"Alli" my ass.

I've been holding off throwing this entry at you since I've only just gotten back to the entry making. You know, kinda ease in to things. However, since E Hollywood News is on the television and they're talking aaaall about the topic I wrote on yesterday... I give it to you.

All the diet pill commercials are starting to push me over the edge. I’ve been hoping they’d slow as we got away from the New Year and all the resolutions faded away but instead the onslaught is only growing worse. Perhaps it's Valentine's Day or the Academy Awards or Anna Nicole Smith or a combination, but aside from hearing them talk about paternity tests all the media seems to want to discuss are diet aids.

Now to make matters worse, the FDA has actually approved one of those TV-doctor-recommended dietetics as an over-the-counter medication. I mean… I don’t know. Yes, I realize that eating disorders come in many different forms and that obesity is as much a problem as bulimia or anorexia. I don't know the exact statistics, but my guess is that only a tiny percentage of Americans actually land in the ‘healthy’ category. It's also true that even with a strict diet and high exercise regimen many people have a hard time losing weight or maintaining a healthy one.

With that in mind, perhaps a prescription medication could be helpful for those who are morbidly obese and running out of options. The thing is, diet pills are like caffeine or Tylenol in this country – taken when not needed and abused by those who have no reason to take them in the first place. (Okay, that metaphor derailed. Give me a break.)

CNN said they’re “intended for persons over the age of eighteen” but is that really gonna stop adolescents? Age limits certainly don't do much for cigarettes, porn, or alcohol. For another thing, it could just be that I look old, but I was never asked to show ID when purchasing diet pills at, or under, age. Even if drug stores were extremely careful about who they allowed to purchase the medication, teens have plenty of other ways to get ahold of them. For many girls I've known with bulimia and ED-NOS, their mothers purchased diet pills and pushed them on their daughters they felt were overweight. Who on earth could think an age limit would work?

Aside from the under eighteen crowd, I’d also like to point out that adolescents are not statistically the demographic with the highest instance of eating disorders. That’d be the college students, the majority of whom are older than eighteen, out on their own for the first time, starting to get jobs and credit cards and cash. (Crystal told me the exact percentage is 24-26% of all college women, and that statistic only reflects those who have reported their disorders.) We’re also the crowd with the strongest pressures to be skinny and gorgeous, the crowd at whom magazines, movies, commercials and ads aim their spiels.

FDA, come to your senses. You realize there’s a problem in this country with eating disorders. Does approving a diet pill for over the counter acquisition seem at all logical toward stemming the ever-increasing numbers?

There are better ways to fix the obesity problem than throwing pills at us. Please, DO NOT just make it easier for us to get ahold of diet pills and more ways to lose weight. IF YOU MUST KEEP THE PILLS, AT LEAST KEEP THEM PRESCRIPTION.