Rachel Interviews Gina Kolata
The fancy new redisigned The F-Word has an interview up today with Gina Kolata, author of Rethinking Thin.
In Rethinking Thin, you contend that the diet industry often only succeeds in fattening the pocketbooks of a multi-billion dieting industry, while hopeful dieters lose only money. Why then do so many Americans continue to buy in to the thin American dream?
In my book, I discuss the work of psychologists who asked why people repeatedly diet when ever time they regain the weight. They concluded that there is a reward to dieting – at first, when the weight falls off, people feel great, in control, about to embark on a new phase of their lives. Then, when it comes back, they blame themselves for having been weak or given in to temptation. When a new diet comes around, they are ready to try again, and once again get that initial euphoria.
I have nothing to add to what is a very interesting interview, so you may as well click on over there to read the rest!
Posted by mo pie
It’s really true, though. Everyone thinks it is a shortcoming of their own that made them get fat again.
And on top of that, everyone thinks that other people who regain have shortcomings, even me.
Posted before I could finish- woops!
Anyhow, I sometimes find myself thinking about people who’ve regained weight- my Fiance’s mother in particular, who has dieted and regained and dieted and regained and I think “She ought to just stick with it over the long term”
Then I catch myself and think.. am I really any better, having never even been able to lose a lot of weight? Then I start thinking, why should I care?
It’s amazing the psychology surrounding it.
Wow… that is SO true.