The Cure for Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages About Health, Fitness, and Happiness

We’re mercilessly bombarded with advice and products aimed at getting us to look good and feel better. In this entertaining and thought-provoking slam at Big Food, Big Pharma, and our own delusions, Canadian health law and policy researcher Caulfield immersed himself in the world of health science to weed fact from fantasy. He “exercised like a maniac”—including with a trainer-to-the-stars who dished on the unenviable regimes of Tinseltown’s most gorgeous celebs—and went on an impossibly strict diet during which he shed 23 pounds. Caulfield, a dedicated sprinter, also got his genes tested and “sulked for days” because they made him an “unlikely sprinter”; he visited an acupuncturist and tried out a variety of naturopathic and homeopathic “remedies”—including one to soothe his motion sickness—only to discover that nothing works as promised. But Caulfield’s often hilarious, always fascinating journey unearths a few simple truths: intense exercise is best; eating fewer calories, more fruits and veggies, and no junk is better than any fad diet; and that you need to be “skeptical, scientific, self-aware and patient” to decipher greed-fueled mixed messages from food, drug, and diet conglomerates. No one says it’s easy, Caulfied notes, but the truth never is. Agent: Chris Bucci, Anne McDermid & Assoc., Ltd. (Apr.)