Great writing, good ideas - best quick read in public health

books:

	• Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World M.D.", Tom "Farley, M.D.", Deborah A. "Cohen Beacon Press, 2006 - 282 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Great writing, good ideas - best quick read in public health

There have been a number of recent books about health habits and the environment, but this is by far the most enjoyable read. The writing is outstanding and not the clunky prose you often encounter in books written by academics - I wish I could write like them. Although written for a general audience, with (good) human interest anecdotes, the book nevertheless covers some deeper ideas, such as "curve shifting". The idea is that how often we encounter extreme outcomes, whether severe obesity, alcoholism, HIV, depends on "normal" or average behavior in the population. The early chapters that elaborate on those ideas alone are worth reading the book. I don't care too much about "passionate advocacy" and while the authors do fall into the advocacy camp, there is very little of the whining or scolding that has turned me off in other related books. Instead, arguments are generally well balanced even if you know on which side the authors are going to come down. It made a great read for a long flight.

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Introducing a new way of thinking about health: public health experts Tom Farley and Deborah A. Cohen show us that the antidote to our ever-growing rates of obesity and chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, lies not in our medical care system or in more health education but rather in how our environment affects our behavior.

"Prescription for a Healthy Nation is an excellent book that successfully introduces a new approach to today's epidemics."
?Brian C. Reed, JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association

"Prescription for a Healthy Nation is the best book about public health I've read in years . . . Their important message: it is not enough just to take personal responsibility for our own actions?we also have to work for changes in society that make it easier for everyone to stay healthy."
?Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health

"If we can create an environment that makes us sick, Farley and Cohen contend, we can create an environment more conducive to good health. It's just more challenging to do so."
?Donna Chavez, Booklist

Tom Farley is chair of the Community Health Sciences Department at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He lives in New Orleans. Deborah A. Cohen, a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corporation, lives in Los Angeles.

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