Dieting Through the Years

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There is no one “cure” for weight problems. The simple fact is, we are bombarded with impediments to our good health, overloaded with too many unhealthy food choices, and, for the most part, tethered to our working lives so that when we finally do decide to buckle down and make time for our health, well, we’re kind of too tired.

The amazing thing is that through the years there has been a plethora of diets--fads that have come and gone and come again. The Huffington Post has a wonderful article about the new HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin diet, which proponents claim allows you to eat a barely life sustaining amount of calories without discomfort or that annoying side effect of starvation; hunger. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-yager/hcg-the-comeback-diet-wha_b_835906.html

Thinking of the Atkins Diet I knew so well via the throngs and legions of followers it had, I really can’t now imagine how they sustained and some of them still sustain themselves on a steady influx of eggs, meat and fish, with nary a bagel to be split among the millions of them. Not even a crumb.

Or the cabbage soup diet which was wildly popular in Los Angeles seven or eight years ago.

Or the “don’t eat after 7p.m.” diet of the stars.

Like every diet fad that has come and gone, from South Beach to South Park, there is always an excitement, a buzz, a mystique about the wonders of no carbs, no meat, or no fizzy drinks.

Vegetarianism and veganism seem to be two of the only forms of dietary choice which are actually connected to something other than narcissism or health; although both vegetarians and vegans will often unabashedly tout the health and beauty effects of going meat-free or reducing the consumption of animal products, some living this way actually want to live in a lifestyle and not just a food style.

And if you have ever worked around or with teenage girls, you know that too often, “vegetarian” and “vegan” can sadly be code for “anorexic.”

It’s a wonder we don’t all have a food pyramid tattooed to the insides of our brains by now, and really, when it comes to dieting, don’t we know? Don’t even our 5-year-olds and our 17-year-olds know from being hounded about it for so many years? Whole grains, fruits and veggies are good, meats should be less and lean, fats and sweets are at the top of the pyramid and should be eaten less than anything else.

And don’t forget to walk here and there, too.

Aimee Boyle lives and writes in CT. She is a regular contributor to EmpowHER.

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