When trying to discover who might have committed a crime, investigators and lawyers first and foremost ask themselves 'Who benefits from the crime?' In an illuminating foreword, Paul Ernsberger, a researcher with great integrity, describes how the catastrophically damaging diet drug fen-phen was rammed through to FDA approval in the teeth of the evidence of its harmfulness, '.n the current climate of hysteria over obesity, both our public health establishment and the public it counsels seem increasingly willing to accept grave risks and steep costs in exchange for small and usually temporary losses in body mass. The failure of these products is ascribed to the moral weakness of those who purchase them, thus allowing the cycle to go on indefinitely.' 'The weight loss industry exploits cultural anxieties about fat to sell its customers products that don't work, over and over again, by convincing those customers that it is they who are defective. That the truth doesn't seem to matter to anyone in this debate.Ĭampos was horrified that journalists, science writers, even the researchers themselves ignore or misrepresent the results of scientific studies.

This is easily discoverable for anyone who will read the actual research, andĬ. There is no provable relationship between so-called obesity and poor health,ī. Campos was stunned to discover that the science has demonstrated the opposite:Ī. The medical establishment says so, the scientific research is presented by the popular press as having prove this. His own journey in researching is also quite relevant to the subject itself.Ĭampos reports that when he first looked at weight issues, he just assumed, as most people do, that there is overwhelming medical evidence that being overweight is harmful to your health. He reviews evidence and presents it with crystal clarity. Paul Campos is a lawyer and his legal skills serve the reader well. Even before I was through reading the first chapter I knew that it would join Marilyn Wann's Fat!So? as one of those books I buy several copies of to give to people who are struggling to overcome out national brainwashing on the subject of weight and health.

The Obesity Myth is so effective that I had trouble finding parts to quote for this review, because I wanted to quote the whole book.

It eloquently and coherently summarizes a lot of the evidence from other important references, but it goes far beyond that in offering new and valuable insights into the roots of our attitudes toward body size. I've been hearing about The Obesity Myth for months and it completely lives up to expectations.

THE OBESITY MYTH: WHY AMERICA'S OBSESSION WITH WEIGHT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH, BY PAUL CAMPOS

The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos