We’re all being taken for a ride by the diet industry

This statement is also not necessarily fat logic since much of the diet industry is definitely dubious or sells quack remedies. But on the other hand, and this is where fat logic kicks in, we are deceived into believing that the diet industry is a centralised social power that touts a completely absurd ideal that can only be achieved by special means like diet products, which earn the industry billions.

But first it should be pointed out that about half of all advertising is for food, drink, and stimulants. It is quite obvious that none of those branches of industry profits from people losing weight. Weight loss basically always brings with it a reduction in consumption. Industry wants us to consume its goods, and on those terms, the food and diet industries go hand in hand.

Companies that are trying to flog us snake-oil remedies or promote the latest summer-cabbage-soup-pineapple-low-carb diet are, of course, profit-driven and not particularly interested in our health. But the diet industry does not profit from sensible dieting, i.e., calorie reduction.

In principle, the food and diet industries have the same aim: to persuade us to consume as much food as possible, and to make us believe that food makes you happy and healthy, and that (too much) food is certainly not the reason we get fat. Instead, we can rely on remedies and secret tricks that allow us to carry on gorging ourselves and still lose weight. Don’t consume less, whatever you do; better to consume more, as well as a product to help you lose weight.

The last thing the food and diet industries want is for people to actually lose weight, and then maintain their figure, by eating less food every day. That would mean lower sales for them. The message that you can (literally) ‘have your cake and eat it’, that you can ‘eat as much as you want’ and still have ‘the perfect body’, is an attractive one. No one likes denying themselves things. That’s why promises of ‘better’ and ‘easier’ solutions always find willing believers, even if they come at a cost. And if that dieting product fails to work, Women’s Weekly or Health and Beauty will bring you news of the next pill or powder guaranteed to burn fat while you sleep or prevent your body from digesting more than 2 per cent of the calories you eat, and so give you your dream figure in an instant, with no effort on your part.

In this context, fighting fat logic means recognising the quack products of the diet industry for what they are and instead relying on an individual, sensible, and medically supervised weight-loss process.