Diet Fads: Supermarket Sheep

Eighteen or twenty years ago, I was into high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diets, courtesy of the original Atkins Diet Revolution and, to an even greater extent, Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet (which I must admit I still prefer to Atkins but that's merely personal taste). At the time, every aisle was loaded with labels proclaiming Low Fat or Reduced Fat. I didn't care about fat and sought much different information. Unfortunately, low fat was "in" and I felt alone and abandoned.

With a certain sense of resentment, I tracked down the carbohydrate costs of a wide variety of food, keeping a sharp eye on ingredients, calorie levels, and nutritional values. Certain items were strangely emblazoned with banners announcing low fat: pasta sauce, potato chips, candy bars, and ice cream. I was puzzled: how could certain foods, full of fat to their very core, be low fat? How could all the fat be removed and there be anything left?

I became fascinated with certain labels. Have you ever, for example, read the labels on those flavored coffee creamers? Zero fat. Zero carbohydrates. Zero protein. Zero calories. How can anything we put in our mouths have zero calories? A negligible amount, maybe, but absolute zero? What is in that stuff? Or is it virtual food, existing only in our mind's eye as a kind of edible hologram?

Mercifully, the low fat craze died its natural death. Atkins and similar regimens took over and the low fat labels were reprinted (corporate recycling at its finest) to read Low Carb. Suddenly, everywhere you looked, there were foods recast as low carb - again with the pasta sauce, the potato chips, the candy bars, and the ice cream.

I was curious. Had the manufacturers taken out all those carbs and put the fat back in? Where did those carbs go? Are there vast dumpsites in the desert where unwanted carbs are buried - next to worn tires, plastic bags, and nuclear waste?

Once more, I wonder: what is left in those boxes, cans, and jars? Why am I paying $1.19 per ounce for something that really isn't anything?

Then I started to figure it out (sometimes I'm a little slow). The food hadn't really changed at all, just the packaging. Food labels are like those ubiquitous Internet sales letters. They trumpet headlines that catch our interest because they are in synch with our desires and goals. Is that accidental? Of course not. Highly paid copywriters choose their headlines with great care, buying into the national "obsession o' the day", floating on the coattails of the latest fad.

Many of us are so desperate to control our weight that we buy into the promises like the unaware followers we are: bleating sheep heading for a precipice with no thought of questioning our leaders or striking out in a different direction.

The unspoken secret is that the label doesn't matter. If we want to lose weight, we don't eat pasta sauce, potato chips, candy bars, or ice cream. Period. No matter what the package says. Deep in our psyche, we know what we can eat (very little) and what we can't (a whole bunch). Allowing ourselves to be misled is only a fashionably acceptable way to fool ourselves, and we know it. We buy into the hype because we want, so badly, to believe. We want to think that we are doing the right thing, that we're really trying, that our motivation is pure.

Our weaknesses are being exploited by the packagers and the super store con men. Our ambivalence, and the overwhelming need to avoid the very real discomfort of effective dieting, invests the misguidance of food labels with an illusion of truth.

Like our dimwitted ovine cousins, we, too, are eventually fleeced.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently completed a psychologically-based weight control book: Diet with an Attitude:A Weight Loss Workbook. She can be reached at http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com

---

The Simplest Diet Plan Ever - 3 Easy Steps to Healthy Living

You've heard the popular advice on weight loss diets. Cut... Read More

Snooze to Lose Pounds

If you want to find a way to lose weight... Read More

No Thanks, Sweety: Im Losing Weight

Dealing with your sweet-tooth can be one of the greatest... Read More

What Low Carb Dieters Should Know About Nitrates And Nitrites

Nitrates and nitrites are preservatives that are added to certain... Read More

Remembering The Titanic: Top Ten Weight Loss Mistakes Others Make But We Can Avoid

Patrick Henry once said, "I have but one lamp by... Read More

Acupuncture Weight Loss -- Does it Work?

Acupuncture for weight loss is a modern application of this... Read More

How To Look Thinner

There is no need to worry too much if your... Read More

Making Healthy Lifestyle Changes that Last - A New Look at New Years Resolutions

Would you run out of fingers, and maybe even toes,... Read More

Overcoming the 7 Roadblocks to Maintaining Weight Loss

1. Become aware of what you are eating.Before I started... Read More

Healthy Supplements Make Diet Pills Obsolete!

Diet PillsTaking diet pills is definitely not an effective weight... Read More

6 Simple Steps To LifeLong Weight Loss

If You are sick of losing the same weight over... Read More

Water - How Important Is It In Our Daily Diet And With Weight Loss?

The importance of drinking water is mentioned in almost every... Read More

How To Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind!

Ah the ever present battle to lose those unwanted pounds.... Read More

Playing Games Does Not Help Your Weight Loss Efforts

Have you ever wondered why some fat people can be... Read More

Eat Out and Lose Weight -- 25 Easy & Healthy Tips for Dining Out

Diners have become more health-conscious the last few years, and... Read More

Fake Weight Loss Claims: Identify Them

Its crowded..really crowded..every other site offers Weight Loss Programs and... Read More

7 Ways to Stop Nighttime Snacking in Front of the TV

Stop Being Influenced by Food Ads on TVThere is much... Read More

Go for Scientific Weight Loss

Considering the US Center for Disease Control's advice is a... Read More

How to Select the Best Diet for You?

In the old West tricksters sold a snake oil to... Read More

The Miracle of a Cheat Meal

One of the greatest tricks that I use to stick... Read More

Simply Weight Loss -- Losing Weight is Easy if You Stop Dieting

In theory, if you're starving, exercising less helps conserve energy.... Read More

Conventional Dieting Wisdom That Works for WLS Patients

In many cases conventional dieting wisdom simply doesn't work for... Read More

3 Fast Weight Loss Tips That Work

Looking to lose some pounds quickly? Fast and safe weight... Read More

The Maharishi Ayurveda Approach to Weight Loss

5 Easy Steps to A Healthier WeightAlthough different people have... Read More

Five Reasons NOT To Lose Weight

We are inundated by exhortations to lose weight - from... Read More

Atkins Diet Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) Carbohydrate Ladder

The Atkins low-carb diet consists of four phases: Induction, Ongoing... Read More

Ephedra - Is It Safe And Effective?

Burn fat while you sleep! Eat whatever you want and... Read More

2 Ways To Start Burning More Calories Today

1. Start Exercising first thing in the morning.As soon as... Read More

Let?s Talk About Fad Diets

Although the big push for fad diets has died down... Read More

5 Easy Steps to Help You Lose Weight

When losing weight, most of us don't have the time... Read More

Are You Losing Body Fat or Water?

"I tried that diet and lost 8 pounds in the... Read More

Glycemic Index: A Magic Weight Loss Solution or a Soap Bubble Ready to Burst?

Glycemic index ranks different carbohydrate foods depending on their potential... Read More

Weight Loss: Weight Loss is All in Your Mind!

"The kind of thoughts that you plant in your mind,... Read More