In Britain, people are dying to be thin -- literally -- and one company is pulling in a profit of about $30 million because of it, according to this article from the Daily Mail.

A popular diet program in the UK, called LighterLife, is wildly successful these days, but it's costing some people their health -- and their lives. The program advocates an extreme calorie deficiency -- participants consume shakes that give them a total daily caloric intake of only 500 calories, and they end up losing weight at an alarming rate. LighterLife claims it's all perfectly fine because the body doesn't need those excess calories, adding that this type of starvation has been used healthfully for over 30 years. Yeah, right.

But now, some people are speaking out about the side effects of this diet. One former participant claims her vision is now permanently blurred and she suffers from ongoing memory loss; another, a dentist, says the lack of calories ruined his wife's teeth; another claims it led her to become anorexic. Other side effects include hair loss, menstrual disruptions and constipation. And if that's not frightening enough for you, consider this: One 25-year-old participant died from heart troubles believed to have been caused by the diet. Click here for some more horror stories.

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One of the problems I struggle with is eating too much and too often. I have a busy, active lifestyle and it sometimes seems like I'm hungry all the time. I like food but when I'm embedded in a big project, I'd like to be able to turn off my hunger -- eating is more of a chore than an indulgence.

So I think for most of us, warding off hunger would do wonders for our figures. But how do we do this? This WebMD article suggests choosing foods based on their energy density. Foods with low energy densities can be consumed at will. These include fruits, veggies and soup broths. Foods with high energy densities have more calories but will keep you full longer--these include meats and cheeses. And foods with the highest energy density are those things that are bad for you--chocolate, chips and so on--but paradoxically, the highest density foods will probably give a sugar rush and crash, leaving you looking for more food within a few hours.

What's your secret for warding off hunger?

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I don't think there would be an obesity epidemic in this country, or in the world for that matter, if we all had the ability to control our own hunger. Sure, there would still be cravings and high-fat foods to deal with, but if we just weren't hungry -- think of all the weight we would lose!

It's not as simple as just learning a new trick, but in some ways it kinda is. It's really about learning what your body needs and how it reacts, and then being consistent with your eating habits. Eating before you end up ravenous, and incorporating protein and fiber into every meal. Other "tricks" include eating several small meals all throughout the day, and limiting simple sugars.

I can do all of these things without much trouble, for spurts at at time. What I struggle with is the part about being consistent!

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More and more older women are being diagnosed everyday with eating disorders -- it's not just a teenager's issue anymore. It's not clear why so many women in the their 30s, 40s, and 50s are now showing symptoms of anorexia and bulimia, but some experts think it may not necessarily be an increase in eating disorders so much as increased awareness and more accurate diagnosing of eating disorders. They say also say that in most cases the older patients previously had some kind of eating disturbance (when they were a younger, more typical age), suggesting there was an underlying problem the whole time that just finally came to the surface due to midlife stresses.

There is some good news, however: experts are reporting increased success with new team-based treatment approaches -- as long as family and friends are on board for support.

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