Fat in the Fifties
America's First Obesity Crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4757545 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aimee Medeiros (University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 247-247 |
| Publication date | 2020-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaaa131 |
| OpenAlex | W3037184446 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Fat in the Fifties examines how the health consequences of obesity became the basis of a public health crisis that began in the early 1950s and “disappeared mysteriously” starting in the late 1960s (p. 2). Nicolas Rasmussen convincingly argues that the end of this crisis was not brought about by a resolution to the problem; rather, it was caused by shifting priorities in public health and changing political and cultural attitudes toward obesity and its health effects. The story begins in the 1930s, when the life insurance industry ushered in an era of concern about obesity as a leading cause of premature death in the United States. Interest grew among experts, and in the early 1950s a national public awareness campaign on obesity was launched by the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Medical Association, marking the onset of the first national obesity crisis. With increased attention to obesity and its link to chronic heart disease, Americans sought treatment; however, a shift had occurred in the explanatory model for obesity from glandular to psychological. During the crisis, experts believed being overweight was caused by overeating rather than a biological malfunction and that behavior modification was the appropriate treatment. A strength of this book is the gendered analysis of how women and men perceived as overweight were depicted and treated differently. Although race is not Rasmussen's focus, the book would have benefited from an equally critical look at how race played a role in the treatment of overweight individuals in the first obesity crisis
Obesity · Overeating · Overweight · Political science · Politics · Public health · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Obesity and Health Practices · Gerontology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,43 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2024 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |