Dieting: really harmful, merely ineffective or actually helpful?
Dieting has developed a negative reputation among many researchers and health care professionals. However, 'dieting' can refer to a variety of behavioural patterns that are associated with different effects on eating and body weight. The wisdom of dieting depends on what kind of dieting is involved, who is doing it, and why. Thus, depending on what one means by the term, dieting can be quite harmful, merely ineffective or actually beneficial. The present paper considers examples of all three. In particular, we argue that judgements about the desirability of dieting should consider the likely consequences to particular individuals of engaging in, or not engaging in, dieting behaviour.
Lowe
Michael R
MR
Department of Psychology, Mail Stop 626, Drexel University, 245 N. 15th St, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA. lowe@drexel.edu
Timko
C Alix
CA
D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000523:psychology; D015431:Weight Loss