Calorie Counter

Visit your nearest grocery store and on every aisle you will witness one of the most brilliant marketing strategies ever devised. Labels screaming, "Reduced Fat!, Low Fat!, No Fat! And of course Fat Free!" Even fresh squeezed orange juice bottles taut the fat free label in an attempt to boost sales (like a glass of fruit juice ever contained any fat). The sale of low fat products is a thirty billion-dollar industry. Nabisco's line of Snackwell reduced fat cookies became America's favorite snack practically overnight. This was the result of Nabisco's marketing of the low fat label, we know it couldn't possibly be because of the taste or should we say the aftertaste.

The US government has also joined the reduced fat campaign. The Food and Drug Administration now requires virtually all food labels to incorporate the fat content contained in each product, the same label that endorses the thirty-percent of calories from fat recommendation.

How has this reduced fat media and marketing attention affected U.S. shopping and eating agendas? A joint survey by The Food Marketing Institute and Prevention Magazine concluded that seventy-two percent of those polled made decisions to purchase concerned with the total fat content of the food product as opposed to the total number of calories presents.

What started all of this Reduced Fat, Low Fat, Fat-Free hype? That is anyone's guess. Statements like "You are what you eat" have been around for decades. Fat probably became the focus of dieting fads because it is the most concentrated source of calories (fat contains nine calories per gram compared to only four calories per gram associated with carbohydrates and proteins). Research also suggests the body prefers to use carbohydrates for fuel while storing fats as fat.

According to the Department of Agriculture, individuals are consuming less fat as a percentage of their total caloric consumption. During the mid-nineties fat comprised an estimated thirty-three percent of the caloric intake of U.S. diets compared to forty-percent during the late seventies. So, all this hype must be working? "Americans are consuming significantly less fat as a percentage of their total caloric intake, therefore, as a nation these individuals must be losing weight while enjoying a decrease in the co-morbidity associated with obesity." NOT THE CASE!!! According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the trend in the prevalence of obesity is increasing. The guidelines note that from 1960 to 1997 the prevalence of obesity in adults (BMI) increased from nearly 13 percent to 22.5 percent of the U.S. population; with most of the increase occurring in the 1990's.

How can this increase in obesity be explained? Simply, "Calories are Calories," while Americans are consuming less fat in their diet they in turn are consuming more calories. The thirty billion dollar a year fat-free food industry combined with their multi-million dollar marketing campaigns have Americans believing fat-free represents calorie-free. So Americans are actually consuming more food, thus, more calories while the fat-free industry laughs their way to the bank.

Studies have shown that when individuals are presented with two meals, one believed to be "rich in fat" as compared to "reduced-fat," individuals will actually consume far less calories eating the meal believed to be "rich in fat." Individuals tend to, indulge themselves, having second and even third helpings when they believe they are eating "healthy".

Another detail the fat-free industry fails to inform the consumer about is how they are replacing the fat content in their products. Many of the low-fat foods, which have been recently introduced, have simply substituted the fat content with sugars to compensate for the taste lost by the absence of shortening. The problem results from the high caloric content of the sugars added to the fat-free products. So often the low-fat version of foods actually have nearly the same or even more calories than regular product. Reduced fat calorie comparison.

During a recent browse through Amazon.com one can only begin to realize just how desperate and/or obsessed the American public actually is with weight reduction. The thought of any of following books actually helping anyone to improve their quality of life over the long term is simply ludicrous. Such titles include:

The Skinny: What Every Skinny Woman Knows about Dieting (And won't Tell You)
Dieting: A Dry Drunk: A Dieting Recovery Handbook
Fat Chance: The Myth f Dieting Explained
The DayDream Diet: The Inner Game of Dieting
Dieting With the Duchess: Secrets & Sensible Advice for a Great Body
Fat to Fit without Dieting: The No Eating Plan that Burns of Excess Fat Forever
Think Slim Be Slim: A New 21-Day Plan for "Mental Dieting" that Can Give You
Perfect Weight Control-Forever
Today You Can Stop Dieting.. Forever: A Simple, Natural Solution to
Permanent Weight Control
Dieting the Santa Barbara Way
The Doctor's Walking Diet: How to Loose Weight Without Dieting
If You Know so Much about Dieting, Than Why are You Still Fat
The Turbo-Protein Diet: Stop Yo-Yo Dieting Forever
The Art of Dieting Without Dieting! : Recipe and Guidebook
Dieting for Dummies (for Dummies)
Dine Out Lose Weight

While browsing humorously through more than 150 of the most popular dieting titles, I could not help but notice only two of the authors had a MD following their name. The Doctor's Walking Diet: How to Lose Weight Without Dieting was not even written by a physician. I am not trying to infer that only those individuals with a higher education are qualified to inform the public. While in medical school, I was afforded the opportunity to work with a gentleman who was fortunate to get an eighth grade education. He had worked for the university for some thirty plus years in the orthopedic research department and was one of the most respected individuals on campus. He was actually the person who instructed all of the medical students how to suture (we learned using pigs feet). Suzanne Somers has spent the last few months on the talk show circuit promoting her new book, Get Skinny Eating Fabulous Foods, I have not wasted my time reviewing this book but I did glance at her previous book Eat Great, Lose Weight Your Fat Is Not Your Fault. This book was inundated with statements, such as, "When you Somersize you can still eat fat and lose weight." The first 23 pages of her 211 page book has absolutely nothing to do with educating anyone about dieting, she goes on and on giving accolades to her sister in-law for doing all the research for her book. Besides living in the land of opportunity, why? how? do all of these celebrities or ex-celebrities write all of these authoritative books on dieting and health. Please be judicious before starting your next "miracle" diet, the majority of the authors of the current titles have not enrolled in one biochemistry or nutrition class.

So how do individuals lose weight and more importantly keep the weight off? First, individuals must understand the concept of diet or dieting. Diet actually comes from the Greek word "dieta," which means "way of life." In the situation of obesity, diet is a method of prescribing a new way of living, concentrating on increasing self-esteem while decreasing the prevalence of health complications associated with obesity.

Losing and maintaining weight loss in a safe and sensible manner requires a multifaceted approach. Individuals should set realistic and attainable goals develop eating/social behavior patterns that promote success, and incorporate a exercise program designed for the long term.

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