Fighting Fat!: How to Beat Heart Disease and Cancer, and Lose Weight: A Practical Guide to Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol

This is not another entrant in the battle against flab, as the title implies, nor does it promise, as the subtitle hints, a cure for either heart disease or cancer. It is instead an informative guide to diet and nutrition that focuses on fats and oils--how the body handles them, their roles in heart and circulatory disease, their association with certain kinds of cancer and their link with obesity. Mayes ( Osteoporosis: Brittle Bones and the Calcium Crisis ) dispels the confusion about ``good'' and ``bad'' lipoproteins in the body, as well as good and bad fats and oils in the foods we consume; her label-reading advice alone could conceivably make a life-saving difference for some readers at medical risk from fats and oils. Several helpful appendixes include a rundown on the sources and cholesterol component of fats and oils and a fat- and oil-content checklist for foods from blue cheese to tahini. (June)