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Macronutrient Substitutes and Weight‐reduction Practices of Obese, Dieting, and Eating‐disordered Women
Author(s) -
DREWNOWSKI ADAM
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb51804.x
Subject(s) - dieting , weight loss , disordered eating , reduction (mathematics) , obesity , psychology , eating behavior , medicine , clinical psychology , eating disorders , endocrinology , mathematics , geometry
One in three adult Americans is reported to be obese. Data from the 1989-91 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) place the prevalence of obesity at 33%.' This represents a sharp increase from the 1976-80 NHANES II survey, which found that 24.4% of men and 26.7% of women were obese? Obesity was defined by the 85th percentile cutpoint of BMI values (BMI = wt/ht2) for a reference population in the third decade of life.2 According to some reports, the prevalence of obesity has increased most rapidly among children, teenagers, minorities, and newly immigrant ethnic group^.^.^ Adolescent women, in particular, showed the greatest increase in both energy intakes and body weightsS and appear to be the population at most risk. Dieting to lose weight is a relatively common behavior, particularly among women. Most women, regardless of their body weight, wish to be thinner than they are? However, the precise nature of weight management practices can be difficult to establish, partly because of differing definitions of the word "diet." Survey studies that define dieting as restricting calories for the purpose of losing weight suggest that two out of five adult women are dieting at any one time! Lifetime prevalence of dieting to lose weight is, of course, much higher, and it is estimated that 80 or 90% of the female population have dieted at some point in their Psychologists and social scientists have noted that dieting to lose weight has become a normative behavior among young women, even among those women who are not overweight or The management of body weight is a major societal preoccupation and a multibillion dollar industry. Studies of weight management practices of overweight men and women suggest that reducing the amount of sugar and fat in the diet is the most common option by far.7*10 Most dieters, whether male or female, have at some point used foods containing macronutrient substitutes for weight control. Such foods are likely to contain intense sweeteners, fat replacement products, or both. Though not intended as appetite suppressants, foods containing macronutrient substitutes help to