Encyclopedia of Obesity
- Kathleen Keller - Columbia University, USA
This two-volume Encyclopedia provides a catalogue of entries from a variety of expert contributors from a vast array of disciplines, including molecular biology, psychology, medicine, public health and policy, food science, environmental health, pharmaceuticals, and many others to summarize pertinent topics in obesity, and related health conditions.
Scholars, educators, researchers, physicians, and the general public will be able to access this resource for current, factual details on topics related to this growing epidemic. This new encyclopedia will be the most reliable, accurate, and thorough resource for information about obesity.
'Moving Forward in an Ever Expanding World' in this section Kathleen Keller addresses the topic of a changing society that is slowly adapting to accommodate obesity. Covering recent lawsuits on fast food industries and airlines, discussing how these are telling of the decades to come. In addition, this text will look at the new frontiers on obesity treatment and research and the importance of prevention in children, and in studying obesity in a variety of ethnic groups and in developing countries.
Benefits and Features
" This publication will serve as a general and non-technical resource for biology, sociology, health studies, and other social science students and educators who wish to understand the development of obesity as it prevails in the United States and worldwide.
" It will for the first time, allow scholars who are conducting research to access hundreds of topics related to obesity, all within a single text.
" The convenient organization of this text will assist readers most when they have a specific term they wish to investigate, however, for readers who do not know the specific search term, each article is cross-referenced with other article headings.
Major themes that are addresses are as follows: the prevalence of obesity (worldwide and U.S.), gender and obesity, leading institutions that are dedicated to fighting obesity, food industries, biological and genetic contributors, environmental contributors, social influences and outcomes on obesity, psychological influences/outcomes of obesity, health implications of obesity, treatments for obesity (medical and dietary), disordered eating patterns, public health issues related to obesity, obesity and the brain, ethnicity and obesity, and new frontiers in obesity research.
"The United States has seen a dramatic increase in obesity over the last 20 years. This work, edited by Keller (human nutrition, Columbia Univ. Coll. of Physicians & Surgeons; research associate, New York Obesity Research Ctr.), seeks to be a starting point for those interested in learning about all aspects of obesity. There are approximately 500 entries, some with black-and-white photos. The scope is global: continents are listed as entries by geographical region, e.g., Asia is broken down into "Asia, Central," "Asia, East," etc. These entries contain brief historical overviews of obesity in various countries, obesity studies, and/or obesity prevention strategies. The appendix in Volume 2 has a section addressing the prevalence (according to the World Health Organization) of obesity in males and females by country. In addition to a glossary and an index at the back of both volumes, the encyclopedia also features a reader's guide-in the front of Volume 1-that assists readers in finding articles by category or theme (e.g., ethnicity/race, children, social influences and outcomes, new research frontiers). Volume 1 also contains an explanation of the body mass index (BMI) and the BMI table. Although there are bibliographies at the end of entries, multiple references are lumped together in paragraph form, which may make it hard for some readers to distinguish among them. Since the bibliographies are not extensive, this encyclopedia would have benefited from including additional resources for patrons wanting more information. BOTTOM LINE Dana K. Cassell and David H. Gleaves's Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating Disorders (Facts On File, 2006, 3d ed.) is geared more toward a general audience and libraries with smaller budgets. This work, featuring a reading level appropriate for high school audiences and above, is recommended for academic and public libraries."
—Library Journal
