Why Do People Diet?
Why do people diet? There has never been such a large interest in dieting as there is today. The basic reason why people diet of course, is that they want to lose weight. Statistics show that this generation is generally getting fatter, and growing larger around the waistline year after year. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, especially in developed countries. Even some third world countries aren’t that far behind.
The thing that makes these facts so fascinating is that there are now more food choices for the consumer than there have been at any other time in history and the food choices grow as goods are easily transported from one country to another. People continue to get bigger even though there are more low fat alternatives and whole foods now than ever before. There are meal replacements and calorie portioned meals and instant diet foods that all have the nutritional facts and calorie details printed out and available for the customer.
Despite the glut of diet food in the market, people are still putting on the pounds. Why do people diet even if there are plenty of low calorie alternatives? Shouldn’t these foods help them trim down their weight? Doctors always say that in order to lose weight and keep the weight off, people should manage their diet and exercise regularly. With the hectic lifestyles that many people have, some find it easier to resort to dieting alone than to scheduling exercise. If a person holds down two to three jobs, squeezing in a few minutes, let alone an hour of time for daily exercise, seems quite impossible. People diet in order to trim down. Unfortunately, in most cases weight loss cannot be maintained by dieting alone.
There are other reasons why people diet. People with special health requirements or medical issues need to diet as well. In this case dieting pertains to not only regulating the intake of food, but also a meal regime that will specifically exclude some kinds of food. This is true for people with diabetes who need to cut sugar from their diet. It is also true for people who are lactose intolerant, those who have migraines with recognized food triggers and people with food allergies also need to diet.
The above mentioned examples are diets that have a medical relevance to the health of a person. A diet can be abused, though. If food becomes a psychological issue and dieting becomes a means for an individual to remake his or her self-image into an image that they think is more attractive to the point of shunning healthy food choices altogether, then intervention is needed. These people see the consumption of food as an enemy and misguidedly believe that going on extreme diets will help them become more beautiful. These thoughts can become obsessive for even the most attractive people.
