Customer Reviews

Eating Disorders and Obesity, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Handbook

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As an internist, I am a little closer to the obesity side of things but I found the entire book informative and very easy to comprehend. The chapters are purposefully short to facilitate the episodic reading that is often the only reading possible in a busy practice. I particularly like Dr. Brownell's public health and environmental approach to the problem of obesity. This textbook is a great way for the uninitiated to "catch up" on the current concepts of obesity and eating disorders.

This book was like super-sized junk food for the brain...without the taste. While I did pick up some good historical references about eating disorders, I really did not need to read chapters and chapters of research to find out that "less calories and more exercise" is a proven solution. Wow. We needed a research scientist to tell us that!

I get more cutting edge information from the local gym scene and talking to people who actually lost the weight than this research. I am actually embarrassed that our scientists could not do a better job of looking for metabolic or behaviorial solutions.

Heck, I will give the reader one right now. Eat protein before any other food. One gram of protein requires a gram of water. Whereas, carbohydrates require 4 grams of water. The carbs will cause a more rapid weight gain. The protein will fill you up quicker as well.

The most useful psychological information from this text was how children could be taught to eat less by having the parents put down their eating utensils between bites. The children then followed their parents' examples. Not exactly cutting edge psychology here.

It is like the editors and researchers are terrified of straying off of the old calorie-counting mentality. There was no comparisons of ethnic or performance diets. Food was all a matter of calories. Nothing to do with vitamin value or how hidden hungers, from B vitamin deficiencies, can cause over-eating.

Fair enough, this information was unbiased from advertisers. But, I found it very time-consuming and as disappointing as a dry doughnut. --Doug Setter BSc. author of Stomach Flattening and Reduce Your Alcohol Craving