By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Is there a day that passes when we do not hear the word "diet"? Visions of summer pleasures by the sea-shore evoke the dreaded word we do not dare utter....FAT! The task of dieting lies ahead, difficult but urgent. How else can we find the courage to expose carefully covered bodies through the dark winter days? The prospect is most undesirable.... bare arms, bare legs, bare middles, with bulges here and blobs there! The only answer is the firm resolve to diet. Huge massive figures are growing in number, globally. Obesity is now considered the world's most chronic disease. Over 1 billion of the world's population is considered overweight or obese. Incidence of "globesity" as it is now referred to, has been steadily increasing for the past 30 years. In Europe, the US, Australia/New Zealand, South America, the Middle East and even Asia and Africa, obesity rates are rising steadily. A ten-year study of Chinese adults finds their waistline expanding, a precursor of multiple diseases. The World Health Organisation, (WHO), defines obesity as " a condition of excess body fat", associated with a large number of debilitating and life-threatening disorders. It is measured by a Body Mass Index (BMI), a simple weight to height ratio, (kg/ m2). Mortality and morbidity vary with the distribution of body fat. The highest risk is linked to "central obesity", or excessive abdominal fat. Asians, who tend to have low BMI, now have high levels of the much-feared abdominal fat, making them particularly prone to cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes, hyper-tension, stroke and certain forms of cancer, such as breast, colon, prostate, endometroium, kidney and gall bladder. If your waistline has been expanding over the years, beware! A recent study in Scotland found that obesity causes macular degeneration. Fat, sick and blind is a most undesirable predicament. Billowing fat does not discriminate between rich and poor, as it once did. It affects all ages and socio- economic groups. Of special concern is the increasing incidence of child obesity. If nothing is done to stop the trend, life expectancy will actually go down, for the first time in 100 years. The reasons are clear, calorie intake exceeds physical activity. It is time to move and hit the diet road. Some of us are perpetual dieters. Every new diet is welcome news, greeted with passion and determination. We have been buying, reading and applying a zillion diets, all tremendous. If they did work, why are we still fat? The fact is diets do work, but not for long. For thousands of years man struggled to find enough food to eat. Now that food is in abundance, we struggle to eliminate it. We need to eat for energy, growth, tissue repair etc., but we tend to eat more than we need. Our bodies have become efficient at storing the excess food in the most unsightly places. The more food we store, the more rotund we become. The very idea of dieting is relatively new. Prior to the mid 1800s obesity was a sign of gluttony or disease. . It was unknown that certain foods were required for life. People ate whatever they could afford, grow, raise or catch. Diet guides started to appear in 1850 when a fat Brit, William Banting became the first man on record to follow a diet and lose weight. He eliminated carbohydrates, mostly sugar and starch.. He wrote a booklet describing his experience entitled: . He became the diet guru of the Fat age. During the second half of the 20th century diet books became the rage. Millions of copies were sold, all promising slender, svelte, sylphlike figures. We were hooked. Who would not, for a few coins transform this unsightly fat to strong, sturdy, sinewy muscle? The secret was in the tempting titles Eat More, Weigh Less, is that not for me and you? How about, Fight Fat And Win, or this tempting invitation: The Chocolate Lovers' Diet. I would fall for that. With books selling like hot cakes, every medical institution wanted a piece of the action. The Mayo Clinic Diet, The Air Force Diet, The Scarsdale Diet, The Pritikin Diet. Liquor stores were thrilled when The Drinking Man's Diet became a best seller. While we all do not live in Beverly Hills, we all would like to. So when The Beverly Hills Diet was published, we all stood in line to secure a copy, even though it was the most ridiculous diet ever conceived. It consisted of eating such highly sugared fruits as mangoes, papaya and pineapple. Though harshly condemned by the medical community, it did not stop the author from writing a sequel: The New Beverly Hills Diet. Some of you may remember The Rice Diet, The Water Diet, The Popcorn Diet or The Cabbage Soup Diet. Protein Diets became the fad after the success of The Irwin Stillman Diet, all protein, 8 glasses of water and nothing else. Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution added fat to Stillman's protein diet and sold 10 million copies, making him King of the Low-Carb gurus. There is no end to the schemes and scams diet authors come up with, riding their chariots of authority, whipping us into shape. Most diets work, until you tire of them. Counting calories counts, provided they are the right kind, healthy, satisfying, delicious, nutritious, well-balanced and cool. That should keep you busy all summer long. At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. -- W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
