UNFAT THE NATION

A doctor’s rant on the obesity epidemic.

This debut book moves conversationally between topics, providing personal asides, patient anecdotes and efforts to share factual information about losing weight. The book references various unfootnoted statistics and cites several articles from the journal American Family Physician. U sometimes addresses primary care doctors, whom she urges to talk to patients and the parents of patients with high body mass indexes. She observes, “Kids that are obese have a lower quality of life than kids that have cancer.” The doctor also directly addresses overweight people, telling them, perhaps unhelpfully, that even if they think their habits or bodies are healthy, they “ate at some point,” and their additional weight “had to come from somewhere.” The text offers a general overview of pharmacological and surgical options for weight loss, though the author suggests that no one should need surgery because “people should not be at the BMI of 40 in the first place.” Other unvarnished comments, like “We all know how we got here, unless, of course, you are in denial,” may put off some readers. Motivational support occurs in the form of generalizations: “You have to be optimistic and believe that you can make a difference.” The writing style is straightforward, and the ideas expressed on obesity, media and culture can lean toward the obvious (“Restaurants advertise aggressively on TV”). The advice, however, sometimes cuts through often typical jargon-filled writing of weight-loss guides: “You have to remember, you are doing this for your health.” No meal plans, exercise programs or other specific goal-oriented materials are included, but the back of the book does provide blank pages with different headings (“Notes,” “Weight Progress,” “Program Diet”) for readers to chart their efforts.

A short, heavy-handed attempt to improve American health.