Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the “too much” of obesity and the “too little” of that faulty method of controlling obesity known as “bulimia nervosa.” It discusses both the hypersexuality of criminal degree, including child molestation, as well as the hyposexuality of a newly recognized disorder—inhibited sexual desire. The book presents the first convincing evidence for the role of heredity in human obesity or fatness and thinness. It deals with some of the potential metabolic consequences of the Western preoccupation with dieting. The book also presents an original synthesis of the extensive new data on the distribution of body fat and its significance. It concludes with the observation that opioid peptides exist as far down the evolutionary scale as amoebae, whose feeding behavior they may modulate.