The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your HealthIs 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." Close to half of the adult population is dieting, obsessed with achieving an arbitrary "ideal weight." 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 scrutinizing 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 exposé of the culture that feeds on our self-defeating war on fat. Campos will show:
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. |
Contents
Fat on Trial | 3 |
The World Turned Upside Down | 41 |
Fat Culture | 55 |
Lost in the Supermarket | 70 |
The Bimbo Culture | 90 |
All the News Thats Print to Fit | 107 |
Chronic Restrained Living | 119 |
The Athlete Within | 131 |
Life During Wartime | 153 |
Fat Politics | 183 |
Feminist Accused of Unsightly Weight Gain | 199 |
Anorexia Nervosa and the Spirit of Capitalism | 218 |
The Last American Diet | 238 |
Conclusion | 247 |
Notes | 253 |
Body Mass Index Table | 273 |