The Hungry Years: Confessions of a Food Addict - Hardcover

Leith, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592401554 ISBN 13: 9781592401550

Publisher: Gotham, 2005

Synopsis

A journalist for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph describes his own struggle with weight issues as well as his observations about today's size-obsessed culture, in an account that discusses society's unhealthy relationship with food, the dynamics of carbohydrate addiction as explained by Dr. Robert Atkins, and factors that have contributed to body image in today's world. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

William Leith is a leading journalist whose columns often cover diet, sex, and relationships. He writes regularly for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and he has worked at many other venerable British newspapers, including The Independent on Sunday, The Mail on Sunday, and the Observer.

From the Back Cover

"The Hungry Years is a confessional, satirical, wise, tragic, truly original book about addiction, food and what's really inside a fat man that's trying to get out. The Hungry Years defies categorization - it's part memoir, part diet book, part comedy, and part sugar rush. It's the first real book about body image for men, and it breaks taboos, breaks new ground, and breaks your heart. William Leith has finally fulfilled his always huge potential. I loved it."
-Tim Lott, cultural critic and author of White City Blue

"This hilarious, self-lacerating memoir of a compulsive eater is a superb book. I feel about The Hungry Years the way William Leith feels about buttered toast: I couldn't get enough and I panicked when I was reaching the end. William Leith has always been one of our best nonfiction writers and this is his crowning achievement."
-Jon Ronson, author of Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare At Goats

"A personal journey of discovery, written as a feverish addict's memoir: waist size, sex life, repressed childhood bullying, it's all laid bare in painful details. It's wired, often desperate but, finally, hopeful. Its striking design and well-connected author will ensure plenty of exposure and unlike most books about diets, you don't have to feel guilty about devouring it."
-Bookseller(UK)

Reviews

Leith is a binger: when he starts eating, he can't stop—and he wants to know why. This question, and an interview with Dr. Atkins, leads him to explore fad diets, unhealthy food production and the ubiquitous media depictions of "perfect" human physiques. While some of British journalist Leith's facts have been reported elsewhere, his humorous anecdotes, compelling interviews and sobering statistics provide convincing arguments against processed foods, government nutritional requirements and other evils of the food chain. In his fast-paced, stream-of-conscious style, Leith molds a journalistic exposé, a food journal and a memoir into the personal exploration of a man consumed by a consuming society. Though he hardly exercises, the 236-pound Leith embarks on the Atkins diet to great success, but in the process realizes that denying himself carbohydrates brings up issues that go beyond his diet. Hungry for answers, he starts seeing a therapist, who suggests that he eats compulsively because he has "been running away from emotions." Leith's ups and downs will ring true for anyone who has tried to lose a significant amount of weight, and the revelations that come out of Leith's therapy sessions will undoubtedly have readers asking why they really want that doughnut.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The author, a journalist who writes about diet and health, has always had problems with his weight. As the book opens, he confesses to being hopelessly addicted to food and unable to do anything about it (the image of Leith, in a feeding frenzy, scarfing down partly toasted bread is unforgettable). Then he realizes that his upcoming interview with Dr. Robert Atkins--he of the beloved and belittled low-carb diet--could be the key to getting his life back on track. Part-journalism and part-memoir, his account combines the story of his post--Atkins life with fascinating analysis of the nature of food addiction and the role carbohydrates play in the steady expansion of humanity's waistlines. Some readers may be put off by the impression that the author is merely an Atkins apologist, but as the book develops, it becomes clear that Leith is speaking in broader and more contextual terms about our strange, often-desperate relationship with the food we eat. Readers with an open mind will be amply rewarded by this lighthearted yet thought-provoking book. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Gotham
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592401554
• ISBN 13: 9781592401550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304