Rating: 
Summary: A Charlatan and Huckster
Review: This book is written by nothing more than a modern day huckster and charlatan attempting to fleece fat people by deluding them into thinking that their obesity isn't deleterious.Campos has no scientific or medical background whatsoever and selectively picks and chooses studies to support his bogus, absurd claims. Simply looking at the correlation of type II diabetes with obesity alone refutes his book. Simply put, this guy is a fraud, and the only people who endorse his book seem to all be obese.
Rating: 
Summary: What's REALLY wrong with Fumento?
Review: Please read this review carefully. Paul Campos has written a great book. He has exposed the greed in the diet industry. He has exposed the fat in the public funding of diet studies. And without saying ONE WORD in his book about Michael Fumento (a former fat man who now hates fat people), he has brought Michael Fumento out of his hole to write at least three negative reviews of the Obesity Myth on amazon.com How do I know Michael Fumento is writing so many of the "reviews" ? Check out the cadences and goof-ball references to wishy-washy epidemiologic studies. They are the same! By the way, these "reviews" are the ones giving the book only one star. So there you have it folks. The Obesity Myth obviously is a great read otherwise Fumento wouldn't have crawled out of his hole so many times to try to thwart you from reading it. Do read it. Campos tells you where the fat and flab really are. Before you do that, check out the review immediately below this one. You'll get an idea of what a rabid fat hater is really like when he's fuming over his keyboard.
Rating:
Summary: Paul Campos = Big Tobacco
Review: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS BOOK until you read Michael Fumento's nationally syndicated column that I saw in both the New York Post and Washington Times today. It's posted, along with links to a large number of important medical studies, at www.fumento.com.
Fumento compares Campos' efforts to those of Big Tobacco. In fact, obesity can be as bad for you as tobacco. Fumento notes, "The Journal of the American Medical Association reported ( that white men ages 20 to 30 with a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 45 lost 13 years of life compared with those with a BMI below 25. At the same time, the Annals of Internal Medicine reported six to seven years of lost life for obese 40-year-old nonsmokers, putting them at the same risk as smokers who weren't obese." Some more irresistible excerpts: Campos "claims there's a medical establishment conspiracy so immense that the Illuminati are amateurs by comparison. Then he presents 'size acceptance' activists as the real experts, heavily drawing on their assertions. Finally, he selects individual medical studies and tortures them until they confess to his truth, while ignoring the thousands of studies that even a skilled jurist can't twist." "Campos tries desperately to convince readers that thinness is the real health problem, notwithstanding reports such as the Jan. 1, 1998, New England Journal of Medicine one that observed 300,000 men and women over a 12-year period. 'It's the very lean weight that is associated with the best survival rate,' concluded the lead researcher. "Campos devotes less than two pages to pooh-poohing the notion that obesity causes heart disease, relying on quotes and select studies dating back to 1950. Yet enter "obesity" and "heart disease" into the PubMed online database of science and medical journals and you'll pull up more than 2,900 studies." Fumento asks the obvious: Why has all this research been done on a non-existent phenomenon?" Regarding Campos' advocacy of what's called "fat-but-fit," Fumento hyperlinks to three different studies showing fat people who lost weight but didn't exercise were healthier than matched persons who exercised without dieting. With two-thirds of Americans overweight, Campos has a shot at fat profits," Fumento concludes, noting that at least a dozen "Don't Worry, Be Fatty" books have already appeared such as Marilyn Wann's Fat?So?. He concludes, "Campos merely sings the latest version of that sweet Siren song. And like those songs of Greek mythology, this one kills." Amen! This book ought to come with a warning label like they put on cigarette packs.
Rating:
Summary: I Wish I'd Had This Book When I Was 12...
Review: ...in order to save myself from a young lifetime of futile (and probably dangerous) dieting. And I wish every 12-year-old (and their parents and teachers and siblings) could read it now, for the same reason. The level of hysteria out there about "obesity" these days rivals that of the Salem witch hunts 400-some years ago. Campos counters that hysteria by doing something most mainstream media outlets don't dare even attempt: he actually reviews the data from the studies on which those dire predictions of weight-based mortality are allegedly based. In doing so, he discovers -- much to his shock -- that in the vast majority of cases, the "conclusions" drawn by both researchers and media don't jibe with the numbers, and instead are heavily influenced by popular prejudice against fat (not to mention the desire for diet and pharmaceutical-industry research and ad dollars). An example from the book concerns that infamous study published in the New England Journal of Medicine about a year ago that reported that fat people were far more likely than thin people to die of cancer, which was reported by many media outlets as evidence of "Americans eating themselves to death." Yet as Campos points out, according to this survey's actual data, that people with body-mass indices in the "overweight" 25-29.9 range occupied by most "fat" Americans actually had lower cancer death rates than those in the "ideal" BMI range of 18.5-24.9; that even among the most "obese," the increase amounted to nothing more than one to two extra cancer deaths per 1000 people; and most tellingly of all, that even the "morbidly obese" women in this study had lower cancer death rates than the "ideal weight" men! (In an amusing aside to the latter, Campos chides: "It seems unlikely that this typical statistic...will lead to a Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Masculinity.") How does this sort of gross distortion keep happening? What can we do to fight back? Read more of this essential book to find out.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not obese, or even overweight...
Review: ...but I found a lot to love in this iconclastic book. Campos reexamines the data from medical studies that are commonly used to shore up the argument that, health-wise, thin is better. And he challenges the conclusions drawn by the authors of the studies, which are widely repeated in the popular press to advance the "war on fat." One conclusion he arrives at (which is supported by the opinions of several health experts who question conventional wisdom about the war on fat) is that the actual numbers produced by the studies sometimes almost completely contradict how the authors of the studies interpret those numbers! (To the reader below who suggested going to PubMed to review the studies cited by Campos: YES, in reviewing the data, Campos often concludes the OPPOSITE of what the studies' authors say about the data. BUT HE EMPHASIZES THAT IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF HIS BOOK! THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT HE'S MAKING!) Anyone who has read articles in medical journals has probably encountered the same conundrum and wondered about it. The raw data seem to say one thing, then the conclusions the researchers draw about the data say something else entirely! It's weird and slightly crazy-making! Campos touches on this problem, and even quotes one researcher (involved in the Nurses' Study, which is cited by in the book) who said to the New York Times, "Epidemiology is a crude and inexact science... we tend to overstate findings, either because we want attention or more grant money." There you have it. Dieters, caveat emptor!
Rating:
Summary: The truth is hard to swallow
Review: This book exposes the propaganda that we're fed by the weight loss and diet industry. And it explains why that propaganda gets swallowed whole by so many normally skeptical media types. The funniest part about the negative reviews posted below is that they cite many of the same studies that Campos rips apart. The worst offender in this regard is Michael Fumento, who uses the same Nurses Health Study that Campos tears to pieces in a detailed critique in the first chapter of the book. But that's no surprise, as Fumento has always been one of the most hopeless zealots in the pointless and counterproductive war on fat. Although the book's review of the scientific literature is useful and necessary, my favorite parts are the cultural and political chapters, that explain the underlying sources of our obsession with thinness. Campos is often very funny, especially when he gets outraged by the lies that support the multi-billion dollar Hate Yourself Into Thinness industry. Check this book out -- you'll never look at a Krispy Kreme donut the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Bam! Campos nails it!
Review: To really understand the politics behind what is being called an obesity epidemic please read the expose - the forward to The Obesity Myth. It is written by the renowned scientist Dr. Paul Ernsberger of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
Ernsberger reveals what probably escaped most people's attention when it happened. Shortly after the Fen-Phen diet-drug combo was recalled by the FDA for killing people, a team of scientists wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that Fen-Phen increased the potential for a fatal lung condition by 2,300 percent! Did that eye-popping statistic chasten the champions of diet pills? Heck no. Jo Anne Manson, queen of the anti-fat movement, wrote a rebuttal in the same issue of the journal saying it was better to risk taking the pills than to remain overweight. The diet industry, needless to say, loves Manson.
After so powerful an introduction, you'd think Paul Campos would have very little to say. But he further illustrates the lunacy of the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry that continues to siphon money and post big profits in the name of its Holy War against fat -- pushing pills that don't work. He also delves into the psychology of body images and why people continually chase bogus "obesity cures." He reminds us of thin Elvis and fat Elvis and why the media taunted Monica Lewinsky. As one reviewer has already clearly stated, Paul Campos is right on target about America's fat phobia. His book hits all the major points -- and then some. Nail. Hammer. Bang!
Rating:
Summary: Campos Saves The Day!
Review: Finally, somebody willing to tell the truth! And, of course, who better than a lawyer to research the facts of a debate- that is, after all, what they are trained to do. Medical doctors only do what they are told (otherwise, they get in big trouble from the pharmaceutical corporations, the insurance companies, the HMO's and the licensing bureaus). For instance, in this book Campos points out that the NIH and the WHO has panels of "experts" on 'obesity', and guess who they are... doctors and psychologists who MAKE A LIVING from running weight loss clinics! Talk about conflict of interests! But guess who YOUR doctor listens to.. you? think again! They listen to these so-called experts out to make big bucks - 50 billion a year! Shame on the medical community! As far as that "Reader" who encourages people to use PubMed as a resource, researcher beware: Here is PubMed's "Disclaimer of Liability"
For documents and software available from this server, the U.S. Government does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed.
Disclaimer of Endorsement General - NCBI does not endorse or recommend any commercial products, processes, or services. The views and opinions of authors expressed on NCBI's Web sites do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government, and they may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy People May Not Care, but Science is Irrefutable
Review: I cannot believe the "reader from Chicagoland" has even looked at Campos' book, much less checked any of the references. This was just an attempt to shore up a book that at least one reviewer below correctly said picked and chose a few supporting studies (out of far more than 10,000) and then twisted a few more. To check his references, simply plug the journal article's title into PubMed at www.pubmed.com. By doing so with Campos' you'll find that time and again what the authors of the study say and what Campos would have you think they said are quite the opposite. Don't take my word for it; do it yourself. This man has no health or science background. The ONLY health issue he ever writes about is defending obesity. He's a one-trick pony, and it's a terrible trick. My guess is that everybody who's written a favorable review for Amazon is fat and most haven't even bothered to look at the book; they just like the overall message. Nobody questions that it's a lot easier to pretend something isn't a problem than to try to do something about it. In that sense, Campos offers the easy way out. But while Campos may make you feel better about your fat, your fat doesn't care. It will harm you and it will kill you. It will even harm and kill your offspring; fat women have much higher rates of birth defects and miscarriage. Please, just go to PubMed and type in "obesity" along with either "morbidity" or "mortality." You'll instantly see through Campos' own myth. You'll find almost 14,000 articles on the first subject and over 3,000 on the second. Virtually NONE support Campos' position and he darn well knows it. He will kill you to sell a book and make a buck. Don't let him.
Rating:
Summary: Truth at last -- profound insight
Review: Finally, someone has written a book with the depth and fairness that was sorely missing on the topic.
How sad that the author Michael Fumento felt obligated to pan Paul Campos' book in these reviews (scroll down to find it). If you are unfamiliar with Fumento, he is the author of the party line: fat people are fat because they eat too much and are far too lazy. They are the ugly and the slovenly inhabiting the land.
It was a snide and condescending little tome that took the stance that people who are thin are "healthier" (read that socially better) than people who are overweight.
Campos has written what no one has written before: That the current shrill national discussion about obesity really isn't about fat at all. Obesity is a proxy for race, ethnicity and social class. Black, Hispanic and working-class whites generally are heavier than the so-called upper classes who take pride in their stick-thinness. It's an aesthetic, people, not a measurable state of health. No one ever inquires about the high-risk, high-maintenance behaviors involved in achieving a guant, size-3 look.
Doesn't anyone pay attention, asks Campos to what has been happening with longevity in the midst of the so called obesity epidemic? In the U.S. and most other industrialized countries, people are living longer. In the plus-65 age group, he underscores, there is no evidence demonstrating that fat people are dying sooner and thin people are living longer. In fact, numerous studies indicate that having some padding is better after age 65 than being thin or underweight.
In essense, according to Campos, the almost ear-piercing daily reports about obesity are really about two things: An aesthetic because it is really viewed as an accomplishment to appear as if you never eat. And, prejudice, because "globesity" according to medical scientists, is THE major cause of death around the world. Suddenly AIDS and TB no longer matter.
No one has bothered to notice that scientists have suddenly stopped looking for genes, and since 2000 have been doing absolutely nothing but looking for fat. Moreover, they're receiving "fat" funding checks as they link virtually ALL human frailties to fat.
Are we really to believe, as it was reported recently, that obese women don't breastfeed because their fat is an obstacle and therefore their children are less healthy? Surely it isn't because the kid would miss the target. Or, that thin women are much better at the old motherly art because they are much better suited by virtue of body type? That's how lame medical research has become.
Wake up America -- there's money to be had in the obesity epidemic, especially for the so called scientists who are claiming great new discoveries.
Taking sharp, unabashed aim at the overweight is ok in 2004 because it's ok to hate people who are aesthetically unacceptable. Campos unveils this fact in his well-written book.
Fumento, who loaded his nasty little review of The Obesity Myth with epidemiologic data (which, if you know even a twit about science, will immediately realize that statistical studies prove nothing) failed to list one vital area of research that is irrefutable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has demonstrated repeatedly in studies that the growing number of women smokers do so to STAY THIN!
So, if thinness is indeed symbolic of health are we to assume that stick-thin victims of lung cancer are the epitome of being robust? Get real. Better yet, buy The Obesity Myth. The book puts into perspective what so-called science should have done ages ago.
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