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Goodbye Diet, Hello Diet Food

Americans are dieting less -- just one in four in 1989, down 26% from three years ago, according to a recent survey. But that doesn't mean we've given up the fight to maintain weight and have slimmer waistlines.

Quite the contrary. While the number of adults claiming to diet has decreased, the number of people consuming low-calorie food and beverages has doubled in the past decade and gone up 15 million since 1986 alone. And 75% also exercise at least twice a week, according to the survey of 1,502 adults done by Booth Research Services, Inc. for the Calorie Control Council.

Paradoxical? Not really -- the public's perception of dieting has simply changed. Of the 93 million consumers of low-calorie food products, 59% don't consider themselves dieters.

"Twenty years ago, this kind of calorie counting would have been considered dieting," says clinical psychologist John Foreyt. "But now dieting is perceived as a temporary weight-control program rather than a way of life."

Foreyt, director of the Nutrition Research Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, was both surprised and encouraged by these results. He speculates that people are beginning to see the light when it comes to short-term dieting: high failure rates. The average surveyed dieter made about three attempts in the past year to shed extra pounds.

But losing weight isn't the only reason for calorie counting. In the survey, "Staying in better overall health" actually came in first. Keeping up an attractive physical appearance was another popular reason given for counting calories.

Source: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n11_v23/ai_8335305