Can We Survive on Guilt and Diet Sodas?

"I've done a very bad thing," she says to her husband, pleading for redemption.

This woman has been caught in the act of indulging in food. And the food is bringing her pleasure. Yet that pleasure is inexorably entwined with great guilt. Because anything that tastes good, that is satisfying, is a threat to her waistline. She cries that she must workout seven days a week just to fit in the minivan. Rational arguments from her husband cannot assuage this intense anxiety. She is convinced, beyond a doubt, that she has indeed done a very bad thing.

This isn't a therapy session for an anorexic. It's the latest Diet Dr Pepper commercial, playing nonstop on the radio here in Austin. And the advertisement works because people understand this reaction to food. We laugh because ironically there are no calories in Diet Dr Pepper. Oh, that silly woman, she has nothing to worry about. A diet soda can't hurt her. Sure, if it was cake or ice cream, her fears would be justified. Then she should keep up the extreme exercise or stay hidden in a dark room repenting for her sins. But diet soda? Really, how ridiculous!

If you are a female living in America, the odds are that you have an abnormal relationship with food and weight. In a 2008, over 4,000 women between the ages of 25 and 45 responded to a survey administered by Self magazine and the University of North Carolina. Based on reported behaviors, 75% of the women had disordered eating habits or a full-blown eating disorder. It is no surprise that two-thirds of the women were trying to lose weight and 39% said concerns about food and weight interfered with their happiness. But the extreme methods they employed to meet that goal were disturbing. Approximately 37% of the women regularly skipped meals. More than 31% induced vomiting, used laxatives or took diet pills. And 26% cut out entire food groups, like carbohydrates or dairy, solely to shed pounds.

Though eating disorders are a serious issue, it is the average woman's disordered eating and distorted body image that is truly frightening. It has become so prevalent in our society that the norm is to be unhealthy. We starve, purge, sweat and die in a sick race towards an unreal ideal. But we don't stop there. When we step on the scale and look in the mirror, our twisted thoughts are just as sick as our dangerous actions.

As a society, as individuals, we need to put an end to the masochistic madness. If you want to have a Diet Dr Pepper, go for it. If you'd rather have a slice of cake, get that instead. And if a salad sounds good, then that is what you should eat. Because food is the fuel that sustains us, not guilt. Stomachs and thighs are made of flesh and blood, not magazine ads. Our bodies are alive. We must learn to live with them.