Forget anorexia or bulimia. If you really want to be thin, try popping your life away with diet pills.

You can eat whatever you want. You don't have to exercise, and you can be as thin as you want. All you need is a small little pill to melt the pounds away with a little bonus energy.

Yeah, OK (insert sarcasm here). In reality, things don't work this way.

People complain about being overweight or not being able to lose weight, all while shoveling in a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

I am so sick and tired of people thinking one pill is the answer to their weight woes.

What happened to the old-fashioned method of weight loss -- a healthy diet and exercise?

This is not a new phenomenon. Diet pills have been on the market for years.

According to Diet Information at diet-i.com, diet pills have been around since the '50s and '60s, but were made out of amphetamine-like substances.

For those of you who are not familiar with drug lingo, amphetamines are commonly called speed.

Over-the-counter pills, such as Dexatrim and Metobolife, offer weight loss with a little extra pep as well. That extra pep is the result of stimulants similar to that of speed.

To me, buying these drugs is the same as buying drugs on the street corner. They have the same effects, but the only difference is the quantity and strength of the drug.

These diet pills are basically over-the-counter speed.

The diet pill market hit a new low with the introduction of prescription diet drugs like Fen-phen and Redux in the mid-90s.

Not only did these drugs lower body weight, but they also destroyed heart valves (as an added bonus.)

So is all this really worth risking your life, all in the pursuit to be thin? In this case, thinner does not mean better, or healthier for that matter.

To me, diet pills are nothing but the devil. These pills do far more harm than good.

So we must ask ourselves the question, why are we dying to be thin? Has our society become so shallow that we would risk our lives to be skinny?

I am so tired of hearing people (most of the time well-proportioned people) say they took three or four diet pills at one time.

I'm not sure if they are trying to miraculously melt off 15 pounds in one day, or if they are trying to put themselves in cardiac arrest.

Just a few days ago, one of my friends, a very slender friend I might add, commented on how she took four diet pills that morning because she had a long day ahead of her. Afterward, she had trouble sleeping for two days.

However, I am not trying to make light of these problems.

The risks of these pills are extremely dangerous. Not only can they cause long-term heart damage, but they carry the risk of heart attacks as well.

Deaths have even been caused by the so-called "safe" over-the-counter diet pills.

No matter how safe the manufacturer calls their product, these diet pills are not nearly as harmless and reliable as a good old-fashioned hour of exercise.

So push the cheese fries away and become reacquainted with the treadmill.

Jennifer Watson is a senior journalism and history double major from Shreveport and serves as senior news editor for The Tech Talk.