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The Obesity Myth: Is Overweight Healthy?
by Guest Author
The Obesity Myth challenges widely held beliefs regarding healthy weight. Written by Paul Campos, a Columbia Law professor and newspaper columnist, this book takes on the diet industry, respected medical journals and even the US Surgeon General.

Campos begins this expose with a thorough examination of "obesity research" and concludes:

Overweight to moderately obese people have a longer average life span when activity levels and a balanced diet are accounted for.
It is more harmful to your health to lose and then regain weight than it is to remain overweight.
Most dieters are unsuccessful; therefore advocating weight loss for health is irresponsible.
Frankly, the amount of information presented in the beginning is overwhelming but necessary as the book takes on such giants.

In later chapters, Campos examines how society's views about weight influence our culture. His book is filled with sad and sometimes humorous anecdotes, including Campos' own story.

This book raises new doubts about relying on other's interpretation of data. It also confronts the destructive attitude that our country has about size.

Many thanks to Jill Gray who submitted this review.

Editor's Note: A new article in the Scientific American challenges this viewpoint. It claims that research showing overweight people have slightly better mortality than normal weight is flawed. - Jim

:post:

Intersting statement. If we truly were more active and consistently ate a balanced diet, would we be obese?? Interesting concept that I'm sure we'll see much discussion about in the near future.

I do think some people are naturally larger than others and to try to make them fit the mold can be dangerous. Case in point. Delta Burke was a natural 12 which to me is perfectly healthy but through pressure to succeed in her industry did starvation diets, took drugs all to keep a size 6 figure and eventually her body couldn't take it anymore and she gained about 100 pounds. She is now as she says happy with her 12/14 body.
I have issues with thinking obese is healthy in any respect. There is a big difference between being a size 12 and being a 28 (like ahem me).
It does bother me that there are people who don't think large people do anything but sit on the couch. It can be a very real battle to loose weight sometimes (a lot of the time) especially once you get really large that normal activity is a strain, much less actual excersise. that is a lesson to me that I will never let myself get this big again once I lose enough weight to be comfortably active. but I am going off on a tangetous rant :)