Low-fat hypocrisy

Arizona Daily Wildcat Jennifer McKean

By Jennifer McKean
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 2, 1997

Eating is one of life's superior pleasures and most honored pastimes as far as I am concerned. We engage in the ritual primarily to appease our flaming hunger and yearning tummies. We love to taste and probe intriguing new flavors and inventive recipes. Food is atmosphere and culture and can be unbelievably trendy and stylish.

Low-fat, low-calorie foods are a modern American trend. Self-image and stereotypical societal classifications are two substantial initial contributions to the fashionable low-fat lifestyle that an estimated 50 million Americans will strive to achieve this year. Obesity is on the rise in the United States. The National Center for Health Statistics conducted a study that shows approximately 35 percent of women and 31 percent of men age 20 and older are obese.

A solution? It is our congenital human nature to persist in the quest for simple antidotes to complex health enigmas. Quick fixes are the objective; therefore, nearly eight million Americans enroll in some regime of structured weight-loss program involving liquid diets, fad diets, and pills that promise a swift and simple path to the thin life. Dieting is practically a national pastime, and the weight-loss industry is experiencing exponential growth. Waiting for the next man or woman to fall prey to a universal allurement, gimmick companies claim to be sources of blessedness and success. Watch one of those weight-loss infomercials on television and you will witness the amazing "transformation."

Americans spend an estimated $30 billion a year on all types of diet programs and products. Advertisers must be doing something right, or we as educated consumers are becoming blind to the industry's mind games.

Should you ever succumb to this national pastime, research your options. The FTC, the FDA, and the National Association of Attorneys General released a report warning the general public about false claims of harmful, non-effective methods of weight-loss. Any assertions that you can lose weight effortlessly are false. Key words such as easy, guaranteed, breakthrough, and exclusive are indicators to walk away. You are probably dealing with fraud. Willingly ingesting a mysterious, exotic, new discovery? Are you out of your mind? How much more risky can a product sound? The only healthy way to lose weight and to keep it off is through moderation, reducing the number of calories you consume and/or increasing the number of calories you burn off during exercise.

Also beware of the growing market of diet products, or otherwise referred to as weight-loss wonders. The FDA has seized millions of diet patches from manufacturers and promoters due to insufficient evidence supporting that the product is safe. "Fat blockers" are a common diet fad claiming to absorb fat and mechanically interfere with the fat a person eats. Users of "Starch blockers" have complained of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pains. I wouldn't go that route if I were you. "Magnet" diet pills supposedly flush fat out of the body, yet the FTC has brought legal action against several marketers of the pills. The list goes on and on. I think you get the picture.

Phony devices and gadgets are also popular with the gullible yet optimistic. Someone out there actually produces "appetite suppressing eyeglasses," which are common eyeglasses with colored lenses that claim to project an image to the retina which dampers the desire to eat. Believe it or not, there are also "magic weight-loss earrings," which claim to stimulate acupuncture points controlling hunger. What is the world coming to?

Walking into a grocery store, almost every food product imaginable has a "new and improved" diet or light counterpart. There are fat-free chocolates, which defies the whole point of chocolate in the first place, cookies, chips, and cheeses. I even saw an advertisement for low-fat music.

Without doubt, one of the most common avenues of weight-loss are dietary supplements, which are found in tablets, pills, capsules, liquids, and powders. The supplements have loyal fans even though the FDA has issued several warnings against them. Dieter's teas are also coming into the spotlight. The FDA warned that if taken in excessive amounts, they can cause vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps, chronic constipation, fainting, and perhaps death. Reports exist that indicate dieter's teas as a contributing factor in the death of four young women. Health food stores and mail-order catalogs dedicated to promoting products like dieter's teas are popping up all over the country, and business is booming.

It is scary to think that with all of our tremendous technological advancements and social enlightenment, we as a whole are taking a step backwards.

I am not anti-diet and weight-loss all together, but I bike and run and indulge. I'm human and I'm healthy. I just don't see the point of all of this hypocritical jargon that more times than not proves worst for your health than beneficial. Diet advocates claim that weight-loss will prevent heart-disease, cancer, and diabetes. Maybe, but so will eating healthy and keeping your energy level high. There are natural, safe methods of feeling great about yourself.

Do your research and don't let your guard down. I'm not into diet shakes and skipping meals or spending big bucks to make myself look good, but millions of people are. I feel a great sense of relief that I don't have to deal with the industry on any level, but others aren't so lucky. Remember, moderation is the key to all aspects of an invigorating, healthy lifestyle.

Jennifer McKean is a junior majoring in journalism