Taking dieting to a new philosophical level

I gave up on diets almost 20 years ago, when I realized that I had -- no lie -- doubled my weight in my 16 years of increasingly crazed dieting. It was the best thing I could have done, and I stopped gaining weight almost immediately. Regaining my sanity took a bit longer.

But as I noted in a previous post, I have gained some weight lately as a consequence of some changes in my pharmaceutical regime. Well-meaning friends have offered dieting advice, but I'm reluctant to try anything radical or crazy beyond trying to eat well and exercise more, which of course I try to do anyway, just because one feels better doing those things. Or at least I do. And in fact, now that my, um, pharmaceutical issues have settled down, I've already lost a few pounds and am feeling much better.

I did, however, get a recommendation I'd like to pass along. The article is a couple of years old, but I somehow missed this book when it came out (finally!) in translation: Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "Fat is Dead" in the late 1880s, but his advice to dieters is surprisingly relevant:

"One must strive to eat dangerously as one comes into the Will to Power Oneself Thin," Nietzsche wrote. "What do you fear? By this are you truly Fattened. You must embrace your Fears, as well as your Fat, and learn to Laugh as you consume them, along with Generous Portions of Simple Salad. Remember, as you stare into the lettuce, the lettuce stares also into you."

The first part of the diet, I gather, is to identify the food(s) that you most deeply dread, and then to eat superhuman quantitities of each until you are no longer appetized nor frightened by them.

According to the article, "Dieters report that they are reveling in the powerful Nietzschean weight-loss message of self-realization, transcendence, and the personal freedom to eat certain foods which are not allowed on the Atkins and South Beach diets." Which, I mean, how cool is that? Naturally, no diet is without its critics.

Detractors say the diet's actual nutritional requirements are vague, that it provides no concrete plan for progression toward weight-loss targets, and that the book consists mostly of unclear and unusually harsh sets of inspirational logical lacunae.

"Those on Nietzsche's diet must remember that, while discipline and mastering one's fear are desirable, the specter of a man striving willfully and joyfully against a frigid universe while drinking deep of 'life's bitter broth' will not precipitate weight loss," nutritionist Dr. Frank Stearns said. "A few more non-allegorical recipes would have been nice, too."

"Stearns said it was worth noting that Nietzsche died depressed, delirious, and overweight in Zurich after 10 years of near-catatonia.

"Those wishing to begin a diet, let alone a highly moralistic pre-Freudian diet, should consult with their physicians," Stearns said. "Otherwise, they run the risk of long-term health problems—not to mention the possibility of their diet being misinterpreted by a rabidly cuisinophobic nationalist sect and used to justify a world takeover by diet Nazis."

Of course, it may already be too late for that last bit.