Hundreds of Ball State students have taken the anonymous survey online screening for eating disorders and have come up high risk, said Ellen Mauer, eating disorder expert for the Counseling Center.
As a part of Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Mauer and Kim Gorman, assistant director for training at the Counseling Center, spoke about dieting scams in the Student Center on Wednesday. The presentation focused on both diet pills and diet programs.
"The best diet is a one sentence diet and I know this may disappoint you," Gorman said. "Eat and exercise in moderation. If there was one successful diet, there wouldn't be 150 of them."
Gorman asked the audience of about 70 people what they thought about thin people. Words such as rich, famous, successful, attractive, fun and smart were suggested.
"Who wouldn't want to be perceived this way?" Gorman said.
Mauer used Oprah Winfrey's weight loss roller coaster as an example of how diets are often just scams and don't work as well as they advertise. Oprah began her diet at 211 pounds and in five months dropped down to 142 pounds, Mauer said.
"She weighed 142 pounds for one day," Mauer said. "She immediately began gaining weight. I'm not just picking on Oprah, this could be anyone. Ninety percent of men and women gain all the weight they lost back within a year."
Diet pills are one of several scams that claim to speed up weight loss. Mauer named Berry Trim, Fat Predator and Metabolife as a few.
"Many diet pills contain ephedrine which has the same effects as caffeine or speed," Mauer said. "Ephedrine is not regulated and has no clinical trials because it is not in prescription form. It is associated with heart attacks and strokes.
Most weight loss that occurs quickly is not weight loss but instead the loss of water, Mauer said. She also said when someone loses more than two pounds in a week they are losing muscle and the weight is gained back as fat.
Some advertisements are now pointing out that their products do not contain ephedrine due to the effects it has. Mauer said that even if the diet pills take out ephedrine, they must have some type of amphetamine which would create the same results.
Gorman talked about the "New" revolution of dieting. Some diets included the Atkin's diet, the zone, fit for life and the weigh down program.
"These diets began around the turn of the century and keep resurfacing because they are money-making scams," Gorman said.
Most of the diets Gorman spoke about cut back or eliminate one or more food groups from a person's daily food consumption.
Another scam, the weigh down program, targets church groups and bases weight loss on the belief that loving God can make you thin.
"What happens when it doesn't work?" Gorman said. "What does that do to your belief in God and what does it make you feel about yourself?"
Both Mauer and Gorman blame media and advertising for some of the perceived negative body image women experience today. They said there is no way to protect young girls from seeing advertising.
"Some parents think we can protect our children if we turn off the TV," said Mauer. "That's like saying we can protect them from air pollution by telling them not to breathe."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
