ABSTRACT
We medicalize and commercialize body problems, giving rise to body industries such as mainstream health care, big pharmaceutical companies, gyms, fad diet plans and drugs, and cosmetic and bariatric surgery. The “Western diet” makes people sick and then they are healed, for profit. In response to the emergence of this personal food and body politics, triggered by a fast-food nation, this chapter weaves disparate threads within Critical Food and Exercise Studies: critical food theory, plant-based epidemiology and cardiology, running/endurance theory, and running veganism. Integrating the four literatures, the author positions endurance veganism as the personal politics appropriate for a fast-food nation.
