The Obesity Myth

I just finished this book by Paul Campos which explodes the popularly held and deeply entrenched beliefs about fat and health. He argues that BMI tables are arbitrary and meaningless; that the public health claims about the relationship between overweight and low mortality are a severe and reckless distortion of existing data; that the data show that being fit at any weight is better than being unfit an any weight -- i.e., that a fat person who exercises moderately, eats semi-wisely and doesn't smoke has a much better life expectancy than a thin sedentary smoker. His chapter exploring the research is really fascinating. The rest of the book more or less indicts the fat-hating culture we live and shows how we are all pushed to be semi-anorexic in our eating and thinking habits about our bodies and food. At points it was a little over the top rhetorically, but I definitely think I will use a chapter or two of this in my winter intercession class.