We live a confused modern day existence filled with an array of distractions that have led us far away from having a healthy relationship with food. Few of us have an intimate understanding of food. We hardly appreciate the fact that we will never be closer to anything than that which we put inside ourselves.
We use food as a means to an end that is more often than not filled with dissatisfaction. As a result, it has become common to overindulge and then hope to be saved by a miracle “diet.” Over half of all Americans have pursued a diet in search of the perfect weight, but less than 5% ever experience a magical result. The one’s that do lose weight sadly put it right back on because there is no “diet” that one can stay on forever. As soon as they return to their old eating habits, the weight goes right back on.
Dieting is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a product of a society driven by clever marketing scams, junk science and fool hardy participants that are willing to pay the price. A few nationally recognized diet programs are resistant to the idea of “fads,” but not to lining their pockets pound-by-pound.
We are so accepting of fad diets that it is hard to believe there was ever a time when the “D” word was not on the best-seller list. The word “diet” actually means “food that is customarily eaten,” but we usually refer to them as a plan designed to solve our “fat” problem.
There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of diet plans throughout history. Until recently, however, there has been little information available on the relationship between food and managing a healthy weight.
We generally believe that all foods are the same, and so long as we eat something, everything will be all right. People eat what they can get, what they can afford, or what they can grow or catch. And, for the most part, unless we are amongst the well to do, we pretty much eat the same thing all the time.
For thousands of years, the majority of mankind struggled to get enough to eat, but as soon as there was more than enough, people started to gain weight. Then, as now, food eaten in excess of that needed for immediate energy, growth, or tissue repair is stored as fat for later use.
In the earlier part of this century, diets were hit or miss. There have been kings that have tried liquid alcohol diets, preachers that have promoted graham cracker diets and doctors that have prescribed no-pastry diets. Health gurus have suggested mineral oil plans and politicians that have promoted chewing as the missing key to losing weight.
A brief overview of diets offers us an unusual perspective on the industry. Initially, it seemed as though diets developed to assist individuals in their quest to regain health. Then, as the availability of food increased and more people became over-indulgent, a market developed. At some point, diets went from help offered to assist others in the quest for wholeness to the opportunity to make a considerable profit.
Weight-loss programs have always been promoted as the only cure for “obesity,” although they rarely produce long-lasting or permanent results. According to existing medical research, fewer than five percent of all fad dieters succeed in permanently losing a significant amount of weight as they rarely maintain that weight over a five-year period.
Ninety percent of all fad dieters regain some or all of the weight they originally lost and at least one-third re-gain more. In recent years, an increasing body of researchers have substantiated the diet failure rate and acknowledged genetic, physiological and psychological factors in the determination of body size.
According to Market data Enterprises, the annual revenue for the diet industry is over $50 billion dollars a year. This figure included money spent on diet centers and programs, group and individual weight-loss plans, diet camps, prepackaged foods; over-the-counter and prescription diet drugs; weight-loss books and magazines; and visits to physicians, nurses, nutritionists, and other health professionals specializing in weight loss.
The diet industry’s marketing strategy is based on the creation and perpetuation of fear, biases, and stereotypes. Fat people are portrayed as unhealthy, unattractive, asexual, weak-willed, lazy, and gluttonous. A thin figure is equated with virtue, health, and success. The lack of success in losing weight is usually blamed on a lack of will power or moral values.
Heavier people are made to feel guilty and blame themselves for the failures of weight-loss programs, and to expect and accept rejection, mistreatment, and discrimination. These messages lower a fat person’s self-esteem and foster discontent, self-doubt, and self-hatred, especially during the weight gaining state of “yo-yo” cycles.
People of all sizes are misled about the severity of the health risks associated with being fat and are told that being thin is the only way to good health, and that only dieting can make people fit. Health problems associated with “obesity,” such as high blood pressure, heart problems, and high cholesterol, are often CAUSED BY the dieting process. Recent studies indicate that repeated “yo-yo” dieting actually reduces one’s life span rather than increasing longevity.
Currently, there are very few controls or regulations to inform and protect the consumer. Weight loss “success” is only vaguely defined using short-term results, and weight loss “failure” is always blamed on the consumer, and health risks are not disclosed. The few regulations that do exist are rarely, or at most, loosely enforced. As a result, finding reliable information about the most popular diets has not been readily available, until now!
For the first time, in the history of United States, over 60% of all Americans are overweight. Childhood obesity is on the rise and the average age for a heart attack is getting younger. It is not unreasonable to diagnose heart disease in teenagers.
Obesity is the most common condition found to accompany the top ten diseases that people suffer in the industrialized world and there are more brilliant scientist than ever working on finding a cure, but for some strange reason the government is not concerned with funding studies related to education.
Out of curiosity, a colleague of mine asked 100 different government-certified nutritionists, for their opinion on diets for weight loss and he was shocked when the group gave a hundred different answers.
A few years ago, there was a televised debate. It was a battle of the “Diet Gurus,” so to speak. It featured authors like the late Dr. Atkins (Atkins diet), Dean Ornish, MD (low fat diet) and Barry Sears (the zone diet). The panel could not come to an agreement on even a few diet recommendations. At one point, they were even screaming and yelling at each other and resorted to calling each other frauds.
Meanwhile, the diet industry continues to grow almost as fast as the national obesity rate. How is it possible that these diets can claim success even though the national obesity rate is at an all time high? Are these diets based on any scientific research? Are marketing teams using isolated testimonials to dazzle the public with a diet’s reputed success?
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