The American culture is obssessed with diet and weight loss: 80% of women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance and 89% want to lose weight. The United States spend more than $50 billion on diet products each year.

According to the nation's leading and largest inpatient treatment center for women and girls with anorexia and bulimia --Remuda Ranch Programs for Eating Disorders-- 50% of women are on a diet and 10% of dieters progress to partial or full eating disorders. How can we determine when a diet has gone too far?

Juliet Zuercher, registered dietitian and the director of nutrition services at Remuda Ranch, stated:

"A diet has gone too far when the restrictive calorie level or limited foods on the diet lead to episodes of binge eating; a diet has gone too far when a person purges calories by self-induced vomiting.

If these binging and purging behaviors increase to multiple times per week, for three months or more, that's considered a full-blown eating disorder.'

Even lesser combinations of the following symptoms can mean an eating disorder:

• If dieters experience weight loss and think a little is good, but a lot would be better


• When weight reaches below 85 percent of what is normal for their body, and they are obsessed with their body image and exercise


• if women, they miss three menstrual cycles in a row, that's a clear warning sign that an eating disorder is present.

Juliet Zuercher adds:

"The key is not to diet. Instead, listen to your body, eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. We don't believe in putting labels on food. All food is fine when you keep in mind balance, moderation and variety."

Well I've never dieted in my whole life and I've never been obssessed with losing weight. I am still comfortable with my size so I have no personal input on diet and weight loss : only that moderation and balance (though a little hard to religiously follow) had always been my mantra on the subject matter.

And I guess it is not the American culture alone that is diet obssessed!

Find more details from the full report.