Dieting Is Down & Healthy Eating Is Up?

Learn how giving up your dieting leads to successful weight loss & weight balance

Since dieting first began in 1863 with a book called Letter on Corpulence by William Banting, women have been obsessing about their weight. The fads were cutting out high-fat foods, or high sugar foods and then high-carb ones; it seems women are now aware enough to give up yo yo dieting in favor of healthy eating that can result in weight balance. How refreshing to see a glimmer of wholesome foods return to favor as the best diet of all.

As of February 2008, 26% of women and 16% of men surveyed declared they were following a weight-loss diet, numbers decreased from 39% of women and 29% of men in 1990, according to an interesting report by the market research firm NPD, using a survey of 5,000 people. This confirms that Americans on weight loss diets were the lowest since 1990. Only 146 years of dieting over all since the beginning in 1863.

Any reductions in obesity statistics using diet books, low-calorie, fat-free, and sugar-free foods that still flood the market? There doesn’t appear to be any because these diets don’t work. Many yo yo dieters have been seduced over and over again by promises of fast weight loss from the latest diet schemes, only to regain the lost weight -- and then some -- as soon as they go off the diet.

In 2008 American Dietetic Association took a survey of nearly 800 adults and noted that 79% said they were already satisfied with what they ate and didn’t want to change; 73% said no to change because they don't want to give up their favorite foods. Favorite foods being more important than thinking long term health.
“There's no single, super-popular diet right now” says Cindy Moore, MS, RD, nutrition director for the Cleveland Clinic. "Even when the hot diet bursts onto the scene, just reading it is no guarantee you will lose weight," she adds.
What would be the reason that fewer people are going on weight loss diets? One reason could be that maybe they are more aware. Another reason, some experts say, may be that people are learning from their past mistakes. This too could lead to the desire to have weight balance.

To those that want to stay where they are in their eating, it may be good that some of the experts disagree.

"All foods can fit into a healthy diet, as long as you exercise and practice moderation," says Jeannie Gazzaniga Moloo, PhD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. This could be part of the weight balance concept. Sounds good but where is the funding to survey how many Americans over all have healthy eating and can practice moderation?

“The truth is that if your weight loss diet is not sustainable for the long term, it's not worth following,” says Michael Dansinger, MD, physician for the NBC reality show The Biggest Loser.

Less dieting simply may be that dieters are waiting for the next diet craze – the Atkins Diet or South Beach Diet of the new hope lure.
With two out of three Americans overweight, overweight is fast becoming the new norm. When most close people around you are overweight, your own extra pounds can seem less important. We all want to fit. But what is the long term price of dieting?

Furthermore when their friends and family members become overweight, and likewise when they lose weight, people tend to follow the group think as found in a 2007 study in The New England journal of Medicine.

You can counter group think by reading books like Not Your Mother’s Diet – the CURE for your EATING ISSUES, The Diet Cure, or Overeaters Anonymous. You can research these materials to find details on how to successfully succeed in weight balance with healthy eating.