A Pretty Penny

Just like every other marketing campaign, diet corporations have capitalized on the “sex sells” idea to get their products purchased. Nearly every diet advertisement contains a scantily clad woman or rock hard man, while many promise attention from the opposite sex after use of the product.

Men have become a challenging audience to reach. In order to reach men, who do not want to count calories or go to meetings, dieters must use sex and the idea of “manly” foods such as pizza and burgers to lure them in. This has been particularly effective because men do not want to feel as though they are dieting and many are insecure around women.

Because Americans tend to be lazy we are often incapable or irresponsible when it comes to making healthy food choices on our own. Therefore, we enjoy diets that provide us with a supply of food … often at a much higher price than you would pay in a grocery store.

Popular diets such as the Zone diet start at $25 a day for food and LA Weight Loss costs $700 to begin a two month program!

The profits of these diet corporations exceed 3 billion dollars every year. However our country is still facing a whopping problem of 58 million people overweight, 40 million obese and 3 morbidly obese.

As far as diet pills are concerned, the temptation of a $5,000 check is all it takes to get a local clinician to endorse your product. Paid actresses and endorsers fill the majority of the content of in those tempting weight loss commercials and infomercials, according to a recent study conducted by NBC Dateline.

Consumers often assume that because a product is advertised on television there must be someone ensuring it is safe or legitimate . . . think again.

As consumers we must not empty our pockets at the site of a rock hard body or out of a desperate need to lose ten pounds in time for summer.

Think twice before trusting any diet product, particularly those who make miracle claims.