Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> The Buck Stops Here

Legal Commentary

: The Buck Stops Here

Paul Campos' "The Obesity Myth"

By Stuart Buck, Esq.

I recently read Paul Campos' book "The Obesity Myth," whose thesis is that America's obsession with thinness and body fat is crazy. Much of the book is concerned with American culture -- from supermarket magazines to a case where authorities tried to take a little girl away from her parents because she was too fat. In all of this, I generally agree with Campos that getting hysterical over a few pounds of fat is silly. What concerns me, however, was the portion of the book where Campos argues that dietary and obesity studies actually show that being overweight is OK. In Campos' words: Being heavier than average may be a sign of the presence of other factors that are health risks, especially a lack of physical activity, but there is no real evidence that weight itself causes undue health problems, at least not until one reaches a level of body mass that is more than 100 pounds [overweight]...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Buck Stops Here on July 19, 2008 (boomark / email).