Thinner than Thou

Publisher's Weekly has an interesting interview with Kit Reed, author of "Thinner Than Thou," a satire about a Diet Evangelist.
PW: What sparked Thinner Than Thou, a satire on dieting (click here to read the review)?

Publisher's Weekly calls the book a "sharp-eyed look at America's obsession with image" and the interviers has got some zingers.

Like these:

• On comparing fad diets and fad religions:
  I think they're probably the same thing, i.e., eaters are atoning for excesses through some kind of sacrifice, whether it's a high-protein, low-calorie or you-name-it form of self-denial. Atkins people get that fanatical glint and so, I suspect, does anybody hewing to a rigid diet.
  
  
• A comparison of Reverend Earl, the villian of Thinner Than Thou, and
  Hitler:
  We may not be trying to create a master race, but we certainly are encouraging a cute one.
  
  
  
• On our culture seeing "perfect bodies" as "the only way to nirvana"
  I think the culture doesn't think these things are the way to nirvana. I think, rather, the society suggests they are nirvana. Creativity, intelligence, charity, for God's sake, may be virtues, but the culture suggests that if you have all these things but you're overweight or over-the-hill, you might as well forget it
  
  

Reed's apparently unaware that there is already a "diet evangelist"--Gwen Shamlin, whose "Weigh Down" workshops were once run at 30,000 churches.

She had a falling out with many churches over her views on the Trinity
and her connection to the Remnant Fellowship, a group that believes they are the one true church and every other church is counterfiet.

Now, because of the Remnant's emphasis on obedience and submission, they are being investigated in the death of the child of a church member.

The church has a statement about the boy's death on their website.

I know a number of people (my parents included) who attended these workshops and lost lots of weight. But somewhere along the line, something seems to have gone terribly wrong.