The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Health and Fitness shows you how to find, evaluate, and productively use information in all areas of health and fitness, including: exercise, diet, developing a fitness program, healthy cooking, weight loss, sports, fitness travel, kids' health, disease, mental health, and others. Authors Joan Price and Shannon Entin, health and fitness experts, guide you in learning about both health and fitness resources on the Internet. They steer you away from scams, frauds, and misleading advice, and towards the respectable, credible resources by showing you how to tell the difference.

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The amount of health and fitness information available on the Internet expands every day. Still, we're far enough along in the online revolution to be able to sort out which sites consistently offer the best, most scientifically valid advice. But Price and Entin, both fitness professionals, actually go farther than that. Their Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Health and Fitness is really two books in one: a basic exercise and weight-loss primer, as well as a roadmap to the best Web sites for helping you attain those goals. (Fair warning: the authors apparently couldn't resist the temptation to insert numerous plugs for their own Web sites and services.) For example, in a brief section on commercial weight-loss programs, they advise against using any systems that require prepackaged food, since these don't teach you to eat healthy foods in the real world. They still tell you that Jenny Craig has a decent Web site (www.jennycraig.com), but note that the food is delivered via UPS (not too appetizing!). Another great feature of the book is that it tells you how to tell if the information or products offered on a Web site are bogus (the site is poorly designed, says its claims are based on science but doesn't tell you what the science is, etc.), and how to double-check in case those obvious red flags aren't there (www.dietfraud.com, www.quackwatch.com). While it seems a little odd to read a book about how to use the Internet, in this case you'll be glad you did. Not only will you get steered toward the best sites for health, fitness, diet, and weight loss, but you'll be entertained by some of the scams they came across. On the other hand, if you've ever been suckered into buying a product containing "essence of Malmos" or emu oil, you might not find it so entertaining, but you certainly won't allow yourself to get fooled again. --Lou Schuler