Eating: the manuals

WEIGHTWATCHERS IS TAKING a leaf out of the Atkins diet (which isn’t very big on leaves, actually) and plans to change, but not remove, its point-based system to include something resembling the flashier, newer rivals, where a virtue is usually made of sometimes limitless “low-carb” meals. These are ones with plenty of lean meats and often improbably large amounts of cheese, bacon and eggs.

Amid mounting concern about obesity, sedentary lifestyles and how best to combine foods, it is hardly surprising that the diet industry is booming. The anxiety is clearly percolating: One in three British adults claims to have dieted within the last year, according to a recent survey.

One thing not getting any leaner is the titles of books on the subject of eating in a wholesome way. The Good Carb Cookbook: Secrets of Eating Low on the Glycemic Index (Avery) is one of those good carb, bad carb shows. But there at least some 312 pages of recipes. The author, Sandra Woodruff, believes that the key to eating well is the glycemic index, a way to rank foods based on how they raise blood-sugar levels. A balanced diet, she maintains, is one that keeps an eye on the index, because blood-sugar levels are connected to heart disease, obesity and diabetes. For those of a more energetic mind Evolve: Focus on Fitness: The Truth about Fat, Fads And Fitness by John Cook is at the muscular end of diet control and, being American, has a strong motivational element that dares to suggest that exercise might help. The title alone is a reminder of just how controversial and contested are the “healthy” eating alternatives filling bookshelves. The same might be said about Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat (Smithmark) by Hillel Schwartz, an assessment of how we have reached the point, to paraphrase the author, where society yearns for a body without weight. He argues that diet regimes are promoting abstractions, such as beauty and social acceptance, rather than physical or mental health.