WIN Wyoming and WIN the Rockies

Thought Bullets
for
April 2003

American College of Preventive Medicine takes stand against fad diets

I congratulate Dena Goldberg and her students, of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, for sponsoring a regional workshop on eating disorders and body image, March 7, 2003. Monika Woolsey, the featured speaker for the workshop, shared a quote from one of her clients who had struggled with negative body image for decades. After over 20 years of therapy and counseling, the client made this profound statement to Monika, "I finally realized if I don’t respect and care for my body, I don’t have any place to live."

For this month’s thought bullets, I wanted to share with you some of the highlights from a recently released position paper on fad diets by the American College of Preventive Medicine.

• The primary mission of the College is to promote good health in the general population. Members of the College felt it was their responsibility to address the issue of fad diets because they see fad diets as a "dangerous distraction" from achieving healthy lifestyle habits. The College also views fad diets as a "genuine threat to public health."
• The position paper states that fad diets achieve weight loss by restricting calories and this is often accomplished by eliminating an entire food category from the diet. The paper goes on to state that rapid weight loss should not be confused with good health. "Serious illnesses such as AIDS and cancer tend to cause weight to plummet, but clearly these are not desirable for health."
• "We live in an environment that makes it easy, if not irresistible, to be sedentary and to overeat." To address the growing epidemic of obesity, the College believes we either need to change the environment, or empower people with skills and strategies to overcome the challenges of an environment that promotes overeating and inactivity. The College admits that both approaches are far from easy, but they are achievable. The College also believes a focus on healthy lifestyle will protect and promote the public’s health.
• The College defines a healthy diet as a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and fruit and low in calories from saturated and trans fats. The position paper states fad diets should be discouraged because they generally emphasize short-term weight loss while neglecting considerations of long-term health.

Source:  Katz DL.  Public news release, American College of Preventive Medicine, February 24, 2003.  To view the complete policy statement, go to www.acpm.org/2002-057(F).htm.

Compiled by Betty Holmes, MS, RD

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