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Diet and Exercise: No, Thanks, I’m on a Diet (May 20, 2005, Two)

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Program Summary

Are you a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge? Gain a few, lose a few, gain a lot back. There are a lucky few of us who have never had to go on a diet, but with the obesity rate in America on the rise, more and more people are grabbing at the latest weight loss fads to get it off quickly and easily.

There’s a whole alphabet of diets out there – Atkins, cabbage soup, grapefruit, Scarsdale, South Beach, the Zone – and they all work, at first. If you look closely, however, many of the fad diets restrict important food groups and require taking supplements to replace missing nutrients. They can also lead to food boredom and “cheating” on the diet, and once you go off them, you tend to gain the weight back. Experts say a trendy diet is not a substitute for healthy, balanced meals and regular exercise.

Guests

George Brooks, professor of exercise physiology and metabolism at the University of California in Berkeley, California

Balz Frei, director and endowed chair of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon

Janet King, chair of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee; professor of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California, Davis; professor of nutrition, University of California, Berkeley; senior scientist at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, California

Meir Stampfer, professor of nutrition and epidemiology; chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts

Related Links and Resources

BBC Horizon: The Truth About Vitamins
Food and Nutrition Information Center: Vitamins and Minerals
Harvard School of Public Health: The Nutrition Source: Knowledge for Healthy Eating
Harvard School of Public Health: Vitamins
Linus Pauling Institute: Micronutrient Information Center
National Institutes of Health: Office of Dietary Supplements
NPR Morning Edition, April 18, 2005: Government Unveils Revised Food Pyramid
United States Department of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans
United States Department of Agriculture: MyPyramid.gov

For Discussion:

• Why do we gain weight? What is the basic formula for losing weight? How do diets work?
• What are some of the trendy diets that people try? What is the premise of each one?
• Why can certain diets actually be unhealthy?
• Do fad diets work? Can you stay on them permanently? Why not? What are reasons that people go off diets?
• Should children go on diets?
• What is the best plan for healthy, permanent weight loss?

Activities

Daily Plan-it. HowStuffWorks gives you the lowdown on dieting at "How Dieting Works", from calories to exercise to weight loss myths, and much more. You’ll learn why diets don’t work and how to build a diet for life. Visit the Lots More Information page for links to related topics. Kidshealth.org’s The Deal with Diets discusses dieting as it relates to teenagers, such as why teens feel compelled to lose weight, unhealthy vs. unhealthy dieting, danger signs of eating disorders. Diet-Plan Diagnosis: Is Yours Healthy and Safe? discusses fad diets and their health risks; you’ll find many more diet and exercise articles on the Food & Fitness page. PBS Kids GO! asks students if they’ve ever wanted to go on a diet and why (It's My Life); ask your students if they have had similar feelings and experiences.

Weight, weight, don’t tell me. Weight Training (New York Times Learning Network lesson plan) examines the relationship between diet, exercise, and weight loss with a variety of surveys and experiments in science, math, history, and media studies. Tasty Models, a teaching guide that accompanies PBS Scientific American’s “Losing It,” explains how the molecular structures of various nutrients play a role in weight balance. Students use gumdrops to construct models.

No day at the (South) Beach. Dieting Review lists just about every diet plan you can think of, explains how each one works, and weighs their pros and cons. Have students chose one or two from the list for in-depth research, including how they affect the body chemically. The Dangers of Fad Diets (BPhoenix) discusses specific problems associated with a few of the most popular diets.

Danger zone. Diets can be dangerous, especially for children who try it without a doctor’s supervision. Kids have specific nutritional needs for proper growth and development, and diets often don’t provide enough of them. Learn more about it at Dieting Dangers In Kids from The Carolina Channel. Invite a nutritionist to do a presentation on children’s dietetic needs.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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