Outsmart the surprising triggers that lead to unhealthy choices when you eat out. We've all been there: You walk into a restaurant planning to order the healthy grilled chicken, but when the server turns to you, "fettuccine Alfredo" comes out of your mouth. What changed your mind? Most of the estimated 200 food choices you make daily are subconscious, based on hidden cues from your surroundings, says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think...

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The second myth: If you weigh more than "normal," you must lose weight to be healthy.

The third myth: Anyone who is overweight can -- and should -- become thin.

That's the central theme of the new book The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health. Author Paul Campos, JD, is a University of Colorado law professor. He's not a medical doctor -- but he can cite medical literature with the best of them. Perhaps more importantly, he interviewed more than 400 people about their relationship with food, body image, and dieting.

"We are in the grip of a moral panic," Campos tells WebMD. "It is a form of cultural hysteria in which a risk is tremendously exaggerated. Weight has become a dumping ground for neurotic behavior in the culture as a whole. It is this tendency to think in eating-disordered ways that grips American culture."

Focus on Fitness

When we think about "getting in shape," the shape we think about is thin. Being in good shape means improving fitness, but we focus on reducing fatness instead.

Campos points to several major studies often cited as proof that fat kills. A close reading, he says, leads to a different conclusion.

"The crucial variable was not weight but lifestyle changes -- healthy eating and exercise, which seem to be very beneficial whether they produce any weight loss or not," he says. "When people do become more physically active and are cognizant of their nutritional intake, they get real health benefits. Just a little weight loss -- or even no weight loss -- was as good as a lot of weight loss."

CDC data support this idea. CDC epidemiologist Edward W. Gregg, PhD, led a team that analyzed data from some 6,400 overweight and obese adults. They found that people who tried to lose weight -- and did -- live longer than those who don't try to lose weight. That wasn't a surprise.

"What was unexpected was those who tried to lose weight -- but didn't -- those people had a mortality benefit," Gregg tells WebMD. "And our best speculation as to the reason is there are behaviors that go along with weight loss attempts that are good for you. These may have positive effects regardless of whether a person is able to maintain weight loss. They adopt more active lifestyles, they change diets. Over the long haul they are not successful at losing weight, but these lifestyle changes seem to help."

Steven N. Blair, PED, president and CEO of the Cooper Institute, Dallas, is perhaps America's leading advocate for a focus on fitness. He contributed a blurb to Campos' book cover.