Ciao Nutrinutters :)
Here are my thoughts on the weight loss scam:
I believe most of us have seen the videos on senator
McCaskill questioning Dr. Oz’s participation in the weight loss scam. I cannot
argue that his show can be informative and he does have a true gift with words
and the ability to teach. My issue is not with alternative medicine, for I do
believe that nature’s medicine is truly powerful. My issue is with all the
weight loss bull and how he chooses to display this info in his show. On the
other hand, I also have to strongly disagree with the claim that weight loss is
only about dieting and working out.
Only someone struggling with weight loss fully understands
that it is a bit more complex than that. There could be hormonal issues
involved, psychological factors, and even some sort of addiction. To make
things worse, we have people advertising in the media constantly that they have
the answer to it all...they promise people something that most have desired for
so long, struggled with, and failed—the control of their weight.
So going back to the news, my issue with all this is just
giving people the false hope…the miracle they have all been looking for. In my
eyes however, Dr. Oz is only the very tip of the iceberg. While the blame is
being directed at one person, I am sure that the food industry is just loving
the focus for once not being on them. Guess what? This Nutrinut has not
forgotten about you. I still think that the big problem lies there. I consider
the “weight loss miracle” scams just businesses trying to bandage a broken
bone. And people will go for it because they don’t know what else to do…when in
reality, the cure lies in healing from inside out.
And this is where the food industry comes into play. In my
eyes, they are responsible for offering crappy food filled with sugar, salt,
and additives, even though they are fully aware of the health consequences. To
get away with this, all they have to do is hire a brilliant marketing team that
will add a lovely spin to their product in order to make us feel safe and comfortable
in consuming poison. An article published this week addressed just this. It
showed how marketing distorts people’s perception of what is a healthy product.
The participants were presented with options and they had to pick which one was
healthier. The interesting twist is that the difference was not in the product
but that one contained health claims such as “contains antioxidants” in a
cherry soda while in the other, the claim was removed. The participants got a
“false sense of health” and believed that the one with the claim was the better
option.
I guess I did go a bit off topic, but for me, the true weight
loss scam starts with the food industry. They manufacture harmful products and
the cherry on top, market them as healthy.
The good news is that you, yes YOU, can do something about
it! Make smarter choices. If it sounds too good to be true (i.e. a soda with
antioxidants, organic fruit snacks, heart healthy, sugar filled cereals, etc.) then
it probably is. If you want antioxidants, eat fruits! ;)
XOXO
-The Nutrinut-
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