I heard this book mentioned during a discussion of the Framingham Heart Study on NPR. Unfortunately, this was no more than a superficial review.

There was little discussion of the details of the data collection and analysis that's at the heart of this project. Instead, fifty years of data from more than ten thousand participants were boiled down to the same pithy phrases we've all heard many times over: dietary fat is bad. Exercise is good. Stop smoking. The reader is told over and over again that it was the data collected in Framingham that provided the foundation for these conclusions, but that's as far as it goes: we're told, not shown.

The controversies surrounding this sort of (now-standard) medical advice is addressed with equal superficiality: they're touched upon, but ultimately dismissed. Dr. Levy mentions many times over that despite the information gleaned from Farmingham, the health of the average American hasn't improved in terms of blood pressure (when not regulated by medication), weight, or diet. But instead of discussing the limitations of this advice, he just seems vaguely perplexed and frustrated, as if it's merely laziness and gluttony that's keeping heart disease prevalent in America. There's a brief mention of how the medical establishment's message to fear all fat led to an increase in the amount of carbohydrates and sugar in the average American's diet -- and thus an increase in obesity. But this failure is, for the most part glossed over; instead, Levy finishes the book by praising the abundance of fat-free dairy products (high in sweeteners!) and out-of-season produce (imported thousands of miles, burning fuel and lacking flavor) available in modern supermarkets.

There's doubtless a fascinating book to be written on the Framingham Heart Study, but this isn't it.