News and advertising on foods, diet and obesity

Abstract

In recent decades a new ideal of beauty has evolved characterised by slim women and muscular men; obesity, which in past centuries was considered healthy and attractive, is now “out of fashion”. The news media devote ample space, especially during spring and summer, to diet and fitness programs, and many diets and devices, without any scientific evidence, are presented as miracle cures. The business of diets and “natural” products generates intensive campaigns developed to promote foods, nutritional programs, and specific tools for losing weight as rapidly and effortlessly as possible. In this context, general practitioners and specialists have a fundamental role to play in correcting the often distorted messages that the general public receives, through educational programs designed to promote a correct understanding of the cardiovascular risks of obesity and healty methods and treatments for losing weight and safely achieving real health objectives.