The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting Through the Hype about Your Health (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520249189)

It happens every day: we pick up a newspaper or magazine or turn on the television and are bombarded with urgent advice about how to stay healthy. Lose weight! Lower your cholesterol! Early detection saves lives! Sunscreen prevents cancer! But in many cases, pronouncements we rarely think to question turn out to be half-truths that are being pushed by various individuals or groups to advance their own agendas. The Healthy Skeptic explores who these health promoters are--from journalists and celebrities to industry-funded groups and consumer activists--what their motives are, and how they are spinning us in ways we often don't realize.

This treasure trove of little-known facts, written by a seasoned health reporter, provides invaluable tips, tools, and resources to help readers think more critically about what they're being told. Becoming a healthy skeptic is vital, Davis argues, because following the right advice can have a profound impact on overall health and longevity.

IN TEN ENTERTAINING CHAPTERS, ROBERT J. DAVIS DISCUSSES:

* Diets and why they don't work

* Dietary supplements

* The campaign to reduce cholesterol

* Celebrity exhortations to "get tested"

* Sunscreen and its promoters' claims

* The antichemical activists

Author: Robert Davis
ISBN-10: 0520249186
ISBN-13: 9780520249189
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 06/01/2008
Pages: 254
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.07lbs
Size: 9.34h x 6.18w x 0.87d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/2008 pg. 89
Booklist 06/01/2008 pg. 19