Originally published October 31 2005
Dietitian says weight consciousness is not enough for good health
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Registered dietitian Karen Collins discusses America's obsession with diets and how body image isn't the best measure of a healthy lifestyle.
Whether you count the number of people unhappy with their shape, the percentage on a diet, or the billions of dollars spent on diet programs, books, foods and supplements, the figures all show that our society has become more obsessed with weight in the past decade or two than ever before.
Some argue that we should indeed be paying more attention to our weight to solve the obesity epidemic that threatens our health.
Eating low-nutrient, high-calorie food has become part of how we entertain ourselves, whether we are alone or with others.
At the same time, recreation, housekeeping and transportation have all become more sedentary activities.
Yet our culture still values thinness tremendously.
Kathy Kater, a psychotherapist who has developed national programs for teaching children about a healthy body image, says that many people today have the sense that they are valued more for how they look than for who they are, and that being thin is essential for the "right" look.
Kater points out that if any of the popular diets of the past 20 years really worked, we wouldn't have so many people overweight now.
According to Kater, when we pin our hopes on a fad diet, we are trying to do the impossible.
Research shows that when we try to control our eating with external rules, our obsession and preoccupation with food increases.
In America where food is so widely available, that's a recipe for overeating.
Instead of making weight loss a goal, Kater advocates focusing on choices that enhance health.
She says it's all right to hope for weight loss, but when people consider weight loss the goal, they almost always give up healthier eating and more exercise, if these good habits don't bring the desired weight loss.
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