Rethinking Thin

John Tarrant’s koan
In the sea
Ten thousand feet down
There’s a single stone
I’ll pick it up without wetting my hands.


RETHINKING THIN, the new science of weight loss and the myths and realities of obesity by Gina Kolata.
I’ve just finished reading this book. Kolata is a New York Times Science writer looking at the scientific issues around obesity. She writes about our cultural imperative to demonize fat people as morally lax and unhealthy and the scientific studies of how people actually gain and loose weight and how obesity is related to biological processes around hunger and satiety rather then free will and determination. It’s refreshing to move from fat hatred to a neutral examination of what is going on. This is a book I can recommend.