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American Diets Essay

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Throughout the years, many diet books, pills, and plans have been tried and, most often, failed. People still go after them, however, because of the statistics: 64% of adults and 33% of children and teens are considered overweight, and 30% of American adults are morbidly obese. Fat people are discriminated against at work, school, and in social situations. Obviously, they’ll want to do something to change that. That’s where the diets come in. Popular diet pills over the years have been controversial, ever-changing, and always expanding in numbers and names: Trilene, Trimspa, Metabolife360, and Alli, just to name a few. Each of these “cures” has their share of faults: Trilene and Metabolife360 both contained the dangerous Chinese herb …show more content…

Diet plans may seem less radical than pills or surgeries, but that’s not always the case. Things that mask themselves as diets (i.e. starvation—“crash diet”) can be just as dangerous as, if not more than, pills. As is probably obvious by now, these things don’t really work. They don’t work simply because they’re not all healthy, especially not when applied as a long-term solution. A diet can’t be kept up forever; human drive and basic chemical and physiological need both more than cancel out any real long term effects of the diets. People may swear by the diets at first, because at first they are successful. But then the weight comes back as quickly as it “fell off,” and people are disappointed again. What does work (for most people, anyway) is a carbohydrate conscious (conscious, not necessarily excessively low or high) diet and exercise. Again, not extreme exercise. When it comes to weight management, moderation is the key. Consume complex carbs instead of simple ones, and exercise well and for limited amounts of time. Some people may find it difficult to see results with diet and exercise because of genetic makeup, predisposition to excess weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, or any number of other health problems. But the only safe, natural, tried-and-true method of weight loss and weight management is a well-balanced diet and proportionate exercise. Every diet plan and especially pill should be taken and viewed with a

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