- Hardcover: 290 pages
- Publisher: Gotham Books (May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1592400663
- ISBN-13: 978-1592400669
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 606,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Obesity Myth
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Product Description
Book Description
Is your weight hazardous to your health? According to public-health authorities, 65 percent of us are overweight. Every day, we are bombarded with dire warnings about America's "obesity epidemic." Yet studies show that a moderately active larger person is likely to be far healthier (and to live longer) than someone who is thin but sedentary. And contrary to what the fifty billion dollar per year weight loss industry would have us believe, medical science has not yet come up with a way to make people thin.
After years spent scrutinising medical studies and interviewing leading doctors, scientists, eating-disorder specialists and psychiatrists, professor Paul Campos is here to lead the backlash against weight hysteria - and to show that we can safeguard our health without obsessing about the numbers on the scale. But The Obesity Myth is not just a compelling argument, grounded in the latest scientific research; it's also a provocative, wry expose of the culture that feeds on our self-defeating war on fat. Campos will show:
* How the nation's most prestigious and trusted media sources consistently misinform the public about obesity
* What the movie industry's love affair with the "fat suit" tells us about the relationship between racial- and body-based prejudice in America
* How the skinny elite - with their "supersized" lifestyles and gas-guzzling SUVs - project their anxieties about overconsumption on the poorer and heavier underclass
* How weight-loss mania fueled the impeachment of Bill Clinton
In this paradigm-busting read, Professor Campos challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the medical, political and cultural meaning of weight and brings a rational and compelling new voice to America's increasingly irrational weight debate.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear-cut, logical, honest - thank God SOMEone is!,
This review is from: The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health (Hardcover)
This book is a logical, intelligent, thoughtful expose on the complete lack of scientific basis behind current attitudes and trends towards body weight, body image and the near-constant pursuit of a false, unattainable 'ideal' through dieting (in its many forms), drugs, etc. It is frankly disturbing to discover how self-regulated the diet industry is, how 'obesity experts' are defined by the NIH as 'those who run diet clinics' (and therefore inevitably have a massive conflict of interest), how the BMI has little more scientific basis than the old Insurance Tables did, how in many cases being more than 70lbs 'overweight' (i.e. more than the government guidelines say you should be) is significantly less detrimental to good health and longevity than being 5lbs 'underweight', how obesity is now the accepted face of discrimination in a supposedly 'sensitive' society, how, the more studies show that exercise rather than dieting is the key to good health and longevity, the more the 'professionals' focus on the extremes to capture sensationalistic headlines and keep the people oppressed by a false belief system and a false ideal. Read this book. It will change your outlook on yourself, your perception of what is 'healthy', your attitudes towards food, your attitudes towards society. With any luck it will free you from the feelings of self-hatred and disgust and 'not good enough', constantly insisted upon by today's society.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read for anyone interested in the shape of bodies,
By John Keats "Medical student" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health (Hardcover)
Campos is one of the few voices defending the view which the mainstream media completely ignores-that this is a cultural war, based on fat-repulsion and misguided ideas of body conformity. This war on obesity takes the guise of health promotion, and it's shameful how the medical and scientific establishment has jumped on board.
The risks associated with weight loss strategies far outweigh any benefits which may be derived, whereas the benefits of simply exercising are overlooked and weight loss emphasised. It doesn't make any sense. Read this book! I did just after Goldacre's "Bad Science" and together it will give one the critical tools to deconstruct the lies behind the headlines.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
more people should read this book,
This review is from: The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health (Hardcover)
This book is fascinating. I already knew that much of what America and Britain "know" about eating disorders and obesity was inaccurate, but this book is a real eye opener. The amount and prevalence of false knowledge in this field is truly nothing short of shocking. The opinion is backed up by academic research results. The book is written in a way which makes the information it contains accessible and interesting.
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