While researching news stories on Monica Lewinsky as he organized a conference on the impeachment of President Clinton, CU-Boulder Law Professor Paul Campos discovered many stories referring to Lewinsky as overweight or fat -- something he found odd, but also revealing, about America's obsession with body image and weight.
Intrigued, Campos spent the next couple of years scrutinizing medical studies and interviewing leading doctors, scientists, eating-disorder specialists and psychiatrists about the issue.
The result is "The Obesity Myth," a book by Campos that challenges the diet and health industry, as well as the medical establishment and its guidelines concerning weight.
"The main point of the book is that Americans should stop paying attention to body mass as an indicator of health and actually start paying attention to those things that do affect America's public health, especially whether people are sedentary or active, whether they eat nutritious food and whether they lead healthy lifestyles in general," said Campos.
Campos believes that the Body Mass Index, or BMI, used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to measure weight status in adults and children, is misleading and a poor indicator of health.
He cites examples of high profile body builders to make his point. Under BMI guidelines, for example, actor Sylvester Stallone and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are considered obese.
Another misperception, according to Campos, is the notion that the over- consumption of fast food is a major contributor to the fattening of America.
"The heaviest consumers of fast food in this country are single men in their 20s who weigh less than the average American, and so the notion that that the reason America is getting fat is because everybody is eating at McDonald's is essentially false," said Campos.
"The Obesity Myth" does not argue that there is no relationship between weight and health, he said, but rather that the health risks associated with what the U.S. government considers higher-than-average weight have been exaggerated, while at the same time all sorts of related, but more serious, risks to health have been ignored.
"We are in the grip of a cultural hysteria driven by a $50 billion a year weight-loss industry which profits from increasing anxiety about weight and body image, and it's something the government has bought into and helped promote," he said.
"The Obesity Myth" will be available in bookstores nationwide starting May 3. On May 12, at 7:30 p.m., Campos will appear at the Boulder Bookstore located at 1107 Pearl St. in downtown Boulder, for a reading, discussion and book signing.
For more information contact Dirk Martin at (303) 492-3140 or visit the book's Web site at .