In an unusual departure from protocol, today we are featuring a news release about a fad diet. I found it's information too valuable to omit from this web log. Press release follows:

New Diet Reports Mediocre Results

Wednesday, February 1, 2005 Posted: 7:41 AM EST (1241 GMT)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (DisAssociated Press)

Dr. Leopold Smeglin published today, in the prestigious Journal of Extreme Makeovers, amazing results of his groundbreaking "Low-Fad" Diet which included results from over 1000 failed diet patients. Dr. Smeglin was quoted as saying: "If you can convince someone that a diet can cause them to lose weight - preferably, without any effort on their part - people will try it. That's why I am selling the "Low-Fad" Diet. And making a mint, by the way!"

Dr. Smeglin, an honors graduate from the University of Mogadishu (Somalia), went on to describe the diet. He opined: "People are convinced that a diet has to restrict them from something - anything - before it will work. The Atkins Diet says you cannot have carbohydrates; the Ornish Diet says you cannot have fat. So, we have combined Jack Spratt's diet with his wife's, so to speak. The twist is, with our diet, people can pick what they want to deprive themselves of. It's easy and it makes the diet easier to follow."

According to Dr. Smeglin, people simply eliminate from their daily meals something they generally don't eat anyway - the less you enjoy eating it, the more effective the diet will be - and eat everything else, as much as they like. For example, if you have a dislike broccoli, just continue not eating broccoli. Everything else it allowable. If you hate raw egg yolks, then you must resolve, mentally, to continue to deprive yourself of raw egg yolks. Dr. Smeglin said that "calories, fat content and grams of carbs are not really important. What's important is that dieter's feel like they are giving up something - anything - in order for a diet to work."

He went on to say another other important factor in any successful diet is to let people know that being overweight is really not their fault. "It's important for people to hear the words, over and over, 'it's not your fault, it's not your fault' in any diet plan. They should chant it on the way to work and before they go to sleep. Overweight people, and people in general, find comfort in the feeling that their problems are out of their control. They like to believe that the negative things about their lives and, for that matter, the world as a whole, are out of their control. They need to hear that they, individually, are not responsible for negative things. It just makes people feel better."