Getting the skinny on fat and brittle bones

WHILE THE PEOPLE of poor nations might enviously behold the comfortably corpulent with the reverence accorded the wealthy, in Western nations, where more or less everyone is affluent by Third World standards, overweight and obesity is a modern curse.

The acknowledged leader among developed nations, the United States, is, not unnaturally, at the forefront of what Anne Alexander calls the 'Fat War' in her book, Win The Fat War (Rodale $152). She takes us on a trip into this land of giants in an Oprah-style parade of weight-loss winners offering supposedly feel-good, bite-sized first-hand accounts of triumph over biscuit tin.

In truth, even with rapidly increasing rates of child obesity here (thanks in part to the neglect of the traditional rice-based Asian diet for imported American fast food culture), it might be difficult for Hong Kongers to relate to tales of leviathans from Arizona and Arkansas (they are all Americans), who can stand much less than 1.8 metres tall and yet shed 180 kilograms - and still weigh more than 90kg.

There's not much wrong with the fundamentals of Alexander's book - eat sensibly and healthily and aspire to permanent change - and her similarly themed 10 Commandments of Weight Loss. But she does unwittingly encourage the idea of exercise as the enemy (if you misbehave and binge, an extra half-hour in the gym as penance). She also sends the message 'slim is good', ignoring metabolism or hormonal problems that can lead to weight gain, and the fact that being steadily slightly overweight might make for not only a healthier, but a happier person than the yo-yo dieter who inflicts constant and enormous stresses on their body.

The torrent of 145, often overlapping, weight loss anecdotes will bloat the senses of all but the most determined dieter searching for something to believe in.

One person's diet is another's bone disease. A much more praiseworthy, timely book from the same publisher addresses a silent epidemic far more widespread than even obesity, and with consequences equally grave, if not more so. A team of almost 30 doctors and other health-care professionals offer vital expertise and advice on osteoporosis in The Doctors Book Of Home Remedies For Stronger Bones (Rodale $123).

An ailment linked to nutritional deficiency, especially in childhood and adolescence, it is a condition by no means restricted to the US. It is, though, claimed as the country's fourth leading killer of women, with one in two sustaining an osteoporosis-related fracture at some time. In fact The Doctors Book, by the editors of Prevention magazine, of which Alexander is editor-in-chief, is of special relevance to Asians, whose race - along with Caucasian - is one of the leading risk factors for the disease.