In chapter 13, Hecht discusses the age-old argument between eating for health and purity and eating for taste and happiness. I love food that most would say is horrible for the body, cheeseburgers, pizza, fried chicken, and so on, and yet I seem to be healthy enough (I'm certainly thin enough), though I admit it'll probably catch up to me someday. But I think in my last breath I would look back at my life, however short it might be, and be happy that I ate what I liked instead of just trying to prolong my life and in so doing emptying it of anything that's worth living for at all.
Discussion Q: Is it better to die young and well contented?
Factual Q: Who brought vegetarianism to America? A: William Metcalfe
Hecht's chapter on eating and exercise demonstrates to me the bigger picture of simply doing what you love in order to be happy. If you like pizza, awesome. I hate tomato sauce, awesome. We both would rather eat a grand last meal before getting hit by a bus, awesome! The food business (and exercise) that she exploits seems to me just an elaborate, complicated way of reinforcing larger humanists values. Don't mistake me, her research and analysis on eating and exercise are fascinating and truly insightful (and largely comical) about the culture we live in, but really in these two sections I feel like she is appealing to the mass attitude of super sizes and couch potatoes, and not for the benefit of upending modern myths about happiness.
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