Diet refers to both the foods we normally eat and to special selections made for reasons of health or change in body weight. In a country where you can never be too rich or too thin, the term’s cultural signification is tied to calorie cutting and weight loss. The combination of vast disposable income and variety of foods greater than any nation on Earth, with the equation of beauty and thinness, has contributed to Americans’ schizophrenic approach to nutrition. Over half of the population has at one time or another attempted to control weight by controlling food intake. With the weight-control industry booming (miracle supplements, powders, “light” foods, prescription drugs, fitness clubs, tens of nationwide diet programs, such as Weight Watchers, and thousands of diet books and magazines), three-quarters of Americans are overweight. But regimens of near-starvation in order to be thin are also growing, especially among teenagers, where levels of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are staggering.

The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) recommends a variety of foods, low saturated fats, more consumption of fruits and vegetables and controlled carbohydrate intake. But the nation’s quasi-obsession with fat has not yielded the desired results. The preponderance on the market of “low-fat,” carbohydrate-rich snacks has coincided with high rates of obesity While some may resort to fad diets (juice or cabbage soup anyone?), it is worth noting that the oldest, healthiest people alive today survived wartime food shortages and (gladly) ate steak. Food for thought.