The Hungry Years : Confessions of a Food Addict

'Hunger is the loudest voice in my head. I'm hungry most of the time'. One January morning in 2003, William Leith woke up to the fattest day of his life. That same day he left London for New York to interview controversial diet guru Dr Robert Atkins. What started out as a routine assignment set Leith on an intensely personal and illuminating journey into the mysteries of hunger and addiction. "The Hungry Years" charts new territory for anyone who has ever had a craving or counted a calorie. This story of food, fat, and addiction will change the way you look at food for ever. This is the story of a journalist's struggle with weight, and a look at our own culture of fat and thin. While on assignment to interview Dr. Robert Atkins, Leith realized that he could not report on diet alone; he wanted desperately to develop a deeper understanding of his relationship with food and the pathological cravings that led him (and millions of others) to become dangerously overweight. His Atkins interview led him to probe not only the link between carbohydrates and addiction, but also how our relationship with food has changed over the last few decades in light of economic, technological, and cultural changes in the world, as well as our cultural obsession with our bodies. Combining the science of food addiction with memoir, humor, and sociological insights, this book forces us to look at our culture of consumption in a new way.--From publisher description A story of food, fat and addiction that is both funny and heart-wrenching: it will change the way you look at food for ever