Multiple books such as 'The Diet Myth' by Paul Campos argue that the health risks of obesity are mostly unproven and the real problem is the social stigma facing the obese.

You actually need carbohydrates to burn fat, according to Nancy Snyderman, MD, chief medical editor for NBC News and author of Diet Myths That Keep Us Fat and the 101 Truths That Will Save Your Waistline and Maybe Even Your Life (Crown Publishers, 2009; $24.95).

Diet Myths That Keep Us Fat-And the 101 Truths That Will Save Your Waistline-And Maybe Even Your Life.

The position of the fat acceptance movement is supported by authors such as Sandy Szwarc and law professor Paul Campos who, in his book The Diet Myth reviewed research he believed brought into question the link between obesity and mortality.

How to Win at Losing: 10 Diet Myths That Keep You From Succeeding (2012, St. Martin's Griffin)

To the Editor: "Scientists Unmask Diet Myth: Willpower" (Oct. 5) posits only two responses to a confrontation with cake.

Outside the legal community, he is perhaps best known for his 2004 book The Obesity Myth (later published as The Diet Myth) which reviews research that, in Campos's estimation, calls into question the connection between obesity and mortality rates.

First, I didn't starve myself ever (see "Common Diet Myths").

"Much of the cultural hysteria around the issue of weight gain has always been cosmetic, wrapped up in phony medical rhetoric," said Mr. Campos, author of "The Diet Myth: Why America's Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health."