Jean Renfro Anspaugh
started collecting dieting tales as part of a graduate class project in personal narrative. She did her fieldwork in the dieting capital of the world-Durham, North Carolina. The tales she collected revealed a diet culture complete with its own values, aesthetics, work ethic, religious ethos, and language. Anspaugh holds an M.A. in folklore from the University of North Carolina. Anspaugh will be featured in the December issue of Redbook as one of "Five Women Who Beat the Odds" (at the news stands in Nov.) Also, she will be featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Company in an upcoming broadcast, and she will speak at the Modern Language Association in December.