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Summary: Woohoo!
Review: If you've ever stepped on a scale or spent even one minute of your life worrying about your weight, then you need to read this book!
It's brilliant, funny, heroic, and necessary.Thanks to Campos, readers will be inspired to enjoy good nutrition, good exercise, the good life, and also a good laugh at the con artists who care more about keeping us hooked than keeping us healthy. As the other, funkier Mr. Clinton says: "Free your mind and your ass will follow!"
"The Obesity Myth" liberates. Don't miss out!
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Summary: Outstanding job, Dr. Campos!
Review: The "War on Obesity" is actually an attack on fat and fat people. Thank heavens for Paul Campos who clearly and precisely lays out the argument against continuing to fight this war, and the reasons why it was a bad idea to begin with. Is it any coincidence that Americans are fatter than ever and they are also dieting more than ever? I think not. As a fat aerobics instructor and personal trainer, and as an activist in the movement toward fat acceptance, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
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Summary: provocative but unbalanced and under-researched
Review: This book presents something of a mixed bag. Campos' central argument - America's obesity epidemic is largely a fabrication of the medical research establishment and diet industry - has some truth. The connection between weight and health is a difficult proposition at best to establish and the pronouncements of health researchers and the U.S. government on this issue have been shamefully overhyped. But in the name of being provocative, Campos goes over the top and doesn't consider the complexity of America's recent weight gain. For example, he repeats that fit obese people are as healthy as sendentary slim people. True, but most sendentary Americans are also heavier than active ones. Obesity is symptomatic of many forces, such as the growth in processed foods and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, that have real health consequences, such as the astronomical growth in diabetes. The real issue with obesity is why we focus so much on weight rather than on the health consequences that come from our diet and lifestyle. To his credit, Campos tries to answer this. He suggests that our diet obsessed culture may have something to do with it (as well as race and gender politics). This is probably true but he does not do a very good job of substantiating this claim. Instead, his argument degenerates into personal observations, critiques of Greg Critser and Susan Estrich, and mere anecdotes. Campos does not take the time or effort to spell out how these processes actually work and he ends up undercutting some of his own good arguments. The book ends up sounding more like an overly self-referential op-ed piece for the Nation than a well-founded critique of how the obesity problem is being distorted in this country. While the book may validate the indignation of fat people about how they are treated in the U.S., it is less convincing as an attempt to really understand the phenomenon of obesity.
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Summary: What The WHO Doesn't Want You To Know
Review: In this insightful book, Prof. Campos tells us exactly what the New England Journal of Medicine found out years ago: Fat is not pathological. Weight is not necessarily a good indicator of either health or lifestyle. Mainstream weight-loss methods are often either downright dangerous or merely ineffective. And some people-no matter how well they take care of themselves-are just never going to fit that svelte ideal. In the midst of the current obesity-epidemic panic, these ideas are controversial. As such, some people may be quick to dismiss them. But the supporting data is sound; and the tone-calm, and professional without being dry-is a welcome change from the pomposity and hysteria that characterize many other "fat books."
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Summary: Eat the rich
Review: Paul Campos is right on! He gets to the real issue: rich people have the time and money for dieting, personal trainers, chefs, etc, unlike working stiffs. I mean, really, with the abundance of cheap but fashionable clothing available now, poor and middle-class people might actually be mistaken for the wealthy! He also points out that since African-American and Hispanic people tend to be a little heavier than whites, showing distain for these two groups is more acceptable now because they "lack the self-discipline" to starve themselves into an acceptable shape. Campos covers these and other issues. This book should be required reading for anyone who has been deceived by the diet culture.
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Summary: Follow the Buck
Review: Campos and Fumento could go toe to toe and argue endlessly about how epidemiological studies can be interpreted. But, when you imagine Fumento, don't forget to envision the giant 40 Billion-with-a-B dollar weight loss industry behind him. Who is behind Campos? His x-ray vision is used to great effect in the Obesity Myth, especially when he exposes the ugly underbelly of classism and racism in the so-called fight against obesity. When American anti-fat capitalists went to the World Health Organization to promote a "health plan" for obesity, they rightly told them, "Uh, we think malnutrition and AIDS are more important issues right now," revealing how off the mark we are in this country. We are not dying from obesity, in fact, we Americans are living longer than ever before, fat and all!
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Summary: eye-opener
Review: When will the mainstream media get round to addressing how shockingly interwoven the field of obesity research and the diet industry are? Did you know, for instance, that the claims that a BMI of 25 or above is a major health risk are based on reports issued by groups like, among others, the World Health Organization, and that the WHO panel consisted entirely of physicians who run weight loss clinics? Intrigued? You can read more about this and other little-known facts about obesity research in this excellent book.
And if you don't want to shell out 17 bucks for the hardcover version (although I assure you, it's worth every penny), don't wait for the paperback - run, run, run to your local library and ask for it. (Or if they haven't already bought a copy or two, suggest that they do.) To say this book is an eye-opener is almost an understatement. After reading it, you will see the mainstream media and medical establishment in a whole new light.
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Summary: Former Fatty Weighs In
Review: I've been following the positive reviews of this book and seeing the obvious, that there's no evidence that any of the reviewers have actually read anything more than the material posted on Amazon.com. But I held my tongue. No more. When I tipped the scales at just below 350 I believed everything Campos says. Why? Because it was easier to stay fat than do anything about it and because I was able to find one book after another telling me just what I wanted to hear. But I slowly realized that as my own proving ground they were wrong. (And yes, I did read Michael Fumento's wonderful book The Fat of the Land, which has 2,500 citations. He is called a "fat hater" because he tells fat people they have to stop blaming others, realize they have a problem, and the problem is their own eating and exercise habits.) But even before I read it it was obvious that there were many things (including taking a proper shower or going up a long set of stairs) that I could no longer do. I developed arthritis in both knees by the age of 34! I was taking more prescriptions for obesity-related illnesses such as high-blood pressure than I can remember. Anybody who tells you they don't mind being fat is a liar, as I well know since I was one of them. It's when I had my first child, though, is when I realized the lying must stop. I knew I would never live to see her married if I didn't change my ways. It was tough at first, but now it's easy. And I'm still over a 25 BMI but I'm still slowly losing - including dropping every drug prescription except for allergies! The real question is "What's REALLY wrong with Campos?" How can he be so blind or greedy as to contribute to so much suffering and death? And yes, I'm giving his book one star which, according to one reader, means that I am Michael Fumento (I assure you, I don't even wear a mustache!). But the only reason I'm giving it one star is that there's no provision for giving zero stars.
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Summary: Read the book, not the knee-jerk negativism
Review: In the process of reading this book, I'm struck at how amusing the response is from Michael Fumento and his friends/alter-egos posting here. Every point they raise to "refute" Campos is specifically addressed in the first chapters of the book. Campos carefully addresses the flaws in these arguements and backs up his assertions with a straight-forward presentation of the facts behind the accusations of fat bashers. Nothing Fumento and his ilk have brought up addresses any of the criticisms Campos levels on their arguement, leading me to the conclusion that not a one of them has opened this book. They are just offering the same knee-jerk hyperbolic condemnation fat bashers always offer when anyone questions their highly unfounded attacks on fat. Campos has provided the public with a valuable study of the issues surrounding weight and health. It may not be what you're used to hearing, but don't make the mistake some have made by damning the book without examining its arguement.
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Summary: In the fine tradition of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS"
Review: Paul Campos does an excellent job of debunking the mythology brought forth by those with an agenda (or odd psychological obsession) on obesity issues. Campos' argument stems from the oft-repeated, rarely applied dictum that correlation is not causation. In spite of the claims by many reviewers on both sides, Campos does not argue that being fat is no big deal. He argues that being sedentary and/or eating an unhealthy diet is risky to one's health. It's also true that being sedentary and eating an unhealthy diet is correlated to some degree with being overweight. But Campos argues that the risk is from sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, not the weight itself. The causation, he argues, is from the lifestyle and diet. Therefore if one is overweight because of a lousy diet or because one does not exercise, one's health IS at risk (a point that some of the "fat acceptance" activists who have reviewed this book seem not to have noticed). And if one is fat but fit and eats a healthy diet one should not be racing to try every new fad diet. Conversely, if one is at an ideal weight yet is sedentary or eats poorly, one may well have an elevated risk of health problems. Campos also argues that the dangers of yo-yo dieting and eating disorders are largely ignored by the public and by advocates. What good is a diet if it fails 95% of the time, especially if it increases the health risks faced by that 95%? "The Obesity Myth" is one of the most finely drawn attacks on media sensationalism and quackery in recent years. Its author, like so many other quack-busters before him, deserves credit for taking on a multi-billion industry and its media sycophants. Campos has now joined those authors who have so bravely questioned the conventional wisdom on so many other issues ranging from AIDS to Gulf War Syndrome.
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