Why Fad-Diet Books Fly

Everybody knows, or should know, that fad diets don't work. How often do you have to hear it? Still, diet books continue to find their way onto the best-seller lists with astonishing regularity.

NPR's Morning Edition on Wednesday promised to explain why people continue to fall for fad-diet books even when it is widely known that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is through the hard discipline of exercising and eating less. The report was only partly successful: Its conclusion was, in the words of one diet-book author, "people want magic bullets."

That author was Carol Lay, who wrote The Big Skinny, which stands out in being one of a handful of diet books that tells the truth. It's a graphic novel that, rather than offering some myth about carb-restriction, or eating your bacon after you drink your orange juice, or whatever, tells Lay's tale of successful weight-loss. Judging by the excerpt offered on NPR's Web site, it's funny stuff, though Lay's cartoon form looks oddly skinny as she struggles to shed weight.

Another book that eschews the fads is The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron. It offers sound advice but also extols the benefits of keeping a dieting journal. "When you have a journal and morning pages, you catch yourself as you head into a relapse," she told NPR.

As for the more faddish books, the demand side is just one part of the equation, and NPR wisely looked at the supply side as well. Of course, dieters don't have to fall for fads, but publishers and booksellers are all too willing to help them do so.

"The way they attract customers to the book is by having an interesting title and, you know, offering that promise," Edward Ash-Milby told NPR with a little giggle. Ash-Milby buys diet-fad books for Barnes & Noble. "How could you not want a flat belly?" he asked.