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I’ve been dieting, reading about dieting and writing about dieting for 25 years. I’ve done everything from the ice-cream diet to Weight Watchers. Tried Dexatrim, which made me eat faster, and Slim-Fast, which made a great shake with lunch (though didn’t work so well in place of it). I took fen-phen even after it was banned, and once, I massaged a baked potato because I read that doing so breaks up and, hence, negates the calories.
Anyway, I know a thing or two or 20,000 about proper nutrition and exercise — even if, admittedly, I’ve yet to tap the power of that elusive sprite Willpower and harness it for my own good. I know there’s no such thing as a miracle diet. Or one that “targets” belly fat. And I know that even though exercise isn’t required to lose weight, it sure does help.
So I was summarily deleting these silly e-mails, which I thought were coming from the producers of some herbal miracle pill that makes your head ache, your skin crawl and, eventually, your heart explode. But I got the shock of my dieting career when I discovered they were coming from Prevention magazine! Prevention freakin’ magazine!
I’ve been reading Prevention since I was in my 20s. With that previously established good will in mind, I researched the Flat Belly Diet. A quick Google search helped me figure out what it’s all about. And really, there’s nothing new here. Despite a couple of twists to keep you interested, in the end it’s really just a calorie-restrictive diet that will help you lose weight if you stick to it. Just like any calorie-restrictive diet will.
The diet itself isn’t a scam — but the marketing around it sure is. The sensational claims and aggressive e-mail campaign play on the public’s deep desire for a quick fix and expose Prevention’s apparent belief that it can slap a new face onto an old idea and simply exclamation-point its malleable readers into buying — and buying into — it. And it probably can. But at what cost? Googling a little more deeply, I found a whole lot of folks who feel that Prevention sullied its good rep by inundating its readers with these clearly over-the-top claims. No, you can’t sell a magazine by proclaiming month after month, “No New News! Eating Right and Exercising Still the Key to Good Health!” But come on. There has to be a happy medium.
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