This was written by one of my students last semester and I thought it worthy of being published on my blog:

It is widely acknowledged that many people are on a diet nowadays, and as time goes by, the populariy of dieting seems to have a tendency of rising. What causes so many people to go on a diet? It is really an issue that worth discussing.

As far as I can understand, the reasons can be sorted into two kinds: the objective condition and the subjective intention.

Firstly, people’s act of dieting subjects to the fact that the starving rate declines year by year recently. As the production capability goes up, especially the developed countries and some of the developing countries, like China, people’s living standard improves rapidly so that the subsistence problem is no longer people’s main concern. Take China as an example, just before the Reform and Open Policy was carried out, people’s life were centred merely on food. Going on a diet is absolutely out of the problem. The improvement of the living standard takes people out of starving. Therefore, people focus more of their attention on something, like means of development and means of enjoyment, in which a good self-image is a very important aspect.

Besides, people’s motivations drive them to desire to look slim, due to many factors, especially the fierce of the competition in contemporary society, which leads to all the employees want to force a good impression on their employers. What’s more, the prosperity of the industry of entertainment and the influence that the media has on people are both very important causes of people’s desire to look slim.

That’s my analysis about the popularity of dieting.