THE PHILOSOPHER'S DIET: How to Lose Weight and Change the World

by Richard Watson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 1985

The philosopher in this case is a cheerful admirer of Descartes and Robert Crumb, teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, and claims to be able to tell you how to take off 20 pounds and keep them off. He does not claim to bring anything to this task that mountains of diet books haven't already brought, except a habit of thinking about the exercise of the will. From this perspective, the endless and unproductive national obsession with skinniness may seem a ludicrous charade--supposedly authoritative weight norms have little to do with real people, and ""if you are 20 pounds 'overweight,' the best thing might be to accept it and continue with your old ways."" But there is nothing ludicrous about deciding you want to do something and facing what is necessary to do it: ""I approve of attacking fat because it is there."" Watson leaves detailed nutritional advice and low-cal recipes to other pundits. The bottom line here is that any reasonable human being should be able to figure out how to throw out the Twinkies and fudge recipes, go on first a 900-calorie-a-day then a trial-and-error maintenance diet, and either accept the consequences or not bother with the whole thing. Not for Watson the supposed will-power most diets talk about; this one means permanently--well, maybe the odd lapse after a year or two--weaning yourself from sugar, refined flour, and processed foods and learning to like raw carrots. Lots of them. Then there is ""running four miles a day seven days a week""--unless ""you simply cannot abide running,"" in which case you should set yourself some other aerobic goal. Outrageous and impractical? Well, certainly designed to weed out anyone who thinks short-range motivation can retool the lifelong behavioral patterns responsible for the problem in the first place. Nobody needs this book to diet, but anybody (dieter or not) can profit from Watson's rousing and witty let's-hear-it for ""a difficult and long-term project freely chosen"" despite ""the seeming silliness of working so hard on such an ultimately minor matter.

Pub Date: May 13, 1985

ISBN: 1567920845

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly--dist. by Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION