Many societies believed that simply eating less would make the difference when trying to lose a few pounds. In other cultures, women were fed large amounts of specific foods like fruits and meats for the specific purpose of gaining weight. Methods like drinking nothing but milk before marriage in order to gain weight for fertility (like tribes in Uganda practice) help women to gain weight, but in the United States, famously slender women pose for milk ads proclaiming that the mostly protein content of the drink helps to keep body weight low.

So when different societies do the same thing with opposing intentions and both see evidence to support their beliefs, who is right? Some places eat nothing but fish and rice while others eat fatty pork, oils, and starches like corn. Some societies eat avocados and other fruits with abandon and appear thin and agile, while their societies hold records for high levels of longevity. Others, like France, smoke, eat fatty cheeses, and drink several times per day while achieving the same or very close levels of very low mortality rates. So when many different people make completely contradictory choices while receiving the same benefits, who is right? And is there a “right choice”?

With many different diet fads throughout the centuries but particularly in the last century, picking them apart for commonalities will make one crazy. They are completely contradictory and yet there are many people for each method who will attest to their efficacy and many (often many more) who will attest to the fact that they are flukes.

The ancient and yet newly discovered thought (brought to the forefront of female thinking by such books as “Women, Food and God” by Geneen Roth and predicated by Deepak Chopra’s “Perfect Weight” indicate that our bodies know what’s best and imbibing (or over-imbibing) in substances is a result of emotion and not physical hunger. The argument is made that when listening to one’s instincts, perfect nutrition is achieved and when ignored, eating is one of many routes to drowning out our perfect, human instincts. It is food for thought.