It’s Rid the World Of Fad Diets Day

Today is Rid the World of Fad Diets Day, part of  Healthy Weight Week.

Fad diets are those which promise all kinds of amazing weight loss while you sleep, within a week, or while you eat very reduced calories, carbs, or types of foods. Excluding whole food groups is another fad.

Diet used to mean ‘way of living’, but you’d be a rare citizen of modern western culture who didn’t know that diet most often means ‘restrict your food to lose weight’. After all, there’s a nearly $60 billion dollar industry in the US alone, educating us about the role of weight loss in our lives.

Now that I’m this far into the post, I am changing tack! This post was going to be about some of the most popular fad diets of the last few years, but I’ve spent an hour or so reading some new stats on eating disorders and how they’re popping up in cultures that never previously had them. So I can’t quite put my mind to the stupidest parts of the weight loss industry, nor the stupid people whose whole reason for being in the industry is that “it’s a hot market”. Most people who have any kind of eating disorder will tell you, when (or if) they recover, that it started with a weight loss diet.

You may not know that more people die from eating disorders than from ALL other mental health problems combined. ALL other mental health problems. Combined. That leaves me gobsmacked now, as it did when I first heard it about eight years ago.

Eating disorders may begin with what some might call a vanity issue – to me it’s more like an attempt to fit in – but it’s hardly as trivial as mere vanity. Vanity can be catered to with a new lipstick and a pair of shoes. The cold fact is that eating disorders are reaching epidemic proportions.

You’d think as a body image specialist, I’d have the statistics on eating disorders right at my fingertips, but I don’t. That’s because the stats vary depending on the source, and depending on the year. Many advocates working in the field tell us over and over that health authorities are not putting enough resources into managing EDs, and they’re certainly not collecting stats in a standardised way.

Here are some things we do know:

• In the US, more people suffer from an eating disorder (up to 10 million people) than from Alzheimer’s (around 4 million people)
• In almost all western countries, around 1 in 10 teenager girls has an eating disorder
• Half of those also have depression and anxiety
• 15-20% of them will die…
• 44% of people who are diagnosed with an ED at any time in their lives, will recover and their health will return to normal. That means about 66% of them will not recover, and will deal with the effects of the disease for the rest of their lives.
• 25% of children (under the age of 12 – yes, I know!) diagnosed with anorexia, are boys
• On average, a person who has anorexia is likely to suffer from it for seven years.
• A person suffering from anorexia is 5 times more likely to die than anyone else of the same age. Death from natural causes is 4 times greater; from unnatural causes 11 times greater, and successful suicide attempts 32 greater – that risk is 1.5 times higher than people suffering major depression.
• That life is likely to far less healthy than the general population.
• About 5% of people suffer bulimia. Some studies say the real number is about ten times that….
• Bulimics hide their condition from others for 8 – 10 years
• Bulimia is not always vomiting – 33% abusive laxatives, and 10% take diet pills.
• About 19% of people with bulimia will die from the disease.
• 25% of people say they know someone with an eating disorder.

Sobering, isn’t it?

And remember, the greatest risk factor in developing an eating disorder is …. dieting.

If you are reading this and thinking well what’s the answer, we have to be thin to be healthy…… I invite you to consider these two options:

• Cyndi O’Meara’s 21 Day Eating Plan
• Health At Every Size
• The Body Bliss program – learning what YOUR unique body wants and needs is the ONLY way to immunise yourself against this epidemic.

More stats here.

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