"The diet industry feeds on the hopes and the fears of those who need - or think that they need - to lose weight. Since the publication of the first known diet book in 1864, a host of sanctimonious preachers and self-proclaimed experts - often overweight themselves - have stoked fears of obesity effectively for both profit and political power, none more so than former surgeon general C. Everett Koop. In Public Health Profiteering James T. Bennett and Thomas J.

DiLorenzo offer a scathing and irreverent assessment of Koop's public and private career showing how a brilliant pediatric surgeon has evolved into a self-seeking and hypocritical public scold."--BOOK JACKET.