Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--and My Own
Svelte and fit, Brzezinski is the envy of millions of women who watch her on ­MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a bully pulpit she uses to forcefully admonish viewers about the importance of proper diet and exercise. Few would suspect that her vehemence stems from a personal addiction to junk food and binge eating that has plagued her all her life and that her ironclad willpower actually borders on an unhealthy obsession to stay thin at any cost. Only when she candidly confronted a friend, coauthor Smith, who was morbidly obese, did Brzezinski come to realize that her famously stringent attitudes toward food and fitness were just as harmful as her friend’s more indulgent lifestyle. With personal and professional input from celebrities such as Jennifer Hudson and public officials such as Governor Chris Christie, whose weight-loss battles are ­headline-generating events, Brzezinski and Smith polls the worlds of medicine, media, entertainment, and business to analyze our nation’s obesity epidemic and offer advice about adopting healthier habits. --Carol Haggas