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Diets: Do they really work?

© Shelly Morgan

Americans spend an estimated $40 billion dollars a year on diets, fitness equipment and health club memberships, yet the number of overweight Americans continues to rise. Although studies indicate that Americans are eating “better” now than they were in the late 1980’s, there are still an estimated 58 million overweight adults in America.

There are a number of reasons Americans are still gaining weight in spite of the diet craze and eating “better.” The Surgeon General’s office released a report on the state of American health calling this trend in increasing body fat “an epidemic.” Americans just aren’t eating healthy, period. The healthy eating index shows that 88 percent of Americans have diets that are poor or need improvement. Less than 20 percent of people meet the daily recommendation for fruits and vegetables and only 26 percent meet the daily recommendation for dairy products.

In addition to America’s failure to eat healthy, America is disgustingly overfed. Americans overeat, gain weight, diet and gain back even more weight. Fad diets aren’t helping the sad state of America’s health either.

Plain and simple, diets spell disaster, especially ones promising “quick” results.

Studies indicate that 99% of diets fail in the long run. In spite of the odds, people continue to try everything from the grapefruit diet to the blood type diet. These diets fail mainly because they only offer a short-term solution to a long-term problem most Americans have: over-indulgence. Diets such as the Scarsdale diet offer a strict 2-week program that promises to help you lose up to a pound a day. After 14 days, the dieter gets to loosen up a bit and eat a little more for 2 more weeks. After that it’s up to the dieter. My question is this: how can 4 weeks of dieting erase a lifetime full of over indulgence and unhealthy food choices??? The Scarsdale diet does help take the weight off, but in order to keep it off, you would have to be on a restrictive diet for the rest of your life – no rice, no potatoes, no sweets, no butter, no whole milk, no cream and the list goes on and on. The Atkins’ diet preaches low carb and high protein and high fat as the key to successful weight loss. According to Sara Buldeck, R.D., the lack of carbs in this diet sends you into starvation mode. Because of this, metabolism slows, lycogen stores deplete and you end up burning protein and muscle tissue. In simple terms, you lose lean muscle tissue. The body ends up in a state of ketosis, which is not a good state for the body to be in because ketones can be toxic to your body.