An exploration of America's self-defeating war on obesity argues against the myth that falsely equates thinness with health and explains why dieting is bad for the health and how the media misinform the public.

Every day we are bombarded with dire warnings about the 'obesity epidemic'. A large percentage of the adult population is obsessed with dieting. Yet studies show that a moderately active larger person is likely to be far healthier (and to live longer) than someone who is thin by sedentary.After years scrutinising medical studies and interviewing leading doctors, scientists, eating-disorder specialists and psychiatrists, Professor Paul Campos here leads the backlash against weight hysteria and shows that we can safeguard our health without obsessing about the numbers on the scales.The Obesity Myth is not just a compelling argument grounded in scientific research, it is also an expose of the billion-dollar weight-loss industry and the culture that feeds our self-defeating war on fat. Professor Campos challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the medical, political and cultural meanings behind the current weight debate.

A science journalist's provocative exploration of how biology, psychology, media, and culture come together to shape our ongoing obsession with our bodies, while also tackling the myths and realities of the "obesity epidemic."

Gives great insight into the use of natural principles of the use of the breath, nutrition, and movement to supercharge the body's natural waste removal system to rid the body of waste, toxins and excess weight. Thereby limiting the possibility of disease.

In this eye-opening book, New York Times science writer Gina Kolata shows that our society's obsession with dieting and weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals. Rethinking Thin is at once an account of the place of diets in American society and a provocative critique of the weight-loss industry. Kolata's account of four determined dieters' progress through a study comparing the Atkins diet to a conventional low-calorie one becomes a broad tale of science and society, of social mores and social sanctions, and of politics and power. Rethinking Thin asks whether words like willpower are really applicable when it comes to eating and body weight. It dramatizes what it feels like to spend a lifetime struggling with one's weight and fantasizing about finally, at long last, getting thin. It tells the little-known story of the science of obesity and the history of diets and dieting—scientific and social phenomena that made some people rich and thin and left others fat and miserable. And it offers commonsense answers to questions about weight, eating habits, and obesity—giving us a better understanding of the weight that is right for our bodies.

Fully updated throughout and with a new foreword for this edition. Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter? The answers are much more surprising - and fascinating - than we've been led to believe. The key to health and weight loss lies not in the latest fad diet, nor even in the simple mantra of 'eat less, exercise more', but in the microbes already inside us. Drawing on the latest science and his own pioneering research, Professor Tim Spector demystifies the common misconceptions about fat, calories, vitamins and nutrients. Only by understanding what makes our own personal microbes tick can we overcome the confusion of modern nutrition, and achieve a healthy gut and a healthy body.

What's Wrong with Fat? examines the social implications of understanding fatness as a medical health risk, disease, and epidemic. Examining the ways in which debates over fatness have developed, Abigail Saguy argues that the obesity crisis literally makes us fat, intensifies negative body image, and justifies weight-based discrimination.

In a broad ranging review of current thinking on obesity, the authors criticise much of the existing research for being biased by ideological and moral assumptions.

Drawing on the latest research and twenty years of working with overweight patients, this short and punchy book dispels myths and tells the tough truths about our obesity epidemic. Toomath shows how our modern world is making us fat. And while governments and individuals keep trying things that science shows do not work, she outlines what just might make a difference in ending the obesity epidemic.