Becoming an Informed Dieter

By Carter Shearer


We should not be so quick to accept the claims of fad diets and follow them, instead we should find the research that has been done and make an informed decision based on what we find.

Dieting has been around for a long time, with the first recorded diet being, "An Essay of Health and Long Life" by George Cheyne back in 1724. He was one of the first dietitians, and he managed to return to being healthy again after using his diet to overcome obesity. The 1800's was when dieting began to really come into it's own. William Banting wrote "Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public" which became an incredibly popular diet plan which was widely used. This writing was important because it has remained relevant to this day and made dieting something that was trendy and cool. Today, in the 21st century, dieting has blown up tremendously. There are hundreds, if not thousands of diets, all easily accessible to us by way of the internet. The issue we run into today is that so many popular diets overstate the benefits of the diet, and never speak of the possible downsides. While most diets are effective for losing weight if followed consistently, it is important for the public to be informed scientifically on a diet they wish to pursue so that they are aware of possible risks and side affects. 

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Dieting has become a common practice in our society.

During the 20th century, with the rise of the entertainment industry, namely movies and television, physical image began to become a huge fixation for our society. Magazines showing off models and actors and actresses at every checkout stand showed the public the "perfect" figure. We have been told what we should aspire to look like and it has become ingrained in us. To achieve this, many people began to create extreme eating plans or diets which would help people to lose weight and create their own "perfect" body. The problem with this is many were created not by scientists who understand how the body works, but by people trying to make money. Diets plans have made people extremely rich over the years. The consumers of these diets buy into it hoping they get the same results they see on the commercials where people have lost incredible amounts of weight. Often times these diets have very negative side affects to them if people are not careful.

Two themes from the reformation that apply to this fad are sola fide and sola scriptura. Sola fide refers to the ideology that faith is all that is required to achieve salvation. Sola Scriptura refers to the ideology that the scriptures contain the keys to salvation. In the reformation these were competing ideologies. In this situation they still compete. I would apply the idea of sola fide to the followers of fad dieting. They believe the diet works and trust that if they keep at it they will achieve the results they want. If they believe in it, it will work. I would apply sola scriptura to scientists who understand how the body works and how these diets can affect it. They believe in the "book" or science which gives us an understanding of how diets can harm, or help the body. Those who are in the sola fide camp so often don't research and look into the science behind the diets and don't understand possible dangers lurking behind the hope of weight loss.

Many diets do work and can help us become healthier, but the obsession of looking perfect and losing weight can lead people to blindly follow diets and ignore potential dangers.