Over two million cosmetic procedures were performed in the US in 1997, according to the American Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Currently, liposuction is the third most popular form of plastic surgery for baby boomers, after chemical peels and collagen injections.
Sales of diet books, videos, and audio cassettes increased by 50% between 1991 and 1994. The 1991 bestseller The Beauty Myth by media sensation Naomi Wolf apparently did not have a negative impact on the diet and contrived beauty industry.
Annual diet industry revenues have grown from an estimated $100 million in the 1950s to $50 billion in the 1990s.
The diet business industry leader, Weight Watchers International, Inc., estimates $85 million in profits for 1999. Rates of diet failure are over 90%.
Americans are obsessed with losing weight through diets and self-denial, while our corporate culture is seeing to it that pre-packaged fatty foods increasingly replace whole food nutrition. Minority and low income groups are most affected by this nutrition replacement.
(a source: body (i)con, http://nm-server.jrn.columbia.edu)
