Kent W. Bullis, medical director of Ball State’s student health center, says that the number of students who try fad dieting to get into shape doubles between Christmas and Spring Break. For many students fad dieting means eventual failure as sacrificing dietary staples becomes too hard or too expensive for students unwilling to make a permanent lifestyle change.

One restriction for student dieters is budget. For Phomsavanh, grocery bills skyrocketed as she substituted additional meat and vegetables for rice. For students like Lynne McNutt, a Ball State senior, low-carb dieting meant the end of sandwiches and pasta.

While dropping breads and grains from a healthy diet goes against most commonly held ideas about good nutrition, the introduction of the Atkins diet had nutritionists debating convention. Atkins is a company started by the late Robert Atkins, a dietician who introduced the world to the first commonly-accepted low-carb diet plan. The company has released a line of low-carb breads, pastas and cereals to help dieters deal with cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods without breaking their diets. For many students, however, low-carb products are budget-breakers. A 16-ounce box of dried pasta from the Atkins Web site is $5.99 plus $7.95 in shipping. A similar box from Wal-Mart, with nearly four times the carbs, sells for less than $1 on sale.

Recent marketing campaigns by major brewing companies focused towards a young crowd of dieters have just perpetuated the idea that dieting doesn’t mean sacrifice. Michelob has been extremely successful marketing its low-carb Michelob Ultra to the young, in-shape dieter with the claim that it’s not necessary to sacrifice beer for a toned physique. Rolling Rock has followed suit with Rolling Rock Green Light and Diageo has begun a campaign to market its Smirnoff Vodka as no-carb.

Students are responding to these campaigns well. Scott Wise, founder of Scotty’s Brewhouse in the Village said sales of Michelob Ultra are very high, and he has introduced a new “Body by Scotty’s” section of the menu to keep up with the demands of the low-carb crowd.

Bullis, however, says he worries about anyone who wants to lose weight but can’t give up the college party lifestyle. He said that if students aren’t ready to make a real change in the way they eat and socialize, they aren’t ready to take on the potential health risks associated with an unproven diet like Atkins.

“I could put 50 doctors in this room and no two of them would agree completely on Atkins,” Bullis said. “I know I’ve seen people before who went on a fad diet 20 years ago and their metabolism has never been the same since. It’s a lot to wager for one spring break.”

In the end, the fear of beer, bar food and balancing carbs, forces many dieters like Phomsavanh off of the diet. She has already begun a search for the next diet trend.

“I heard about this one where you don’t eat anything but cabbage,” Phomsavanh said with a grin. “Or maybe not.”