A. J. Jacobs, "Drop Dead Healthy"
"Stunt journalism" has gotten a bad rap, but when done right, it can be extremely entertaining. What Jacobs brings to the table is a finely-wrought balance of neuroticism, humor and compulsive honesty. His books are always an entertaining read, and Drop Dead Healthy is no exception. For this project, he spent two years getting as healthy as possible, from head to toe. But how do you determine what's the healthiest thing to do? Well, exactly.
A lot of the interest in the book isn't reading along as Jacobs gradually improves his health, it's the back-and-forth about what constitutes "healthy" and why. In this respect, Jacobs has an admirably light touch with topics that could easily bog down a lesser author.
One issue Jacobs doesn't really address is - to my mind - one of the biggest. Jacobs, his wife, and their three young children live in New York City, with all of its attendant health hazards. Are the health risks of living in a huge city balanced out by the walkability? Or are the effects of walking negated by having to breathe all that polluted air when you do so? Jacobs never raises the issue of moving his family to a healthier place to live.
Nor does he tackle the issue of large-scale public health hazards like the link between asthma, cockroach infestation, and poverty. Instead he chooses to focus on the things you can control, like diet and exercise. Sometimes I feel like the focus on "things you can do to improve your health" amounts to a "blame the victim" mentality. One which not only ignores the larger issues impacting our health, it also - by directing readers' attention elsewhere - makes it less likely that these issues will ever be changed.
But hey, let's not get too caught up in what could have been. This is a fun read, and offers both laughs and food for thought.
Image copyright A. J. Jacobs/Simon and Schuster