The Weight of the Nation: Surprising Lessons about Diets, Food, and Fat from the Extraordinary Series from HBO Documentary Films

[Foreword by Kelly D. Brownell, PhD]

[Afterword by Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD]

[Read by Bernadette Dunne]

The weight of the nation is out of control. We're fat and getting fatter. When more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, there's no denying we have a serious problem. But whose fault is it?

Americans are more health conscious than ever before. Since the 1970s the mortality rate from both cardiovascular disease and stroke has dropped dramatically. Stores have more healthy, low-fat food options; fewer Americans are smoking; and many people now regularly monitor their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. We can't blame our obesity epidemic on a big decline in personal responsibility or on our collective failure to stay on a diet. So what can we blame? HBO and the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, brings you the hard truth: there are powerful forces at work in the world and in our bodies that make it too easy to gain weight, too hard to lose it, and even harder to keep it off. But there's reason for hope and proven ways to overcome all these obstacles. -- Welcome to the anti-diet book.

JOHN HOFFMAN is executive producer of HBO's The Weight of the Nation. He has won Emmy Awards for the documentary series The Alzheimer's Project and Addiction, among others.

JUDITH SALERNO, MD, MS, is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Executive Officer of the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a nationally recognized leader in health policy.

ALEXANDRA MOSS is coproducer of HBO's The Weight of the Nation.