made" now is quite compelling. A slice of bread goes from 30cal to 90+ with the inclusion of Corn Syrup as a preservative/sweetener. Hopefully this expose with result in some meaningful public health awareness and policy. The authors swipe at a low carbohydrate diet (Atkins) is ill thought out, and somewhat interesting as one facet of an Atkin's diet is the exclusion of High Fructose corn syrup. While no single factor can explain the prevalence of obesity in America, the infiltration of the food supply by High Fructose Corn syrup is an impressive single suspect. Read your content labels and be mortified! It's the surgeon general's time to act.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Review: Can I first just say, I LOVE the cover illustrations! The oh-so-sweet and pretty (but venemous) foodstuffs surrounding the perfect (placated?) baby. Very clever. Now the book. Sometimes it gets a little too technical and I had to make an effort to read every line instead of glossing past the statistics to get to the point. All-in-all though, it's very interesting, and some of the statistics are truly shocking. The phenomena behind our increase in obesity was particularly interesting to me, because I have noticed it myself over the past 20 years and wondered what was going on. When I was young, hardly any kids were fat, and now there are so many overweight children (and, of course, adults.) It used to be mainly older sedentary people who gained weight, not young people. And any observant person can see it's primarily to do with junk food making it into the mainstream, but the author manages to explain the background and politics behind it, and takes it down to 2 or 3 of the biggest "evils" in our food system that have triggered the alarming cycle. Even if you think you already understand most of the issues, it's interesting to read some of the background and realize that we've been taken for a bit of a ride. It made my resolve even stronger not to fall prey to the soda, snack, and fast-food industries. I was also interested in the various theories and statistics on how to deal with weight issues for children - whether to let children naturally regulate themselves or whether parents should impose rules around food and eating. If you're a parent, and you're trying to raise your children without food issues and eating problems, this book may provide some insight to help. Food for thought, anyway....
Rating:
Summary: No point in bickering over minutiae, America is too fat.
Review: While it is indeed possible that some of the dietary recommendations in this book do not reflect the latest thinking, it is a plainly obvious to those who travel that Americans are fat and getting fatter. Bickering about the minutiae is pointless, those who have been following this topic for any time will know that the standard wisdom concerning nutrition is in a constant state of turmoil. While it is sometimes difficult to both avoid junk foods and exercise adequately, those that do so consistently feel better, look healthier, are more stress resistant and are over all happier. Any study purporting to show the opposite does so only via faulty experimental design.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting History, But No Good Solutions
Review: Greg Crister does a great job of starting with the economic slump of the early 1970s in agriculture to tell the tale of how America became so fat. From supply-side economics in the creation of more corn and soy without a market to the creation of corn syrup in the late 1970's the fattening of America seems to be a story of an excess of caloric riches. In addition, there is a good discussion of why sugar is not always sugar and why fructose (as is found in corn syrup) is so damaging to the body. There is an amazing graph in the appendex that shows the average Body Mass Index (BMI, a measure of obesiety) increases in direct proportion to the increase in the number of foods that contain corn syrup. Critser also takes a quick swipe at many of the fashion diets of the day, including Atkins which I am on now. Its hard to say much about this since it feels more like a drive-by hit rather than the results of an in-depth analysis. He instead takes the position of most mainstream dietitians to eat fewer calories than you expend, and it's kind of hard to argue with that approach (its the implementation that's always a bear, though). Like most everyone else, there are no real solutions to the problem in this book other than individuals acting to lose their own excess weight. Its dissapointing, but not unexpected.
Rating: 
Summary: Fat Facts and Fat Z's
Review: Greg Critser, author if Fat Land, did a great job with his research. In Fat Land, Critser, explores the political, medical and social aspects of how Americans became the Fattest people on earth.
Rating:
Summary: When will America finally take off the blindfold?
Review: Fat Land is an incredibly eye-openng book that isn't afraid to discuss what America has been trying to hide for decades. How DID we become the fattest nation in the world? Who's actually to blame? Why has the problem of obesity increased so much in recent times while very few people have actually tried to correct it? Greg Critser offers his opinions mixed with hundreds of actual facts, data, and statistics to answer these often ignored topics. He explores fast-food marketing strategies, genes versus living conditions, school gym programs, the role of the media, and many more contributors, showing how each plays a role in the increased average weight of our country. This book changed not only my own personal eating habits, but the way I view the entire food and exercise regime in America.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for All Concerned Professionals and Lay People
Review: Fat Land is engaging, entertaining, and informative. Greg Critser's documentation of the political and economic factors contributing to eating problems in America is both remarkable and frightening. An example of one of hundreds of startling facts detailed in the book: "A serving of McDonald's french fries had ballooned from 200 calories (1960) to 320 calories (late 1970's) to 450 calories (mid-1990's) to 540 calories (late 1990's) to the present 610 calories." YIKES! While his overview of cultural, economic and political factors sheds important light on the problem, I would argue that this book does not live up to it's sub-title: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. As a psychotherapist working with binge-eating disorder and compulsive overeating, I contend that many eating problems have other factors at their root. The issues he addresses certainly contribute to creating an environment in which unmet needs of all types (emotional, intellectual, creative, spiritual, pleasure etc.)can cheaply and quickly be met by palm oil and fructose laden foods and drinks. Yet unmet needs of the heart, mind, and spirit, also play a part in "How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World." I look forward to seeing what Greg Critser might be writing in five or ten years on the subject. Perhaps he will address these other factors with the same insight and clarity he has brought to the cultural issues through Fatland.
Rating:
Summary: Write on Mr Critser
Review: I found this book spell binding. Working in the diet industry, I was impressed by the science which Mr Critser used to substantiate his book.
Contrary to some reviewers, I can only compliment how well he researched his work. Most of the scientists he cited are well recognized in their respective fields. Mr Critser did not produce a "supersized" treatise; he wrote a concise book that can easily be ready by anyone. It is a great warning to all Americans and the World, who are,sadly, following close behind. I have lived amongst some of the mammoth South Sea Islanders, Critser mentions as the only world population to exceed Americans. It is scary to think that Americans are becoming just like these people. South Sea Islanders (a.k.a. Polynesians) are a great example of how "Western" style food has upset their metabolism. In their native island, they are not obese. Frequently they are very handsome people, active and normal in stature. Once exposed to Western diet they bloat, with high levels of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Mr Critser has made a great attempt to understand how simle ingredients in our diet have such a large impact on us. Like another reviewer, I concur, rifling through the plentiful pages of references to find the author's sources was cumbersome. What ever happened to footnotes?
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