The Hundred Year Diet: America's Voracious Appetite for Losing Weight Book

I was interested in this book because I am in the middle of a medically supervised diet plan to try to take off the last few decade's worth of excess weight. I don't recall how I had slipped onto the road to obesity in middle age, but I do remember the half measures I'd tried to get myself off of it on my own. It seemed clear that it was all a matter of more powerful forces than an individual could comprehend unaided.
This is a survey through all the attempts to discourage Americans from growing obese, sometimes on scientific principles, sometimes not, starting in the 19th century. The most revealing aspect was to see the way the same ideas would come around a generation or two later. It points to the current-day understanding that appetite and metabolism is controlled by a complicated interplay of many factors, difficult to codify in a simple diet that suits the lifestyle of today.
In the second half of the book, they described a number of weight-loss medications which came into vogue in the last few decades. Besides these, there were also the synthetic foods and additives marketed by the food industry with the ultimate goal of increasing profits. The topic has all become harder for an average consumer to navigate without help, and this book is a good way to gain a perspective on how we have all gotten to this state.