Some people manage to modify their weight through effective lifestyle change, but many turn repeatedly to drastic, short-term, and ultimately ineffectual weight loss methods or to self-inflicted serious semi-starvation with its attendant negative physical and psychological consequences.—Joel Yaeger, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, in "Weighty Perspectives: Contemporary Challenges in Obesity and Eating Disorders," American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 157, no. 6, June 2000

One of the challenges facing public-health professionals as they seek to combat obesity among Americans is helping consumers to distinguish myths, lore, legends, and outright fraud from accurate, usable information about nutrition, diet, exercise, and weight loss. Some of these inaccuracies are so longstanding and deeply rooted in American culture that even the most educated consumers unquestioningly accept them as facts. Others began with a kernel of truth...