Running head: SEDUCTIVELY MISLEADING

Eat Cake and Lose Weight: Bipolar Food Messaging in Woman’s World and Other

Popular Women’s Magazines

1

Abstract

In this article, we define the concept of ‘bipolar food messaging,’ the

simultaneous occurrence of indulge/restrict eating messages found in mass media. In that

context, we discuss the results of a thematic content analysis of the covers of top selling

Woman’s World magazine, which as we hypothesized almost always features “magic

bullet” or “quick fix” weight loss solutions alongside images of cakes. A second study, of

other popular women’s magazines, showed five out of seven publications (Family Circle,

First for Women, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s World, and Woman’s Day) featured diet

messaging and dessert content while two (Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook) did not.

Results are discussed in terms of theories about body image and indulgent and restrictive

eating.

Keywords: bipolar food messaging, popular women’s magazines, indulgent eating,

restrictive eating, food images

2

Eat Cake and Lose Weight: Bipolar Food Messaging in Woman’s World and Other

Popular Women’s Magazines

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” The words of this proverb capture a

salient truth about the human condition. You cannot habitually indulge in high calorie

foods like cake and still lose weight. Yet in the some popular media outlets, as if defying

the law of thermodynamics, pairing high calorie foods with diet advice, weight loss

products, and thin models is ubiquitous. We suggest a name for this pattern: bipolar food

messaging.

Examples of this phenomenon abound. Paris Hilton wearing a provocative

swimsuit seductively soaps up a Bentley while eating an enormous Carl’s Junior

cheeseburger. At the supermarket checkout, the “indulge/restrict” message displayed on

the covers of popular women’s interest magazines is a constant presence. Inside these

publications ads for Hydroxycut, Medifast, and Sweet ‘N Low compete with ads for M &

M’s and Bagel Bites. On television, viewers of The Biggest Loser are tempted by

commercials for cinnamon buns, while fans of pro-overeating programming such as Man

Verses Food view ads for Slim-Fast, The South Beach Diet, and Jenny Craig. Online

glossy food websites like bonappetite.com feature banners for low cal, high fiber fruit

thins. And Comcast serves up sidebars featuring Dominos pizza, bikini clad models

selling beach vacations, and Jennifer Hudson hawking Weight Watchers, which is owned

by Heinz.

Consumers are bombarded with idealized, impossible to achieve images of the

body (i.e. the thin ideal for women and the muscular ideal for men) that frequently

contribute to poor body image which is a cause of disordered eating, while every other

3

advertisement entices them to consume fast, cheap food. In the United States food

manufacturers spend $11.26 billion annually on advertising (Consumers Union, 2005),

while consumers spend an estimated $40 to $100 billion on weight loss products and

services, which is more than the combined national budget for health, education, and

welfare (Cummings, 2003). As nutritionist Marion Nestle (2002) explains “the

fundamental paradox facing the food industry is the need to sell more food to a

population that needs to eat less.

To boost sales industry cultivates a simultaneous demand for diet products and

junk food creating an unhealthy obsession with food and a situation where Americans are

becoming increasingly fat within what sociologist Sharlene Hesse-Biber refers to as “the

culture of thinness” (Hesse-Biber, 2007). Two-thirds of adults in the United States are

overweight or obese (Ogden, Carrol, McDowell, & Flegal, 2007), while .9 percent of

women and .3 percent of men report having had anorexia, and 1.5 percent of women

and .5 percent of men say they have had bulimia. Binge eating disorder, a condition

characterized by frequent uncontrolled overeating without purging, afflicts 3.5 percent of

women and 2 percent of men at some point in their lives (Hudson et al., 2007).

The bipolar food messaging contributes to yo-yo dieting or weight cycling, a

termed coined by Kelly Brownell (1986) to describe the frequent weight fluctuations

commonly experienced by chronic dieters. While initially the popular fad diets promoted

in the media can trigger weight loss, the low calorie, unsustainable regimes also cause

hunger, depression, fatigue and stress all of which lead to a lapse in dietary restraint

followed by disinhibition or what Herman and Polivy (1989) call the “What the Hell

effect.”

4

Woman’s World

Our interest in bipolar food messaging started when we noticed the covers of the

popular women’s magazine Woman’s World always seemed to feature luscious images of

cakes alongside “quick fix” weight loss headlines. For example, one cover (September

28, 2009) sandwiches a picture of a large cheesecake accompanied by the headline

“Cheesecake bliss! One simple recipe, four irresistible ways!” between the weight loss

claims: “Lose 7 to 21 pounds the first week!” and “24 hours to a brand-new metabolism!

Burn 500 calories a day — starting today!”

In the current investigation, we systematically analyze the health and nutrition-

related cover messaging in Woman’s World magazine. Our main interest was in

documenting the frequency and nature of the conflicting message: “eat, don’t eat” or

“indulge, restrict” in light of its potential influence on consumers, particularly women

who are subjected to strong sociocultural pressures to resemble the media’s thin beauty

ideal. We wanted to better understand how the messages in Woman’s World and similar

popular publications including Family Circle, First for Women, Good Housekeeping,

Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, and Women’s Day shape women’s attitudes and

behaviors around weight loss, eating, nutrition, and health.

Our analysis is, to our knowledge, the only one of its kind in that it uses expert

analysis by a social psychologist and a dietician to study the social and health messaging

of a popular woman’s magazine in a specific array of details. These details include the

nature of the weight loss messaging (specifically, what we call the “magic bullet”

approach), the juxtaposition with dessert imagery, and a theoretical explanation of the

psychology of this indulge/restrict formula, and the implications for women’s health.

5

The Social Psychology Perspective

Several social psychological theories — social comparison theory, objectification

theory, cultivation theory, uses and gratifications theory, and agenda setting theory —

elucidate the impact that bipolar food messaging has on individuals and society. These

theories can help clarifying how psychological mechanisms interface with the broader

cultural context created by the mediated environment that we live in.

Social comparison theory

According to social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) people have a

fundamental drive for self-evaluation. When objective means of evaluating oneself are

unavailable, individuals tend to compare themselves to similar others. Comparisons can

be upward or downward as well as universalistic (i.e. media images) or “particularistic”

(i.e. known individuals) (Morrison et al., 2004).

Recent research shows that people also compare themselves to dissimilar others

(Martin & Kennedy, 1993) along dimensions including physical appearance and eating

habits (Wheeler & Miyake, 1992). The affective outcomes of the comparison are

influenced by the direction of the comparison (i.e. upward or downward) and by the

characteristics of the target (whether it is universalistic or particularistic).

Women and girls frequently compare themselves with unrealistic, idealistic, thin

images of women that appear in the media. The extent to which females engage in

upward social comparison with the universalistic targets, which set the beauty standards

for society, predicts a decrease in appearance self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, number of

diets undertaken to lose weight, and use of harmful weight control practices (Morrison,

Kalin, & Morrison, 2004). In addition, females who are insecure about their bodies are

6

more likely to buy the beauty and diet products promoted in women’s magazines because

they believe using these products will help them resemble the media ideal.

Objectification theory

Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) posits that women and girls

living in an objectifying culture learn to perceive and define themselves by their external

characteristics (i.e. how they look) rather than internal characteristics (i.e. how they feel)

or competence. Essentially women take an observer’s or third person perspective of their

own bodies, treating their own bodies and individual body parts as if they were objects to

be viewed and evaluated.

Objectification occurs through both visual and verbal framing (Fredrickson and

Roberts, 1997). Essentially mediated images of idealized women and textual framing

stressing looks and focusing on singe body parts socialize women to be aware of the

importance of the thin female ideal and of being evaluated on their physical appearance.

This theory helps explain why women often feel shame and anxiety after viewing

an image of a thin model or reading an article about ways to lose weight or look sexy and

toned. The negative affect my compel women to buy women’s magazines to discover the

beauty and weight loss secrets “revealed” between the covers. Or in a “I’ll never look like

that (the cover model), so I might as well eat that (the cover cake)” mentality, the

negative feelings may result in the consumption of “yummy” food also promoted in these

magazines.

Cultivation theory

Cultivation theory (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994) suggests that

repeated exposure to media content leads readers to begin to accept media portrayals as

7

representations of reality. As Levine and Smolak explain (1996, p. 250), “The constant

repetition of certain forms and themes (values) as well as the constant omission of certain

types of people, actions, and stories, powerfully influences and homogenizes viewer’s

conceptions of social reality.” This cultivation can have an impact even on light viewers,

because the influence on heavy viewers has an impact on the entire culture.

This theory predicts that the bombardment of images of thin women in the media

creates a sense that extreme thinness is the norm in real life (Harrison, 2003). While only

5-10 % of American women are naturally thin, the remaining 90-95% are vulnerable to

the message that they are abnormal and need to improve themselves by dieting,

exercising, and losing weight (Seid, 1994).

To help women comply, magazines are filled with formulas and fad diets to attain

the desired physique. However, media content pertaining to nutrition and weight loss is

frequently erroneous and cultivates the belief that weight loss is quick, simple, and easy

and can be achieved by anyone who consumes the prescribed foods and diet products. In

addition, the pairing of cakes with diet claims unconsciously primes the reader into

believing that with this regime she can lose weight and eat cake.

The reality is that 85% of the variance in weight is genetic (de Castro, 1993).

Dieting is ineffective, counterproductive and not the answer to solving the obesity crisis.

It increases chronic stress and cortisol production both of which are known to cause

weight gain (Tomiyama et al., 2007). In the long run one to two thirds of dieters regain

more weight than they lost (Mann et al., 2007). The diet industry relies on this failure to

make its profits.

Uses and gratifications theory

8

Uses and gratifications theory takes into account individual agency in the

selection of media and looks at the motives for media use and the needs that media use

satisfies. Women’s magazines provide a social function, helping women fit in with

society and creating a shared culture. They also have a cognitive function, providing

information and discussing relevant issues and events (Payne et al., 1988). Consumers

also find women’s magazines entertaining and read them as a reward and a ritual (Ytre-

Arne, 2011).

Women also read these publications not only to obtain information about how to

resemble the media’s beauty ideal, but also as a source of inspiration and motivation to be

thin. For example, the March 15th, 2010 cover of Women’s World proclaims “Sick of

Being Fat? Drop up to 40 lbs a month” and then includes before and after pictures of

Allison who “speeded off 70 lbs.” Inside readers learn about Allison and author, Tosca

Reno “a worn-out mom” who “discovered a diet that changed her life.”

Uses and gratification theory suggests that while the frequency and content of

mass media images and messages are powerful, this influence is mediated by women’s

and feelings about their own body image (Hesse-Biber, 2006). For example, Davis (2000)

in research examining culture as a mitigating factor in adolescents’ media uses and

gratifications, found that while white readers were interested in beauty products and

images featured in teen magazines, black readers were largely uninterested because the

white beauty ideal portrayed conflicts with African-American standards of attractiveness.

Agenda setting theory

According to agenda-setting theory (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), media influences

audiences through their choice of what and how strongly to feature stories. Women’s

9

magazines tell their audience what to think about and reinforce the values and agenda set

by the editorial staff. As Thoman (1999) notes, media messages in women’s magazines

and elsewhere, are “constructed” using a creative language with its own rules. The

writers and editors determine and create the values and points of view expressed in texts.

The agendas they set are almost always motivated by profit.

Farkas (2008), in an analysis of three women’s wellness magazines (Shape,

Fitness, and Self), concluded that these magazines define wellness for women, but the

definitions limit women’s power and exploit female insecurity. These magazines also

present information out of context and define a woman’s success in terms of her ability to

remain youthful and slender.

The purpose of women’s magazines is not just to attract and satisfy readers, but

also to deliver a specific audience to advertisers. Media producers attract a particular

demographic and persuade their audience to buy the advertisers’ products (Bartholow,

Dill, Anderson, & Lindsay, 2003). For example, a women’s magazine might target

middle-aged women and try to sell them weight loss or anti-aging products.

While magazines are a major cultural influence for American women (Danowski,

2008) magazine covers, which are carefully designed by editors, are particularly

influential because exposure is almost impossible to avoid, even by individuals who do

not want to read them. As Johnson and Prijatel (2000) state:

The cover is the most important editorial and design page in a magazine. The cover,

as the magazine’s face, creates that all-important first impression. It also provides

both continuity through format recognition and change through intriguing cover

lines from issue to issue. Editors, art directors, publishers, and circulation directors

10

spend hours trying to select the perfect cover for each issue—one that sells out at

newsstands and creates a media buzz. (p. 240)

A content analysis of a year’s worth of covers from popular women’s magazines

(Danowski, 2008) found that the most common subjects covered included food/cooking

followed by weight loss, medical, celebrity/entertainment, and fitness/mental health.

Danowski (2008), an expert on eating disorders, remarked on food/cooking articles next

to weight loss headlines, saying, “It seems as if these women’s magazines are trying to

attract those who enjoy eating sweets but also want to lose weight. While this may appear

to be a valid marketing technique, the implications of the contrasting messages cannot be

overlooked.” (p. 121)

Study 1

Woman’s World

In Study 1, we analyze the covers and related interior copy of Woman’s World

magazine. We chose Woman’s World because of the blatant use of bipolar food message

and because of its high circulation and thus its ability to reach more women than its

competition. Recently Woman’s World outsold People, which had been number one for

years, as the top selling newsstand magazine for the first half of 2010 (MediaIDEAS.net,

2011; Crain’s New York Business, 2010).

While magazine sales have seen declining (MediaIDEAS.net, 2011), Woman’s

World is consistently among the best-selling women’s publication in the United States,

with a weekly circulation of 1,366,748 and yearly circulation of over 71 million (Bauer

Media Group, 2010). While for most magazines newsstand revenues are a small

percentage of sales, 92% of Woman’s World magazines are sold at newsstands. This

11

statistic indicates that Woman’s World, which at $1.79 per a copy is relatively

inexpensive, is an impulse purchase, making the cover copy a particularly vital selling

tool for the publisher.

According to the publisher’s mission statement, “Woman's World is written for

the traditional, family-oriented working woman. Their reader is a “devoted Wal-Mart

shopper,” with an average yearly family income of $52, 822 (Bauer Media Group, 2010).

Woman’s World’s audience is 95% female, with the median age of readers being 49.3.

This demographic (female, age 40-59) has the highest prevalence of obesity in America

with a rate of 38.2%. (Flegal, Carrol, Ogden, Lester, & Curtin 2010). It therefore follows

that a high percentage of Woman’s World’s audience is overweight or obese and

simultaneously interested in weight loss and high calorie desserts. According to the

publisher, 27% of Woman’s World readers are dieting for weight loss (Bauer Media

Group, 2010). The actual percentage is probably higher given that at any time, 47 percent

of U.S. adults are dieting (Tomiyama et al. 2010).

We designed our content analysis of Woman’s World covers and related interior

text to address health issues, particularly weight loss, eating, and related concerns. Our

hypotheses were: 1) The majority of major headlines will fall in the diet/weight loss

category. 2) The majority of covers will feature both a dessert and a weight loss feature

headline. 3) The majority of covers will include an image of a cake or a version of cake

(e.g., cupcakes). 4) The majority of health-related headlines will use a “magic bullet”

approach to solving complex problems. 5) In the majority of issues, the calorie count for

the featured meal presented in the interior (a.k.a. the “centerfold meal”) will exceed the

calorie count for the entire day on the featured diet.

12

Method

Materials. We requested and purchased, direct from the publisher, two issues of

Woman’s World magazine per month for the period of one year. Most were the second

and fourth issue of the month. If either of those issues was unavailable, the publisher

substituted the next available issue. This resulted in a total of 24 issues dating from

September 14, 2009 to August 23, 2010.

Following the lead of previous studies that analyzed women’s magazine covers

(Danowski, 2008), we chose 24 issues across one year in order to be able to generalize to

the magazine’s current cover nutrition and health messaging formula. This date range

covered the period in which the magazine replaced People as the top selling newsstand

weekly in the United States.

Design and procedure.

Preliminary analysis. To familiarize ourselves with the magazine layout and

typical headline topics, we examined several issues of Woman’s World outside of our

content analysis sample. We noted that the cover format includes a headline in the largest

print, on the right side of the magazine over the cover model. We call this the major

headline. Additionally, there are headlines that run along the left and the right margins of

the cover. In addition to reading the cover copy, we planned on reading the corresponding

articles inside the magazine for our analysis.

Magazine headline categories. We began with the 17 categories Danowski

(2008) used to analyze top selling women’s magazine covers and modified them to

expand the health related categories and to fit the headlines we’d seen in our preliminary

work. Our final list contained 19 categories. The non-health categories were:

13

food/cooking, relationships (including parenting), beauty/fashion, home, finances/career,

travel, holiday, fiction and other/miscellaneous. The health categories were: general

health, weight loss/diet, exercise, medical condition, stress/tension, happiness/positive

mood, cognitive (e.g., memory problems), fatigue/sleep, and anti-aging.

Coding. Two coders, the authors, read and rated each of the 24 magazine covers

and the corresponding interior articles. The authors designed the study and the coding

scheme together after examining and discussing several issues of the magazine not used

in the study proper. The coders first practiced on issues of Woman’s World not used in

the study and compared responses to make sure their ratings were calibrated.

We first coded the major headline and the left and right columns of headlines by

category. Each of these headlines was also coded as to whether it fit the definition of

magic bullet. A magic bullet is a simple remedy to a complex problem (such as a pill,

drug or therapy) especially a cure for a disease. Magic bullets may involve ingesting a

substance or using a simple ‘trick’ to cure a complex problem” (Macmillan, 2010).

Suggesting, as the covers of Women’s World do, that chocolate cures depression, eating

pie prevents breast cancer, or drinking blueberry juice will result in a 30 pound weight

loss exemplify the magic bullet approach to health concerns.

The coders each performed a simple count for the presence or absence of cake

images (including cupcakes, cheesecakes, and all varieties of cake) and other non-cake

foods on each cover. The first author, a registered dietitian, rated the adequacy of the

diets featured on the magazine covers and interior copy. Diets were analyzed based on

calories, types of food suggested, and instructions for implementing the diets. Non-diet

recipes regularly featured inside the magazine, referred to as the centerfold meal, were

14

also analyzed for calories and nutritional content and then compared to the meals

suggested in the diet plans.

Text analysis. In addition to categorizing the headlines and rating them as magic

bullets, the entire text of the covers of all 24 magazines was submitted to a text analysis.

The text analysis software used for this investigation is called Textalyser and is available

at http://textalyser.net/. Textalyser computes word and syllable counts and performs a

number of operations such as a complexity and readability factor. For our purposes, we

were most interested in the single word counts and phrase counts. Textalyzer also ranks

words and phrases and calculates their frequency.

Results

Reliability. We calculated Cohen’s Kappa as a measure of inter-rater reliability

for both the category and the magic bullet headline ratings. The Kappa statistic is a

measure of agreement that has the advantage of correcting for chance agreement.

Cohen’s for the major headlines was 1.0. Cohen’s ’s for the other headlines ranged

from .804 to 1.0. For the magic bullet ratings, Cohen’s for the major headlines was 1.0.

Cohen’s ’s for the other headlines ranged from .814 to 1.0. Cohen’s for the variables

presence of cake and number of pounds, inches and time for weight loss claims were all

1.0.

Resolving discrepancies. Given sufficient reliability of the individual ratings, the

coders then met and resolved any discrepancies. This process involved looking at each

headline where a discrepancy existed, reading the interior text corresponding to the

headline again, and discussing how the headline fit the variable in question and coming to

a consensus. A similar procedure was used to resolve discrepancies involving whether or

15

not a headline fit the definition for magic bullet. The analyses that follow are based on

the data after all discrepancies were resolved.

Major Results

Losing weight by magic bullet. There were a total of 215 headlines and 24 major

headlines. Major headlines consist of the headline itself in the largest type, followed by

phrases that give more detail. For example: “OPRAH’S diet discovery! Anti-aging

miracle plan! Lose 6 lbs and 10” in one week! Add 6 years to your life! Triple your

energy!” We treated the headline and its ancillary comments holistically. As stated

earlier, we also read the article related to the headline to make the most informed rating

and classifications possible. Results showed that for major headlines, 23/24 (95.83%)

were in the category WT (weight loss). Thus, H1, the majority of major headlines would

be in the WT category, was confirmed.

In fact, the one single cover that did not feature a weight loss/diet major headline

was from a Christmas issue whose major headline was “Oprah’s favorite cupcakes.” This

issue still had a diet headline, just removed from the major headline location. The diet

headline on the Oprah’s Favorite Cupcakes issue was, “Negative calorie foods that beat

holiday fat! Plus, crash off 4lbs in 3 days.” Since this headline is a magic bullet approach

to dieting, 100% of the covers featured a caloric dessert plus a magic bullet solution to

weight loss.

We also note that the text of each major headline is printed over a single cover

model, usually a non-celebrity who is white, young, attractive, and thin. We theorize

these images of the media’s beauty ideal elicit upward social comparison which triggers

negative body image in potential consumers who then buy the magazines to learn how

16

they can resemble the ideal. Celebrities, most often Oprah (America’s most famous

chronic dieter) or Dr. Oz (a cardiothoracic surgeon who became famous for his regular

appearances on Oprah) also appear on a number of covers.

Having one’s cake. Of the 24 covers, 23/24 (95.83%) included an image of a

cake. The single cover that did not contain a cake image pictured 7 chocolate-dipped

cookies and 3 candy bars. Therefore, 100% of the covers featured desserts, and these

were always paired with diets. H2, the majority of covers would feature a weight loss

headline and an image of a cake, was confirmed. H3, the majority of covers would

include a cake image, was also confirmed.

Category/magic bullet analysis. Further analysis revealed that the most common

cover categories, in order, were: weight loss/diet (16.3% of all headlines/95.83% of major

headlines), food/cooking (12.1%), and happiness/mood (10.7%). For the magic bullet

classifications, 33/34 (97.1%) of the weight loss headlines 0/26 (0%) of the food/cooking

headlines, and 20/23 (87%) of the mood/happiness headlines were magic bullets.

Finances/career (7.3%) and beauty (6.9%) were the next most common headline

categories. Of the health headlines, the next most common were medical conditions

(8.8%), fatigue/sleep (7.4%), and stress/tension (6%). Ratios of headlines that were magic

bullets were 18/19 (94.73%) for medical condition, 14/16 (87.5%) for fatigue/sleep, and

12/13 (92.71%) for stress/tension headlines. These data confirm H4, the majority of the

health-related headlines use the magic bullet approach to solving problems.

Dietitian’s analysis. There were 11 issues that featured centerfold meals. In every

issue (100%), the calories for the centerfold meal exceeded the calories for the entire

day’s recommendations on the diet, confirming H5. The diet calories ranged from 1000

17

to 1500 calories per day and averaged 1311, while the single centerfold meal calories

ranged from 1178 to 2006 and averaged 1614.

The centerfold meals were also high in sodium and added sugar and low in whole

grains and fiber. For example, the centerfold meal for February 22, 2010 contained 1938

calories, 113 grams fat (53 percent of the meal’s calories), 55 grams of saturated fat (26

percent of the meal’s calories) and 1,646 milligrams of sodium. As a point of

comparison, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2010), recommends that individuals

consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat (about 25 grams per day on a

typical 2200 calorie diet), a total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, and less

than 2,300 milligrams of sodium.

Analysis of the interior diet revealed that the diets lack sufficient detail,

information, calories, and variety to follow long-term. The diet meals generally consist of

3 choices each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks, which could quickly lead to

boredom. While there are a few exceptions, the diet meals generally include only a list of

ingredients but no recipes. In addition, the portion sizes of the pictures accompanying the

diets appear to be much larger then the actual portions prescribed by the diets. Also the

diets do not take into account differences in age, gender, or activity level all of which

determine how many calories an individual needs for healthy weight loss.

Text analysis. Textalyser reported a word count for the 24 covers of 1990 words.

In Table 1, we list the top 10 most commonly used cover words and their frequencies.

Next, we categorized the most common words by theme including synonyms (ex. fatigue

and tiredness) and forms of the same word (ex. you and your). Before placing a word in a

particular category, each instance of the word’s use was checked to make sure it was used

18

in a context that made sense for the category in question. For instance, in the “cure”

category, we included the words “end” and “beat.” Every use of the words end (Ex. “End

tiredness right now!”) and beat (Ex. “Beat the new belly fat epidemic!) was in the context

of curing a condition.

Table 1 also lists the most commonly used themes, along with their individual

word and total category frequencies. The most common words included you(r), pounds,

get, lose and tricks. The most common themes included: you, weight, cure, feelings and

tricks. In terms of the frequency of phrases, this list included many that did not make

sense on their own (ex. tricks that). However, the most common phrases that made sense

on their own were: this week, belly fat, and fat burning.

“Is this for real?” The exaggeratory, even comical, nature of the headline claims

should also be noted. In addition to the fact that headlines and images present the

conundrum between indulgence and restriction, they do so in a particular manner that is

hard to swallow (pun intended). Anecdotally, in a meeting in which graduate students in

psychology were examining the magazine covers analyzed in this study, one student

spontaneously shouted, “Is this for real?” Others genuinely questioned whether the

magazine was indeed legitimate, or whether it was a joke.

This may be more understandable when one reads some of the actual magic bullet

headlines. The following are real headlines from our sample: “Control hunger with

chocolate.” “Beat tension with stress-reducing lasagna.” “Pizza keeps your teeth bright

and cavity free.” “Reverse skin aging by having a beer!”

Some less comical headlines simply made exaggerated claims: “Sick of being

FAT? Drop up to 40 lbs a month with 4 simple, supercharged metabolism tricks.”

19

“Natural ‘diet pill’ breaks down belly fat! Lose 8 lbs and-a full size-by next week!”

“Chinese diet tea! Proven to dramatically shrink your BMI! Lose 32lbs and 6 inches of

belly fat-without giving up your favorite foods!”

Discussion

Indulge/Restrict and magic bullet approaches undermine weight loss.

Ironically, if the quick fixes to life’s complex problems existed, Woman’s World would

quickly eliminate its own raison d’etre! As one reader states (Patsy, 2008):

I haven't tried the diets, since there is one a week, they obviously don't really work

or we'd all be thin and won't need another diet. Kind of a joke with the checker at

the grocery store. (p. 24)

The publisher probably doesn’t want the tricks to work because most

advertisements in Woman’s World are for products (from sleep remedies and weight loss

pills to over the counter pain medications and digestive aids) that address the same health

concerns as the magic bullets.

The magic bullet approach and indulge/restrict formula so prevalent in Woman’s

World, and similar publications, undermines weight loss for several reasons. First, the

magic bullet approach can negate the hard work required to lose weight. Misleading diets

can produce set effects (Anderson, 2010). The idea that weight loss can be accomplished

with a magic bullet is strengthened, and the information and knowledge needed to lose

weight and keep it off is impeded. As weight loss expert George Blackburn (2002) notes:

“By promoting unrealistic expectations and false hopes, they [fad diets] doom current

weight loss efforts to failure, and make future attempts less likely to succeed” (p. v).

20

Since losing a pound requires a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, it is virtually

impossible to lose the large amounts of weight (on average 9 pounds per week) promised

on the covers of Woman’s World. Losing 9 pounds in a week requires a deficit of 31,500

calories or 4,500 calories per day! The only way to achieve such dangerous weight loss is

through excessive exercise and fasting.

The tactics encouraged in Woman’s World are diametrically opposed to the

position of the American Dietetic Association (2009) which states: “Successful weight

management to improve overall health for adults requires a lifelong commitment to

healthful lifestyle behaviors emphasizing sustainable and enjoyable eating practices and

daily physical activity” (p. 330). One half to two pounds per week is generally regarded

as the best approach for weight loss (National Institutes of Health, 2008).

Moreover, while cake recipes include specific, complete directions; the detailed

guidelines, instructions, and support needed for long-term weight loss success are absent

from the magazine text. Key behavioral elements necessary for long-term weight loss

success such as social support, self-monitoring, self-efficacy, barriers to change,

motivational readiness, weight maintenance, and relapse prevention are generally not

addressed.

The effortless diet solutions in Woman’s World fuel what Policy and Herman

(2000) call false hope syndrome. According to false hope syndrome, self-change is often

seen as unrealistically easy to achieve in an unreasonably short time. In our society diet

success is viewed not just as a means to personal goals, but also as an increase in self-

control, ambition, and general achievement in life. This symbolism is founded on the idea

that individuals control their behavior, which in turn controls weight. Body weight is seen

21

as malleable, and people tend to overestimate the amount of control they have over their

size. Failure at weight loss occurs because expectations (how much will be lost, how long

it will take, and how easy it will be) are over inflated. When these unrealistic,

unreasonable expectations are not met, people feel frustrated, and hopeless and give up

the diet (Polivy & Herman, 2000).

Furthermore, dieters tend to set extremely high goals — losing 32% of their body

weight (approximately 64 pounds for a 200 pound individual). According to research by

Polivy and Herman (2000) smaller, yet substantial goal of 35 pounds was viewed by 47%

of dieters as very disappointing. This all-or-nothing mentality or dichotomous thinking,

which may be triggered by upward social comparison and self-discrepancy (comparing

oneself to internalized standards), has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of

weight regain.

While the cycle of failure and renewed effort characterized by unrealistic

expectations is experienced by both genders, because women face more societal pressure

to be thin and are more concerned with diet and nutrition then men (American Dietetic

Association, 2008), they are more likely to experience false hope syndrome as applied to

weight loss efforts.

Finally, food cues (i.e. pictures of luscious cakes) activate the goal of consuming

high calorie foods and disinhibit the goal of weight loss. Research by former FDA

Commissioner David Kessler (2009) suggests that millions of people have what he calls

“conditioned hypereating” a drive to consume high-fat, high sugar foods (i.e. cake) in the

absence of hunger. Corwin and Grigson (2009) argue that some foods particularly those

22

rich in fat and/or sugar (i.e. cake) are not addictive, but become so following the

restriction/binge patterns of consumption that fad diets perpetuate.

Several lines of research (Fedoroff, Polivy, & Herman, 2003) have demonstrated

that exposure to food cues, including mediated visual images, increases eating especially

in chronic dieters. It is theorized that these individuals are driven not by hunger but rather

by a hedonic orientation toward food. According to the goal conflict model of eating

(Stroebe, Papies, & Aarts, 2008), chronic dieters find it difficult to resist palatable food

because there is a conflict between two incompatible objectives: eating enjoyment and

weight control. The model holds that food cues prime the goal of eating enjoyment and

inhibit the goal of weight loss.

There are significantly different responses to food cues in lean verses overweight

individuals in the fed state. People with higher BMIs seem to exhibit heightened

responses to both food cues and to the anticipation of a food reward as measured by self-

reports (Castellanos et al, 2009) and neuroimaging (Small, Bender &Veldhuizen, 2007).

However, there appears to be a decreased brain response after the ingestion of palatable

food in people with the genetic TaqIA AI variant, which is associated with diminished

dopamine 2 receptor density, higher body mass, and food reinforcement (Felsted, Ren,

Chouinard-Decorte & Small, 2008).

Themes and Messages

Text analysis results revealed that the three most common themes on the covers of

Woman’s World were you, weight, and cure. The five most commonly used words were:

your, lbs, get, lose, and tricks. These words and themes represent the Woman’s World

approach to health: suggest magic bullets or tricks that supposedly make health-related

23

problems vanish with almost no effort. For example, the April 12, 2010 issue features a

laughing Oprah with a headline with red letters about an inch tall that says, “Love Carbs?

Lose 7 lbs a week eating Oprah’s diet bread!” Nearby, another headline boasts, “Enjoy

perfect health! Prevent 5 deadly diseases-just by taking your pulse!” Nearby, an image

shows a “cake” formed of wrapped candy bars and reads, “Make happy memories! No-

cook! Candy birthday ‘cake’!”

What message does this send to women? To say it is a mixed message about

health would seem an understatement. These covers present two diametrically opposed

food messages. As the aphorism goes: “have your cake and eat it too.” Artist Elizabeth

Patch parodied this approach to women’s magazine covers in a spoof magazine she

dubbed Lady Land. See Figure 1. A parody like this is enjoyable because it pokes fun at

the ridiculous elements of a magazine like Woman’s World. Specifically, it mocks the

cake-plus-fad diet formula. But it extends importantly to another facet of women’s health

that is so important and so lacking in Woman’s World’s approach, namely, the

psychological facets of health. This includes having a sense of perspective and

approaching one’s health with sanity, a sense of humor and even kindness towards

oneself rather than setting impossible goals and prescribing magic bullets to meet those

goals.

Health and well being come from finding wisdom and true self worth and

choosing to listen to one’s body, not attention grabbing headlines that only divert women

from the path of true healing. The danger of the Woman’s World “magic bullet” approach

is that it encourages women to ignore what their bodies and minds are constantly telling

them and instead look for quick fixes that don’t work.

24

Study 2

Method

Based on the results of our first study, we designed a second study focusing on the

covers of popular women’s interest magazines. We wanted to investigate the general

incidence rates of diet and dessert messaging and the simultaneous presence of

diet/weight loss headlines and pictures of desserts on the covers of these magazines.

We chose to compare Woman’s World with sister publication, First for Women

and the top selling women’s interest magazines (Audit Bureau of Circulations, 2010) —

Family Circle (circulation 3,841,651), Good Housekeeping (circulation 4,418,398),

Ladies Home Journal (circulation 3,837,286), Redbook (circulation 2,232,476), and

Woman’s Day (circulation 3,895,814). We selected the latter five magazines because of

their popularity and because they were also analyzed by Danowski (2008) and belong to

the Seven Sisters, a group of magazines that target the same audience as Woman’s World,

married women with children who are homemakers.

First for Women was selected because it is a top selling magazine and comes from

the same publisher as Woman’s World. Furthermore, while we noted that magazine sales

have decreased during the time period, First for Women was one of only three of the top

selling magazines whose newsstand sales revenues rose during that period (Fitzgerald,

2011).

Twelve issues of each magazine (five top magazines plus the Bauer publications

Woman’s World and First for Women) were analyzed. Both researchers analyzed the 12

issues of each of the seven magazines that were displayed on the website magazines.com

during the first week of March, 2011. Four dichotomous variables were analyzed:

25

presence of food pictures, presence of dessert images, presence of diet messaging, and

presence of magic bullet diet messaging.

Results

Reliability and resolving discrepancies. We calculated Cohen’s Kappa as a

measure of inter-rater reliability for each of the variables. Cohen’s for dessert presence

was .976 and for non-dessert food was .970. Cohen’s ’s for presence of diet messaging

was .951 and magic bullet approach was .951. We resolved all discrepancies following

the same procedure used for Study 1.

Cover content by magazine. Table 1 summarizes data for covers of all seven

magazines by content variables. The data shows the percentage of covers that included:

dessert images, diet images, both a diet message and a dessert photo, and both a magic

bullet diet message and a dessert photo. Presence of dessert photos ranged from 0 to

100% with 6 of the 7 magazines having a non-zero percentage and with a median rate of

33%. Diet messaging ranged from 25% to 100% of covers, with a median rate of 42%.

The diet plus dessert combination and the diet plus magic bullet approach showed a clear

concentration in two magazines, Woman’s World and First for Women, which both used

these two combinations on 100% of the 24 covers in question. In addition, First for

Women showed a variation from Woman’s World on the use of food imagery in that First

for Women showed images of dessert and non-dessert food on 100% of the covers

analyzed. Woman’s World only included the combination of dessert image, non-dessert

food image and diet message on 1 of the 12 covers (8%).

Inferential tests. A MANOVA was conducted using Magazine as the

independent variable and two food-related variables (dessert images and diet messaging)

26

as the dependent variables. A significant effect of Magazine on presence of dessert

images was found, F(6,84)=22.49, p<.001, η2=.637. Pairwise comparisons indicated a

number of differences between magazines on the variable dessert images. These are

reported in Table 2.

Woman’s World and First For Women were significantly more likely than the rest

of the magazines to use dessert images. Furthermore, Family Circle and Woman’s Day

were more likely than Good Housekeeping, Redbook and Ladies Home Journal to use

dessert images on their covers. Significance levels are reported in Table 2. For the

variable Diet Messaging, there was also a significant effect of Magazine, F(6,84)=6.22,

p<.001, η2=.327. Pairwise comparisons revealed that again, Woman’s World and First for

Women were significantly more likely to use diet messaging than the other magazines.

Redbook used diet messaging 58% of the time, which was greater (at a marginally

significant level, p=.057) than Woman’s Day, which at 25% used diet messaging 33%

less often than Redbook.

In terms of the percentage of magazine covers that used either the formula “diet

plus dessert” or “magic bullet plus dessert”, a MANOVA testing these variables showed

significant differences between Magazines on both the diet plus dessert (F(6,84)=22.71,

p<.001, η2=.639) and magic bullet plus dessert (F(6,84)=37.39, p<.001, η2=.744)

variables. Pairwise comparisons indicated that First for Women and Woman’s World

were significantly more likely than the other 5 magazines to use both combinations.

Because both these magazines used both combinations 100% of the time, they did not

differ from each other on these variables. Additional details are reported in Table 2.

Discussion

27

Study 2 demonstrated that there is a range of frequency that 7 common magazines

use dessert imagery and diet messaging on their covers. While dessert imagery was at a

median frequency of 33% of covers, diet messaging was at a median frequency of 50% of

covers.

There was clarity in terms of the magazines that use the diet plus dessert and

magic bullet plus dessert formulas on their covers. Two magazines, Woman’s World and

First for Women, used these both formulas 100% of the time. The next closest magazine

was Woman’s Day, which used the diet plus dessert formula on 17% of their covers. Both

of these magazines are published by Bauer, who uses this approach to encourage impulse

buying at the grocery store checkout.

Bloomberg (2009) notes that “all of Bauer’s magazines sell an unusually high

percentage of magazines that way [at the newsstand].” This formula has proven

successful for Bauer, with Woman’s World surpassing sales of long-time number one

selling People magazine during the period of this investigation. And herein lies one of the

central messages of this paper, that those sales are garnered by dangling quick fix weight

loss tricks and pictures of cake in front of women who have just finished their grocery

shopping. Bauer has figured out the formula for top sales: women’s diet and food

fantasies and our vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

People living in industrialized countries spend most of their waking hours

consuming media that is powerful and effects individuals and society in profound ways

often producing unintended, negative consequences. Most people deny or are unaware of

the impact the media has on them. They are pawns vulnerable to corporations hungry for

28

profit. As Beth Mansfield spokeswoman for CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr. and

Hardee’s explains, "The bottom line is we're in the business of making money, and we

make money off of what we sell. If we wanted to listen to the food police and sell nuts

and berries and tofu burgers, we wouldn't make any money and we'd be out of business."

(Berrnstein, 2011)

We have argued that bipolar food media messaging displayed so flagrantly in

magazines like Women’s World contributes to an American way of eating characterized

by indulgence and obesity on the one hand and dieting and disordered eating on the other.

Promoting quick fix weight loss solutions that don’t work along side high calorie foods is

unethical and ultimately undermines the boring, sensible approach to weight loss and

healthy eating championed by nutritionists and authors like Michael Pollan (2008, p. 1):

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Following Pollan’s advice, if the average American (who consumes 50 gallons of

soda and other sweetened beverages annually) simply stopped drinking soda (which is

not a food), he or she would lose 25 pounds in a year. Not exactly 30 pounds in 30 days,

but substantial and sustainable weight loss none the less.

According to cognitive scientist George Lakoff, people think in terms of frames,

which are largely unconscious conceptual mental structures or shortcuts that shape how

we think about and make sense of the world. For example, thinness is associated with

beauty, health success and control (i.e. “You can never be too rich or too thin.”). In

contrast, while fatness used to denote abundance (i.e. “Live off the fat of the land.”),

fatness is now viewed as ugly, unhealthy, and even immoral.

29

The danger of the indulge/restrict media messaging is that it frames the issue of

food and body weight in a way that evokes a predictable, yet detrimental response that

impacts individual behavior, socio cultural consciousness, and public policy.

The indulge frame which seduces with messages like “you deserve a break today”

(McDonald’s), “Hungry? Grab a Snickers,” or “Have a Coke and a smile” gives us

permission and encourages us to eat with abondon. The restrict frame with its success

stories, before and after photos, and outrageous promises reinforces the belief that

personal victory is the answer to the obesity problem.

Historically obesity has been blamed on the individual and therefore framed as a

problem caused by failure of “personal responsibility.” However, recently many public

health experts advocate a shift in culpability that focuses instead on the “toxic

environment,” which promotes over-consumption of calorie-dense, nutrient poor foods

and sedentary behavior (Schwartz & Brownell, 2011). They favor measures such as

broad-scale reformulation of the food supply, taxation on junk food and soda, and tighter

regulation of food advertisements particularly to children.

While our research points out how prevalent bipolar food messaging is in certain

women’s magazines and theorizes about its destructive nature, more research is needed to

understand the specific impact these messages have on eating behavior and body image.

There is a need for quantitative research that studies the unconscious impact of these

messages as well as qualitative work that explores the question of how people interpret

these messages. Do they believe these diets work? Are they disturbed by the juxtaposition

of cake with diet information? Have they taken any advice from the magazines and if so

what have been the consequences. In addition, research is needed to around framing and

30

persuasion to develop effective communication tools and strategies that turn people away

from manipulative indulge/restrict messaging and turn them towards healthy eating and

body appreciation at every size.

Figure 1. Artist Elizabeth Patch parodied the “have your cake and eat it too” approach

used on the covers of Woman’s World magazine.

31

32

Table 1

Most Common Words and Themes on Woman’s World Magazine Covers

Top Single Words Word CountYour 86Lbs 30Get 19Lose 19Tricks 19Stress 17You 16New 16Energy 16Week 15

Top Themes Words Included in Theme (with single word counts) InstancesYou You (16), your (86) 102Weight Lbs (30), lose (19), fat (15), diet (12), slim (9), weight (8) 93Cure* Cure (13), cures (12), beat (10), breakthrough (10), prevent

(9), end (7)61

Feelings Fun (14), easy (13), feel (11), happier (9), love (7), pain (7) 61Time Week (15), day (14), winter (9), holiday (11) 49Tricks Tricks (19), secrets (12), secret (6) 37Fatigue Energy (16), fatigue (8), tiredness (6) 30Get Get (19) 19Stress Stress (17) 17Cake Cupcake (9), cheesecake (3), cake (3) 15Make Make (19) 15Easy Easy (13) 13Natural Natural (12) 12Research Research (11) 11

*All terms used in the context of curing a condition.

Theme list includes all word counts over 10 instances.

33

Table 2

Percentage of Seven Popular Women’s Magazines Featuring Diet and Dessert Content on Their Covers, Study 2.

Diet + Diet +Magazine Desserts Diet Dessert Magic Bullet Family Circle 33% a,e 42% b 8%a 0% a

First for Women 100% b 100% a,d,f 100% b 100% b

Good Housekeeping 8% a,d 33% b 8% a 0% a

Ladies’ Home Journal 0% a,d 50% c 0% a 0% a

Redbook 8% a,d,f 58% e,g 0% a 0% a

Woman’s Day 42% a,c 25% b,h 17% a 8% a

Woman’s World 100% b 100% a,d,f 100% b 100% b

Note. Magazines with different superscript letters in the same variable column differ from each other on the variable in question at the following levels of significance:a,b p< .001 c,d p< .01 e,f p< .05g,h p< .06 (marginal significance)

34

References

AdAge (2009, May 25). Magazine, newspaper readers aging at accelerated rate.

Retreived March 15, 2011 from http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/magazine-

newspaper-readers-aging-accelerated-rate/136843/

American Dietetic Association (October 25, 2008). Nutrition and you: Trends 2008.

Retrieved January 8, 2011 from eatright.org.

American Dietetic Association (2009). Position of the American Dietetic Assocation:

Weight Management. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 109,

330- 346.

Aubrey, J.S., (2010). Looking good versus feeling good: An investigation of media

frames of health advice and their effects on women’s body-related self-

perceptions. Sex Roles. 63, 50-63.

Bartholow, B. D., Dill, K. E., Anderson, K. B., & Lindsay, J. J. (2003). The Proliferation

of Media Violence and Its Economic Underpinnings Media violence and children:

A complete guide for parents and professionals. (pp. 1-18). Westport, CT, US:

Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.

Blackburn, George. 2002. “Introduction.” Weight-Loss Advertising: An Analysis of

Current Trends. Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved January

17, 2011 from http://www.dietscam.org/reports/ftc/2002.pdf

Blair-West, G.W. (2007). Tantalus, restraint theory, ant the low-sacrifice diet: The art of

reverse abstraction. MedGenMed 9, 18.

Bauer Media Group (2010, June). Woman’s World Media Kit. Retrieved January 17,

2011 from http://www.bauerpublishing.com/WW/WW_mk/WW-MKit.pdf.

35

Bauer Publishing (2010). First for Women media kit. Retrieved March 15, 2011 from

http://www.bauerpublishing.com/FFW/FFW_mk/FFW_mk.html

Brown, J. D. (2002). Mass media influences on sexuality. Journal of Sex Research, 39,

42-45.

Carpenter, L. M. (1998). From girls into women: Scripts for sexuality and romance in

Seventeen magazine, 1974-1994. Journal of Sex Research, 35, 158-168.

Castellanos, E. H., Charboneau, E., Dietrich, M. S., Park, S., Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., &

Cowan, R. L. (2009). Obese adults have visual attention bias for food cue images:

evidence for altered reward system function. International Journal of

Obesity, 33(9), 1063-1073. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2009.138

Corwin RL, & Grigson PS. (2009). Symposium overview--Food addiction: fact or

fiction? The Journal of Nutrition. 139(3), 617-9.

Crain’s New York Business. (2010, June 9). Newsstand battle: Woman’s World may

trump People. Retreived March 15, 2011 from

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100609/FREE/100609818

Cummings, L. (2003) The diet business: Banking on Failure. BBC News World Edition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2725943.stm

Danowski, D. (2008). Cover to cover: contemporary issues in popular women’s

magazines. In Margaret C. Wiley (Ed.), Women, Wellness, and the Media.

(pp. 107-124). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Farkas, C. (2008). Well or weak? The construction of knowledge, agency, and

competence in women’s wellness magazines. In Margaret C. Wiley (Ed.),

36

Women, Wellness, and the Media. (pp. 125-148). Newcastle, UK:

Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Fedoroff, I. C., Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (1997). The effect of pre-exposure to food

cues on the eating behavior of restrained and unrestrained eaters. Appetite,

28, 33- 47.

Fedoroff, I. C., Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (2003). The specificity of restrained versus

unrestrained eaters' response to food cues: General desire to eat, or craving

for the cued food? Appetite, 41, 7-13.

Felsted, JA, Ren X, Chouinard-Decorte, F. & Small, D.M. (2010) Genetically determined

differences in brain response to a primary food reward. J Neuroscie. 30(7),

2428- 32.

Fitzgerald, T. (2011, February 8). The big newsstand losers: Celeb titles. Retrieved

March 15, 2011 from

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Magazines_22/The-big-

newsstand-losers-Celeb-titles-.asp

Flegal, K.M., Carroll, M. D., Ogden, C. L., Curtin, L.R. (2010) Prevalence and trends in

obesity among US adults, 1999-2008. JAMA.  303, 235-241.

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., & Morgan, M. (2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation

processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in

theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 43-67). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Harrison, K., & Cantor, J. (1997). The relationship between media consumption and

eating disorders. Journal of Communication, 47, 40-67.

37

Hudson JI, Hiripi E, Pope HG, Kessler RC. The Prevalence and Correlates

of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey

Replication. Biological Psychiatry 2007; 61:348-358.

Kessler, D. (2009). The end of overeating: Taking control of the insatiable American

appetite. New York: Rodale.

Maes M, Christophe A, Delanghe J, et al. Lowered omega3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in

serum phospholipids and cholesteryl esters of depressed patients.

Psychiatry Res 1999;85:275-91.

Mann, T., Tomiyama, A.J., Westling, E., Lew, A., Samuels, B., & Chatman, J. (2007).

Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the

answer. American Psychologist, 62, 220-233.

Markula, Prikko (2001). Beyond the perfect body: Women’s body image distortion in

fitness magazine discourse. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 25, no. 2.

Macmillin Dictionary (2010). Oxford: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Retrived January 17,

2011 from

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/magic- bullet .

MediaIDEAS.net (2011, February 10). All magazines see declines in single copy sales.

Retrieved March 15, 2011 from http://blog.mediaideas.net/2011/02/10/all-

magazines-see-declines-in-single-copy-sales/

National Institutes of Health (2008). Choosing a safe and successful weight-loss program.

Retrieved January 17, 2011 from:

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/choosing.htm#responsible.

38

Patsy (January 6, 2008). Customer reviews for Woman’s World. Message posted to

Magazines.com, p. 24. Retrieved January June 21, 2010 from

http://www.magazines.com/product/womans- world?

afd_number=3823&reviews_page=24&gclid=CMrM0tHJ0KcCFRN-

5QodB1nXCQ#info http://www.magazines.com/product/womans-

world?reviews_page=23#info.

Payne, G. A., & et al. (1988). Uses and Gratifications Motives as Indicators of Magazine

Readership. Journalism Quarterly, 65(4), 909.

Polivy, J. & Herman, C.P., (2000). The false-hope syndrome: Unfulfilled expectations of

self-change. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 9:128.

Stice, E., Sppor, S. Bohon, C., Veldhulzen, M.G., & Small, D.M. (2008). Relation of

reward from food intake and anticipated food intake to obesity: A

functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of Abnormal

Psychology. 117, pp. 924-935.

Sutherland, M., & Galloway, J. (1981). The role of advertising: persuasion or agenda

setting? Journal of Advertising Research, 21(5), 25-29.

Stroebe, W., Papies, E. K. and Aarts, H. (2008), From Homeostatic to Hedonic Theories

of Eating: Self-Regulatory Failure in Food-Rich Environments. Applied

Psychology, 57: 172–193. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00360.x

Tanskanen A, Hibbeln JR, Hintikka J, et al. Fish consumption, depression, and suicidality

in a general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58:512-513.

Thoman, E. (1999). Skills and strategies for media education. Education Leadership 56.

No 5.

39

Thomsen, S. R., Weber, M. M., & Brown, L. B. (2002). The relationship between reading

beauty and fashion magazines and the use of pathogenic dieting methods

among adolescent females. Adolescence, 37, 1-18.

Tomiyama, A.J., Mann, T., Vinas, D., Hunger, J., DeJager, J., & Taylor, S.E. (2010).

Low calorie dieting increases cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 357-

364.

Turner, L., Hamilton, H., Jacobs, M., Angood, L.M., & Dwyer, D.H. (1997)

The influence of fashion magazines on the body image satisfaction of college

women: An exploratory analysis. Adolescence, Vol. 32, 1997.

Ytre-Arne, B. (2011). Women’s magazines and their readers: The relationship between

testual features and practices of reading. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

14, 213.

40