Rating: 
Summary: An inspired beginning to a much-needed discussion
Review: This book isn't perfect- there are typos, it's sometimes redundant, and the tone is inconsistent. That said, The Obesity Myth manages to achieve something that I have only dreamed about- an intelligent, researched, and fresh point of view on the science and statistics surrounding fat. Anyone with half an ounce of rebel in them knows that the outright guilt tactics used by the diet industry points to an underlying manipulation. They are trying to sell us a 'cure' with an abysmal success rate and which on average makes the user worse off, so the only sell for such a product is through making us feel at fault. Have you noticed there are no google hits when you look for the phrase 'rebel diet?' If you have always wanted to know how to both sustain your health and your identity, you should take a look at this book. It's a great start.
Rating:
Summary: Open Your Mind, Shut Your Wallet
Review: Funny that in a review below, the MD is foaming and fuming over this book, with the supposed "health" of fat people in mind. Methinks he doth protest too much. All these fat patients of his on "tons" of medications paying "incredible premiums" make him a bit of money I would guess. Which is Campos' point. The "weight-loss" industry thrives on creating a disease (obesity) and hysteria about it (Weight Watchers, et al fund many of the major studies which become "gospel" in mainstream media outlets, doncha know?) and then "treating" it, but never, NEVER curing it. There's big money in fat. If more people of every size were allowed to believe that their size has nothing to do with their morals or the intrinsic value of their souls, and more of us were taught from day one by COMPASSIONATE parents, doctors, teachers, and peers how to be active and healthy no matter what we look like, this debate would be moot. This book gives everyone the tools to think more critically about what we're being told. This book gives fat people the power to reclaim their bodies and their lives from an industry that siphons their dignity and their wallets. Give it a read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book - includes great references
Review: This is an awesome book. It really cuts through all the hype about weight, size and American attitudes. It is well written and very clear. It's a fascinating read all the way through; I could hardly put it down. I was particularly impressed with the references at the back of the book. Mr. Campos backs up all his assertions with verifiable data. I even went to the University of Illinois Health Science Library and looked up some of the papers and references given. They are correctly and factually reported with no distortions. A rarity in books and articles about weight. I hope this book sparks much discussion among health care professionals. It could be the key to finally treating weight with fact-based plans instead of hoopla and hope.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a real killer
Review: As a general practitioner of 24 years and a pathologist for the last 11, I was horrified to see Paul Campos' book. Telling fat people there's no reason to lose weight is a great way to sell books; but it's an even better way of killing them. It's telling that the only Amazon review to present any data (indeed, lots of it with sources cited) is being heavily panned by those reviewing the reviews. Why? What writer Michael Fumento (who's been writing about obesity for eight years) said NEEDS to be heard. But I can back up his data with my observations. The difference between my overweight patients and my proper-weight ones is that between night and day. The fatter they are the more likely they are to have type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis of both the hips and knees, sleep apnea, insomnia, lethargy,heartburn, foot problems - you name it. They also have tons of prescriptions to try to control some of these problems. Unless they get insurance through their employers, they have monster premiums. When I tell them that virtually all these problems will abate or even disappear if they lose weight, they often react by simply getting another doctor! (That's also the reason I'm not signing this.) Campos harps continuously on this idea that you can be fat but fit. I see fit fat people all the time - on my autopsy slab. No amount of exercise can clean out the plaque I see in those corpses' arteries nor take the pressure off their exhausted hearts and lungs. If you wish to READ this book as a case study in fact-twisting and greed, go ahead. But please do not HEED this book. Why end up on my slab 15 years earlier than you have to and without having gotten the joy from life that you could have had?
Rating:
Summary: Keeping Food Anxiety Real
Review: This is a thought provoking and interesting book. As America begins its war on obesity and everyone talks more and more about "low carb" this or the advantages of Atkins vs. South Beach, it is time to take a step back and wonder what it is that we want. If we want to be healthy, what is the best way to get there? Should we ping-pong from one diet to the next or should we start excercising and become a little less concerned about the latest diet? The evidence would suggest that despite the latest obsession with obesity, Americans are becoming heavier all the time. Campos' book makes us step back to try to understand the phenomena that has everyone so anxious. I think it will make everyone take a good look at cultural aspects of dieting.
Rating:
Summary: Clinging to a liferaft
Review: I read this book. I was horrified.
Someone below talked about smoking, and I think that's an accurate analogy. You know how every time a tobacco company is sued, they parade a bunch of doctors and scientists out who swear up and down that smoking isn't really so bad for you, dismiss all the research to the contrary, and cite one or two questionable studies that seems to support their view? Well, Fat Activists have finally found someone to testify for them.
Of course, they couldn't find an actual doctor or scientist, and are forced to turn to a lawyer at the highly respected and esteemed University of Colorado. And he draws a series of bizarre analogies, uses highly questionable (and selective) reading of the scientific literature, and tries to victime the fat community in a new way: if you can't make money selling them diets, make money selling them a book that says they don't need diets.
It's amazing (and sad) how fat activists dismiss doctors as being part of some huge conspiracy for telling them to lose weight. Last I checked, most doctors are pretty decent people whose only wish is for people to be healthy. I guess I'm wrong, the fat activists are right, and this lawyer is the only one who has the courage to stand up to the shadow government of fat haters.
It's just sad.
Rating:
Summary: Fumento blows (smoke) as usual--book is awesome!
Review: It was bound to happen. A book debunking every myth spread by the obscenely wealthy diet/weight-loss industry gets published, and the rabid fat-haters come out of their cages and blast it. Well, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM! This book--as well as its author, Paul Campos--is a breath of fresh air. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, Atkins and all their ilk should be afraid--very afraid. Great book.
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Summary: It's about time!
Review: With the hysteria concerning an "obesity crisis" reaching a fevered pitch, it was inevitable that someone would question the research being flung in our faces, and Campos is that one. He expertly voices the thoughts of people who don't obediently swallow everything the media tells them. Bet the news didn't say those studies on how fat kills were sponsored by Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, huh? Or that black women have been specially targeted by the diet industry because they don't have the same crippling body image issues white women do? Maybe you'd like to know how deep the misogyny in our culture runs when it comes to standards of beauty. Perhaps you wish to discover that a fat, active person is far healthier than a thin, sedentary one. Did you even know fat people can exercise a lot without losing weight? Open your eyes, America, and read this book!
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Summary: Campos Propagates Deadly Myth
Review: Over 2,000 years ago Hippocrates, the founder of western medicine observed a connection between being overweight and sudden death. Over 200 years ago Benjamin Franklin admonished: "To lengthen they life, lessen thy meals." Over a century ago insurance actuaries observed that fatter people lived shorter, less healthy lives. Last year, 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. (A BMI over 25 is considered overweight.) The heavier women lost eight years. At the same time, the Annals of Internal Medicine reported six to seven years of lost life for obese 40-year-old nonsmokers, approximately the same premature mortality found in normal-weight smokers. So obesity kills as readily as smoking. Comes now law professor Paul Campos to say it's all a lie, a conspiracy so immense it makes the Illuminati and the Trilateral Commission seem like pipsqueaks. By picking select studies from a vast amount of literature, by misrepresenting studies that say exactly the opposite of what he claims, and quoting a plethora of fat activists, Campos insists that a BMI of 25-30 adds no health risk. Never mind the renowned 1995 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) study that followed over 115,000 women for 19 years and found, "Among women who had never smoked, the leanest women in the cohort (those with body-mass indexes below 19.0) had the lowest mortality" and deaths "were lowest among women whose weights were below the range of recommended weights in the current U.S. guidelines." In the January 1, 1998 NEJM, Dr. June Stevens and colleagues reported the results of a 12-year study of 300,000 men and women. "I'm sorry to tell you," she told reporters at the time, "But it's the very lean weight that is associated with the best survival rate." Indeed, the CDC attributes 400,000 premature deaths annually to overeating and lack of exercise. Yet thinness isn't a tradeoff between quantity and quality of life. Fat is no fun; it's painful and expensive. A just-released Rand Corporation study found a striking increase in disability among Americans from obesity, while a January 2004 Obesity Research study concluded, "Annual U.S. obesity-attributable medical expenditures are estimated at $75 billion." Naturally Campos' book is being embraced by morbidly obese fat activists like Marilyn Wann, author of "Fat?So?" And it's a sweet Siren song to those who have simply given up on losing weight. But like those songs of legend, this myth kills.
Rating:
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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