Health educators--the new puritans.

Kurtz, a journalist and Cosmopolitan columnist, sees Western society's obsession with health and health-related behavior as a kind of religion that is grounded in the worship of self. The "new puritans" of her title are health educators, do-gooders who would "deprive people of the privilege of taking responsibility for themselves." Physicians have been cast by the public as the priests of the new religion, who are expected to cure all their patients' ills and to guarantee happiness and longevity. Kurtz deplores this obsession with the physical good and the reliance on health experts to solve all problems, and recommends that individuals adopt a more common sense approach to health issues.