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In Russia, where the shape of many people has long resembled the favorite national food —the potato-dieting is now the rage.
Slimming concoctions, from Slimfast to Herbalife, have taken the country by storm. Diet classes that teach the basics of healthful eating are jam-packed with the obese. American diet books can be found at subway book stalls. Diet sodas line the windows of nearly every sidewalk kiosk.
Spurred by a recent flood of Western television, advertising and snazzy fashion, women here have come to embrace the old saying that a woman cannot be too rich or too thin.
The dieting craze comes at a time when many Russians are officially impoverished and growing numbers of children suffer from vitamin and other deficiencies.
'In the past, a woman was supposed to be a good worker and a good housekeeper,' said Galina Istomina, who teaches at the Center for Psychological Correction-Harmony diet program, 'Now people have to care how they look. Western influence has had an effect. '
Of course Russian women were never as overweight, as their dreary and doughy 'babushka' image suggested. In fact, on average, they are probably thinner than their American counterparts, whose greater access to healthier food and lifestyles is mitigated by junk food and sedentary ways.
But for a long time, spending too much time on one's looks was definitely bad form, as Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the former Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, discovered when her stylish ness provoked barbs. Now it is considered a capitalist necessity, especially for the growing number of women in the new world of business. 'Before, I worked in a government ministry, and it was not important how you dressed or how you looked,' said Ludmilla Topchi, 31, who recently attended Harmony's weeklong diet class in an effort to lose 10 to 15 pounds (about 5 to 7 kilograms) , 'Now I have my own firm, and I'm meeting every day with people in similar social status. So I want to look better. '
Said Miss Istomina, 'People in Russia are overweight not because they eat too much but because there is such little choice of healthy food. Just macaroni, fried potatoes and salami.'
Indeed, it is not easy to diet here. The local cuisine is heavy with fat: fatty salami is the main protein at all meals; heavy sour cream is slathered onto, and into, everything; mayonnaise is a basic ingredient of many salads; fried potatoes are a staple; fresh fruits and vegetables are pricey and, in many regions, virtually impossible to find out of season. And the season tends to be very brief.
Still, a combination of career necessity, greater awareness about health and growing worries about environmental hazards in food has spurred many women to eat better if they can afford to.
'Women today, even those who have been so shocked by the changes of the last few years, have begun to understand that the main thing is health, feeling good,' said Zoya Krylova, editor in chief of the women's magazine Rabotnitsa.
But there is more to it than that, she said. 'Women realize they have to be in good shape, they have to be a high quality commodity,' the editor said, 'The money-commodity relationship, after all, is well known now. '
Tatyana, one of dozens of women now selling Herbalife in Moscow, said that many of her 'clients' were women who had taken jobs with new private companies headed by Westernized men in their mid-30s. 'These men want to be surrounded by 'young things',' she said, 'So to get a job in a good firm, you better look good.'
She also said that many women had now traveled abroad or had Western contacts and wanted Western lifestyles.
A few years ago that was impossible in Russia because Western clothes and cosmetics were unavailable in state-run stores, which is what all Sov