Summary Of Fat Land By Greg Critser

Fat Land Book Review Every new year brings with it a host of new pressing issues and challenges that our nation must confront and overcome, and though economic and global concerns certainly deserve a large part of our attention, as a nation we have almost entirely forgotten or ignored many problems that have been plaguing us for decades. Chiefly among these concerns is the ever growing obesity epidemic, which has seen a dramatic increase over the past several decades and looks to be continuing its trend into our near future. In his book, Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World, Greg Critser delves into many of the significant causes behind this staggering increase in girth our nation has been experiencing, and offers

Empowered by this unbridled freedom, the modern consumer was casting aside all notions of limitations and satiating their hunger whenever and to whatever degree appealed to them the most. According to Critser, “…if fast-food companies of the 1980’s seemed to see the American eater as an endlessly expanding vessel for their product, Americans of the same period rejected the entire notions of limits themselves” (Critser pg.31). This mentality, of course, expanded far beyond the realms of fast food to bigger houses, bigger cars, and larger clothes. Another erroneous idea mentioned by Critser that began to crop up in the 1980’s was the concept that in addition to eating three meals a day you should also snack continuously throughout the day. This wouldn’t have been cause for much concern if the snacks people (mostly children) regularly consumed were nutritious and didn’t contribute to an excess of one or more major food group, but ultimately consumers stuck with the unhealthy snack foods they saw advertised the most. To further highlight this problem Critser explains that, “Beyond the immediate contribution of more calories to the diet, the very nature of modern snacking may be pushing children toward obesity” (Critser pg.41). The companies that had the largest stake in this market ran extensive ad campaigns directed at children, though the products that they produced were anything but conducive to healthy childhood growth and development. To compound this problem even further was the fact that already underfunded schools were jumping at the opportunity to earn substantial amounts of money in partnering with these corporations. To go into further detail it’s explained that, “For agreeing