Dieting declines…really?

I was a little dismayed to discover that, while I’ve come to accept that I have to live on a diet to ensure I don’t become a fatty four eyes, that the rest of the continent is ditching the whole dieting concept.

Regular readers here will know that I’m always gaining or losing 5 pounds. I’d like to call it an occupational hazard but weight gain wasn’t a problem for me 10 years ago and I had the same job then. No, I fear age is the culprit in my case. The old bod doesn’t burn off the bacon as fast as it used to.

I’m at the fringe of the aging curve. In fact, I was born about three years too late to even qualify as a baby boomer. The reason this info is important is that it makes the decreased dieting numbers even more puzzling. If I’m fat because I’m old, then why aren’t the older baby boomers in the same boat?

Here’s what the latest facts and figures reveal about how a group of 997 people who were surveyed by NPD feel about reshaping their own figures:

• 1990: 39 % of women and 29% of men surveyed were on a diet.
• 2008: only 26% of women and 16 % of men gave the same response.

This trend is confirmed by the Calorie Control Council (a group of diet companies, I believe) who report that in 2004, 33% of people were dieting while in 2008 the figure fell to 29 %.

Slow Food advocates like Alice Waters believe the change reflects more public interest in cooking and eating wholesome foods. I’m not sure if she’s correct (I’d love to see more people cooking and eating well so I hope she’s right), but the US Department of Agriculture does have research that shows that the more time people spend on food shopping, cooking and kitchen clean up, the more likely they are to be of average weight.

Do you find that you and your family diet more or less than in the past? And, if you are dieting less is it because you’ve given up your goal to be thin in dismay or because you’ve discovered the pleasure of scratch cooking and don’t need to diet anymore?