If there is a trend in the globe today, it is that people question legitimately whether all financial institutions and instruments have any social value besides ensuring commissions and revenue for those who generate them. And while I understand that there are firms and individuals who are culpable for destroying value and harming clients, I am still clear that there are equally lucrative industries that are based on unverifiable myths. Reading this article a couple of days ago, it occurred to me that the slimming and dieting industry is one that sells products, books and services that do not only have dubious value but occasionally built on unsubstantiated scientific claims.
Speaking of the weight loss "industry", I think that the use of celebrities to endorse products is not in itself objectionable. What I find ridiculous is that people are made to believe that a thirty day special programme would in itself lead to permanent shedding of unwanted weight. It is no surprise that a good proportion of those who successfully shed weight while on the plans do end up accumulating it all over again. In many instances, people take on diets based entirely on perceptions on what ideal weight should be and the preponderance of weight loss regimes suggests that this in itself is an industry that feeds its anxious clients incomplete information. Perhaps all firms in the industry should take pay based on their success rates.
The reasonable response should be public education to ensure that individuals are able to make decisions based on evidence. That aside, there is need to deemphasize the idea that there is an epidemic obesity as I think that intervention by government will affect individual freedoms.
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