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Anxious eaters : why we fall for fad diets / Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Arts and traditions of the tablePublisher: New York : Columbia University Press, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Description: ix, 344 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780231192446
  • 0231192444
Other title:
  • Why we fall for fad diets
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- Why we love fad diets -- Food removal diets -- Food addiction -- Clean eating -- Paleo diets -- Final thoughts.
Summary: "We have all had that experience with the friend who has a new diet, one that he's following enthusiastically. Or maybe we've been that friend, adopting a new diet because we learned about it from another friend, or read about it online, in a magazine, or heard a compelling celebrity endorsement. Most such diets promise the same things: weight loss, better health, better sleep, mental functioning and a general improvement in mood and affect - in other words, self-transformation. Many convince us that certain foods or food ingredients cause ill health, and avoidance will improve a wide range of physical and mental capacities. These diets promise radical transformation in our lives, if we just follow a few "simple" rules. Both authors of this book have professionally encountered such diets in their research, clinical work, and with the general public. Janet Chrzan is a nutritional anthropologist who teaches courses in food and culture, nutrition, nutrition evolution, and other related topics. Kima Cargill is a professor of clinical psychology who teaches the psychology of food and culture, as well as consumerism and its effects on well-being. In Anxious Eaters, they explore how food beliefs and practices are shaped by cultural norms, by what we know. More than a simple solution to rectify one's health, fad diets, Chrzan and Cargill assert, are a cultural practice that channels our wishes for easy, seemingly cost-free solutions. Fad diets not only help users manage anxiety about food choices, but they also flow from desires for self-transformation and provide relief from food-related anxiety often outside of our awareness. The authors examine popular fad diets from the perspectives of anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explain why these diets are popular at this particular time. While studies of dietary practices usually examine the content of the diet and how it affects the bodies and social lives of adherents, this book instead explores the cultural and economic contexts of the diet and their psychological appeal for the individual. Diets do not appear and become culturally salient in a social vacuum; rather these nutritional belief systems are built by culturally determined narratives, often designed to effect self-transformation through rituals such as purification. As such they meet psychological yearnings and rationales, operate through cultural systems that legitimize their practice, and affect biological bodies individually and collectively. Chrzan and Cargill focus on food removal diets, food addiction, clean eating, and Paleo in order to trace the popular or cultural contexts expressed through each diet and study the psychological and anthropological reasons underlying its popularity." Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 613.25 C558 Available 33111011027543
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 613.25 C558 Available 33111010933816
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What makes fad diets so appealing to so many people? How did there get to be so many different ones, often with eerily similar prescriptions? Why do people cycle on and off diets, perpetually searching for that one simple trick that will solve everything? And how did these fads become so central to conversations about food and nutrition?

Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs--which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters. They demonstrate how fad diets help people cope with widespread anxieties and offer tantalizing glimpses of attainable self-transformation. Chrzan and Cargill emphasize the social contexts of diets, arguing that beliefs about nutrition are deeply rooted in pervasive cultural narratives. Although people choose to adopt new eating habits for individual reasons, broader forces shape why fad diets seem to make sense.

Considering dietary beliefs and practices in terms of culture, nutrition, and individual psychological needs, Anxious Eaters refrains from moralizing or promoting a "right" way to eat. Instead, it offers new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends, including the Atkins Diet and other low- or no-carb diets; beliefs that ingredients like wheat products and sugars are toxic, allergenic, or addictive; food avoidance and "Clean Eating" practices; and paleo or primal diets. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Why we love fad diets -- Food removal diets -- Food addiction -- Clean eating -- Paleo diets -- Final thoughts.

"We have all had that experience with the friend who has a new diet, one that he's following enthusiastically. Or maybe we've been that friend, adopting a new diet because we learned about it from another friend, or read about it online, in a magazine, or heard a compelling celebrity endorsement. Most such diets promise the same things: weight loss, better health, better sleep, mental functioning and a general improvement in mood and affect - in other words, self-transformation. Many convince us that certain foods or food ingredients cause ill health, and avoidance will improve a wide range of physical and mental capacities. These diets promise radical transformation in our lives, if we just follow a few "simple" rules. Both authors of this book have professionally encountered such diets in their research, clinical work, and with the general public. Janet Chrzan is a nutritional anthropologist who teaches courses in food and culture, nutrition, nutrition evolution, and other related topics. Kima Cargill is a professor of clinical psychology who teaches the psychology of food and culture, as well as consumerism and its effects on well-being. In Anxious Eaters, they explore how food beliefs and practices are shaped by cultural norms, by what we know. More than a simple solution to rectify one's health, fad diets, Chrzan and Cargill assert, are a cultural practice that channels our wishes for easy, seemingly cost-free solutions. Fad diets not only help users manage anxiety about food choices, but they also flow from desires for self-transformation and provide relief from food-related anxiety often outside of our awareness. The authors examine popular fad diets from the perspectives of anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explain why these diets are popular at this particular time. While studies of dietary practices usually examine the content of the diet and how it affects the bodies and social lives of adherents, this book instead explores the cultural and economic contexts of the diet and their psychological appeal for the individual. Diets do not appear and become culturally salient in a social vacuum; rather these nutritional belief systems are built by culturally determined narratives, often designed to effect self-transformation through rituals such as purification. As such they meet psychological yearnings and rationales, operate through cultural systems that legitimize their practice, and affect biological bodies individually and collectively. Chrzan and Cargill focus on food removal diets, food addiction, clean eating, and Paleo in order to trace the popular or cultural contexts expressed through each diet and study the psychological and anthropological reasons underlying its popularity." Provided by publisher.

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