Utter nonsense from WebMd

Maybe it’s asking too much, but I expect better from a “medical” site like WebMd. Wait, given the mainstream medical profession’s attitudes towards weight, I guess this isn’t so shocking.

I get email updates from them on the category of weight loss/dieting. This “find the perfect diet for you” quiz caught my eye, so I took it. My results? Weight Watchers came up at least three times. However, so did Atkins, Pritikin, What Color is Your Diet? (which I’d never even heard of before), South Beach and The Zone. Okay, so I answered six questions and they came up with FIVE choices. Five radically different choices, too.

Here are some of the suggestions to me:

Because you’re impulsive and don’t like to plan meals in advance, a flexible diet program may work well for you. Avoid diets that tell you exactly what to eat and when. Instead, look for plans that let you choose favorite foods at any time of the day, as long as you keep your calories low enough to lose weight.

Believe it or not, you can diet and still feel full after a meal. In fact, for many people, that’s key to weight loss success. You may enjoy a diet that encourages complex carbohydrates — vegetables and whole grains. You can stir-fry your favorite vegetables in a tomato sauce, Thai paste or with chilis for a hearty low-calorie stew. Or toss them in vegetable stock for a heart-warming soup. Many diets encourage vegetables, including The Pritikin Diet, Weight Watchers and What Color Is Your Diet.

Then there was this wonderful tidbit, in response to the answer I chose for the question on what type of vacation appeals to me (I selected “cruise,” because spas are not for vacation and kayaking isn’t compatible with fibromyalgia).

You enjoy relaxing and being pampered. But you’ll lose weight more easily — and keep it off — if you build exercise into your daily life. Look for a diet that includes support for fitness.

Right, since I want to relax on vacation, that translates into “you obviously hate to exercise and are lazy.” That’s logical.

Okay, so the take away is that any one of five fairly different diet programs is the best diet for me. Great, that’s helpful. Seriously, is this quiz sponsored by the dieting industry?

Wait, I know what the problem is… there are no PERFECT diets. They’re inherently all the same. They’re all, in some way, restrictive ways of eating that encourage disordered eating behavior.

Besides, I’ll be damned if I would ever take dieting advice from a website that also has a video on how you can save moneyon your next cosmetic surgery procedure.

xoxo,
Juliet