I agree the diet industry is exactly that, an industry, and it manufactures a lot of bad advice. But the one aspect no one addresses about “widespread obesity” is exactly WHO in the U.S.A. is obese. It’s not the people buying these books, and these products, and the latest miracle smoothie ingredient: chia, quinoa, kale, acai… Walk around the wealthy parts of Manhattan, L.A., San Francisco, Colorado, Orange, Westchester, and Fairfield County (Connecticut) and you just do not see obese people. Obesity correlates with poverty and lack of access to fresh, cheap, less-processed food. You don’t find cheap, fresh, less-processed food in low-income communities, you find the foods that is it is cheapest to make and distribute, the mass-produced economy-of-scale food full of cheap calories. There’s little cash there; there’s no luxury market. The demographics of obesity are very revealing, and have nothing to do with silly fad diets embraced by the health-obsessed wealthy.