Is 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:

* How the nation�s most prestigious and trusted media sources consistently misinform the public about obesity
* What the movie industry�s love affair with the �fat suit� tells us about the relationship between racial- and body-based prejudice in America
* How the skinny elite�with their �supersized� lifestyles and gas-guzzling SUVs�project their anxieties about overconsumption on the poorer and heavier underclass
* How weight-loss mania fueled the impeachment of Bill Clinton

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.