Mr. America (2009)

The name Bernarr Macfadden may not ring bells, but during the first half of the 20th century he was one of the most famous men in America — and his influence is still felt everywhere. Fueled by an obsession with physical and mental health that bordered on the insane — his motto was ''weakness is a crime'' — Macfadden built a $30 million media empire around his then-revolutionary ideas about diet, fitness, and sexuality. As recounted by Mark Adams (who self-tested some of Macfadden’s occasionally extreme advice about fasting and exercise in Mr. America), the improbable saga of this eccentric self-made guru shows that our mania for fad diets and get-fit-quick schemes has deep, and deeply weird, roots. A–