Dear Diets

via CNN:

Before I can tell you why I am making such a grandiose claim, I need to ask you to participate in a small experiment. Make a list of 10 people you have known or known of for a long time. They can be family members, friends, or public figures -- say, Hillary Clinton and Oprah. Now note next to each if their weight has changed significantly during the time you have known them, as far as you can tell.

For instance, Hillary Clinton was always on the slender side, and although Oprah changed her weight quite drastically over the years, she is about the same shape now as she was a decade or two ago. Indeed, you will probably find that about eight out of 10 people on your list seem to weigh about the same as they did years ago. As one observer put it, some are greyhounds and some are bulldogs.

How can I tell? Because studies show that, despite all the public health campaigns, diet books, diet doctors and diet pills; despite millions of Americans spending inordinate amounts of psychological energy fussing about their body mass; whatever weight they take off, they put on again. Not all people, but about eight out of 10, according to a report in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Since the dawn of time, a sign of wealth was being fat. Back in medieval days being a hefty citizen meant you had the means to sustain yourself well over the standard of the day. It meant you could afford to eat above your means. Now, that's neither here nor there, but it goes to show how society has changed over the years. Now, along with being unhealthy and linked to numerous ailments, being fat isn't as popular. Americans feed (figuratively) on diet plans, diet pills, diet foods and are always looking for some form of you, diets. Your craze gave our portly peers the hope that, if they ate enough Lean Cuisine, they would somehow fit into their prom dress or only have to buy one seat on the airplane. Your promises of thinner waistlines have thinned wallets, and between Hydroxycut and the Atkins diet, I don't know which is worse. And to boot, apparently you don't work, and have people back where they started.

I know the above information is only one statistic, but it's something to think about. Maybe the key to health isn't what we eat, but how we eat, how much, and how often. Americans don't know the word moderation when it comes to food. Americans eat food like this and this, and then wonder why their eyes and feet haven't seen each other in years, and why quadruple bypass or death are their options. Dieting, you provided somewhat of a 'quick-fix' solution for the burgeoning obesity epidemic by allowing Americans to think they could get rid of weight as easily as they got it. Of course, we know now that you stop working the minute we stop eating a certain way, but it was nice for some people to think they had that much control over their weight. I suppose now it's time for you join up with exercise so that people can actually lose weight, and start teaching their children healthy living. Maybe I'm just a bit overbearing, considering that I'm on the skinny side. But that's better than fooling myself into thinking that eating brussel sprouts for breakfast and lunch will help decrease belly fat...