'This slim book is fat with data and ideas, and stands on the imaginative frontier of a very fast-moving public policy debate ... It's bound to cause controversy and thought as we face the public health challenge of trying to engineer weight control.' -- Michael Bliss, University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, and author of The Making of Modern Medicine and The Discovery of Insulin 'Promising, thought-provoking and smart.' -- David Frum, best-selling author and adviser to former President George W. Bush 'XXL critically examines the money and policies we're throwing at the obesity epidemic and proposes a new, thoughtful and sensitive approach--healthy living vouchers--that offers meaningful incentives to those who ever have, or ever will, struggle with the emotional and physical battle of weight gain.' -- Bertha K Madras, Professor of Psychobiology, Harvard Medical School

Obese individuals are twice as likely to experience heart failure as non-obese people. More than eighty-five per cent of type 2 diabetes sufferers are overweight. And in the United States, obese and overweight individuals make up more than two-thirds of the adult population. Public health organizations and governments have traditionally tried to combat obesity through shame-inducing policies, which assure people that they can easily lose weight by eating right and exercising. This generic approach has failed, as it does little to address the personal, genetic, and cultural challenges faced by obese individuals.

XXL directly confronts the global public health sector by proposing an innovative, alternative policy - the 'healthy living voucher' - for decreasing high calorie consumption and its related health problems. Neil Seeman and Patrick Luciani argue that many public health campaigns have made the problem of obesity worse by minimizing how difficult it is for individuals to lose weight. XXL challenges governments to abandon top-down planning solutions in favour of bottom-up innovations to confront the obesity crisis.

"'Messrs. Seeman and Luciani's suggestions will annoy both the left and the right. Market forces are anathema to the top-down thinking of many on the left, and handing money to the "undeserving" is anathema to many on the right. But the very fact that their idea defies conventional wisdom suggests that it is a good one.'" - The Wall Street Journal

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(This title received Outstanding rating by members of the 2012 University Press Books committee…. They are essential additions to most library collections)

"‘The authors have provided us with a clear summary of our current obesity challenges alongside the range of possible avenues to take on this “wicked problem,” all smartly compiled in this readable book.’" - CMAJ February 2013