Case Study – Health and the Media

1.

There are many different groups who would contribute to the creation of diet campaigns. Each with their obvious agendas in mind, the primary focus of any organization is making profit on sales. Every organization will try to do anything in their power to sell their product, whether the diet product works or not is a secondary concern. Marketing is everything in business and if a company can get a catchy jingle or a flashy advertisement then they are rewarded with sales and high revenue. Most diet campaigns feature “overnight success” stories of overweight people turning slim in low budget infomercials. What sets these companies apart from Jenny Craig and Slim Fast are purely based on the campaign efficiency not on the products’ effectiveness. Drawn below is a flow chart of groups within a “weight loss” company that function in the development of diet campaigns:

2.

Atkins No Carbohydrate Diet for Weight Loss

What to do:

The Atikins diet plan is a low carbohydrate method. The avoidance of carbohydrates in your diet is structured to keep your body from adding weight. The method includes eating less than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Free Meats and Cheeses:

The following meats and cheeses have no carbohydrates. Using the Atkins diet plan you may eat as much of the following items as you wish.

Meat Fish Fowl Shellfish Eggs Cheese

Beef Tuna Chicken Oysters Scrambled Aged & Fresh

Pork Salmon Turkey Mussels Fried Cow & Goat

Lamb Sole Duck Clams Poached Cream Cheese

Bacon Trout Goose Squid Soft Boiled Cottage Cheese

Veal Flounder Cornish Hen Shrimp Hard Boiled Swiss

Ham Sardines Quail Lobster Deviled Cheddar

Venison Herring Pheasant Crab

Not Bad Vegetables:

A serving of these salad vegetables has 10% or less of your daily carbohydrate limit. Therefor you can eat up to three cups of these without worry.

 Lettuce

 Chicory

 Sorrel

 Chives

 Parsley

 Cucumber

 Radishes

 Fennel

 Peppers

 Celery

 Alfalfa Sprouts

 Mushrooms

 Olives

Other Vegetables:

These vegetables have more carbohydrates than the ones above. You'll want to limit your intake of these to about 1 cup per day.

 Asparagus

 String beans, wax beans, etc.

 Cabbage

 Beet Greens

 Cauliflower

 Eggplant

 Tomato

 Onion

 Rhubard

 Scallions

 Spinach

 Summer Squash

 Zucchini

 Pumpkin

 Turnips

 Avocado

 Snow Pea Pods

 Collard Greens

 Dandelion Greens

 Broccoli

 Spaghetti Squash

 Celery Root

 Brussel Sprouts

 Artichoke Hearts

 Hearts of Palm

These foods are high in carbohydrates and should be avoided:

 Breads

 Cereals

 Grains

 Sugars

 Candy

 Pasta

 Rice

 Anything with Flour

 Non-diet soda

 Juice

 Fruit

 Potato

 Chips

 Alcohol

Canada Food Guide Requirements:

Canada Food Guide Atkins Diet Plan

Grain 5-12 servings daily

i.e. breads, pasta, pizza, bagel, cereal.

No grain in diet

Vegetables/ Fruit 5-10 servings daily

i.e. carrots, cabbage, lettuce, orange, apples, grapes. 1 – 3 cups daily ( No fruits or juice)

i.e. cucumber, radishes, celery, Eggplant.

Milk Products 2-4 servings daily

i.e. milk, cheese, yogurt As much as you want

i.e. Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese.

Meat Alternatives 2-3 servings daily

i.e. chicken, beef, eggs, fish, beans. As much as you want

i.e. beef, pork , lamb, bacon, fish, eggs.

It is obvious to see that the Canada Food Guide has a more healthy and well-balanced plan for a nutritious diet then the Atkins plan.

3.

Atkins Dietary Plan may work to help a person loose weight but risks are also evident. With a low carbohydrate diet a person would not have the energy needed to sustain a healthy working environment for their body. Carbohydrates are the bodies’ premier source of energy, and without them a person would feel severely tired and unable to accomplish strenuous tasks. Simple carbs are the source of quick energy, found in monosaccharides (fruits etc..), polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates stored as fat and glycogen. The elimination of grain from the diet would mean eventual deterioration of the body. Without the glucose within carbohydrates, cellular respiration cannot occur, this is a vital cell operation and essential to our functioning bodies. The Atkins plan may be too severe for my liking but so are anorexia and bulimia, and people are still having these disorders. Like my mom always says, ‘extreme people have extreme ways’.

4.

Fad diets are popular in society for many reasons. People have a tendency to want to fit in and look good by society’s standards. If this means being slim, people will try to conform to this quality and those that lack it will be looked down upon. The world we live in today is cruel and unjust to those that are different, and overweight individuals are viewed and labeled as different. No one wants to be different in that sense, so people will try anything that will change them into being the “norm”. Fad diets are also put into place because of the adverse effect of the media on society. Every channel you flip too, every magazine you read is filled with the ideal individuals of the world, who everyone wants and wants to be. With these images of perfection, those who are far from “perfection” come to believe they need to become it and that’s where the problem arises. Everyone is not meant to be skinny, everyone is not meant to be smart, everyone is not meant to be cool. We’re made, as unique individuals who are NOT the same as the average Joe. But we as a society have came to the notion that we need to be super models to be accepted, going against the very fiber of our individuality. These troubles of society can be blamed solely on the media and the influences it has upon us. Our society is different then those of others across the world. For example societies of the tribal people of central Africa are the exact opposite of what we claim as normal. There, people do not care about their clothes, the style of their hair or the size of their waists. They are for the most part a humble people, not quarreling with themselves over these trivial qualities. They live simple lives and live to survive not to be cool. I believe this is true due to the fact that these people do not have media or an omnipotent presence that tells them what they should and shouldn’t be. They are left alone to live as people have for millions of years, and they are better off then we are. We have no one else to blame but our media and ourselves for these fake fad diets and foolishness

Bibliography

www.healthcanada.ca

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