


As I am sure almost everyone knows, obesity is a large problem in America. According to the Gallup poll of well being, 63.1% of Americans are overweight or obese. Since such a large percentage of the U.S. population is obese, it is not surprising that there are a lot of articles (and even whole magazines) devoted to weight loss. Today, when I walked by the magazine rack at the Dartmouth bookstore, I saw a bunch of different headlines about weight loss, from Jennifer Lopez's post-baby body to How to Lose 5 pounds in 7 days. I wondered how high exposure to weight loss tips and stories affects the U.S. population? Does it help people? Or could it potentially harm them? I also wondered if the dieting advice and stories offered healthy advice.
One of the magazines that caught my eye was
The Atlantic. The cover story was " Fat Nation". The link to the story is: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/beating-obesity/8017/. Marc Ambinder, the author of the article writes about how America can beat obesity. He states that fighting obesity is a complex problem and would require multiple reforms. In one of the paragraphs, Ambinder talked about a study that a group of psychologists held at Yale University. There were two different groups of children; both watched the same cartoon. In one group, the children watched the cartoon with food commercials and in the other group, the children watched the cartoon with non-food commercials. They found that the kids who saw the cartoon with food commercials ate almost 50% more of the snack that the researchers offered them. The researchers found that, “Across diverse populations,food advertising that promoted snacking, fun, happiness, and excitement (i.e., the majority of children’s food advertisements) directly contributed to increased food intake.” Does this apply to adults? I looked at the study mentioned in
Atlantic, "Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior. In the journal article, the researchers mentioned that adults also consume more snacks when they watch food commercials. These experiments demonstrated that food advertisements are a contributor to the obesity epidemic.
I wonder if this is true for food advertisements in magazines? Will unhealthy food advertisements in magazines cause people to snack on unhealthy foods or consume more food? I decided to pick one magazine,
People, out of the rack to look at the food advertisements. Most of the celebrities featured in
People are thin and it commonly has inspirational weight loss stories. So I was surprised to find McDonald's and Hot Dog advertisements in the magazine.If
People promotes healthy food choices shouldn't it only contain healthy food advertisements? Do you think think that the government should place restrictions on food advertisements in magazines as part of "the fight against obesity"?
But its not only the food advertisments in magazines that contribute to unhealthy eating habits. Some researchers have also found that high exposure to dieting advice and stories in magazines can be harmful. The link to the study I looked at is:
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/119/1/e30. The researchers looked at 2516 middle school and high school students in Minnesota. They found that female teenagers who read magazine articles about dieting and weight loss were a lot more likely to try unhealthy and extreme diet measures. The author of the article suggested that magazines reduce the number of diet and weight loss stories. I definitley agree with the author. I think that magazines overemphasize weight and commonly highlight weight loss techniques that don't seem very healthy.
For example, in a lot of magazines there are articles about post-pregnancy weight loss. An article called, " The Post-Pregnancy Weight-Loss Obsession" ( http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-23/the-post-pregnancy-weight-loss-obsession/) provides some examples:
"Sarah Michelle Gellar is back in her “skinny jeans” just four weeks after giving birth to her daughter, reports Us Weekly. Ditto Ellen Pompeo, I read in People. Twice, Heidi Klum walked the Victoria Secret runway just six weeks after having a baby. Natalia Vodianova topped them all, taking to the catwalk a mere two weeks after giving birth."
" Contrast this information with Us Weekly celebrating Ashlee Simpson-Wentz for sticking to her 1,500-calorie-a-day post-pregnancy diet, People discussing Liv Tyler’s postpartum fasting and colonics, or Ok magazine’s “Baby Weight Secrets,” which advise women to stick to fat- and carb-free diets and spend hours exercising daily."
The examples of post-pregnancy weight loss that these magazines provide are incredibly unhealthy. It is not normal for a woman to lose all of her baby weight in a month. In fact, the Mayo Clinic, advices women to lose no more than a pound a week post-pregnancy. They say that it may take up to six months or more for a woman to lose all of her pregnancy weight. If women read the articles about celebrity's fast post-pregnancy weight loss, they may feel pressured to lose weight at an unhealthy rate.