Archive for March, 2010

WILL “FOOD RULES” HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

I return now to thinking about “food rules” (see January 31, below).  These recent guideline sets, like those offered by Michael Pollan and others, aim to help us eat more healthily.  And, I would add, to relate to food and eating in a healthier, happier way than is often possible in today’s world.

Pollan’s book Food Rules, in particular, contains 64 small bits of wise advice to keep you focused on eating real, unprocessed food and avoiding fads, dubious health claims, and unwholesome habits.   Every single one of these bits makes sense:  from “avoid foods you see advertised on television” to “eat well-grown food from healthy soil” to “eat slowly” to “treat treats like treats”.   I frequently encourage people to choose one or two such guidelines to start with, knowing that this will most likely open the door to further changes and more improved habits in the future.  The process of changing how you relate to food often starts that way.

If you have weight to lose, though, will following these kinds of rules be enough?  Don’t you have to stick with low-calorie, low-fat, or low-carb things to get those pounds off?    Once you’ve lost the weight—isn’t that a better time to think about this other stuff?  I think the answer is, “Not really”.  In fact, changing your thinking and habits in line with these kinds of rules is probably the best insurance you can ever have for getting to and keeping a good weight. (more…)

Tags: food rules
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BUT NOT ALL OVEREATING IS EMOTIONAL….

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Yes, it’s true that I spend hours each week helping people get their weight and eating in check.  However, it’s also true that I find it essential to see such issues as much more than individual problems.   The world we live in tends to place all the responsibility, and the blame, on the individual person who struggles.   That’s not necessarily fair or helpful, nor is it an accurate reflection of reality. 

I thought of all this recently as I reacted to magazine headlines for Geneen Roth’s new book Women, Food and God.  Geneen Roth has been writing about emotional overeating for many years now.  Her new book describes how women substitute food for other hungers—emotional, spiritual.  And what she’s saying is pretty much true.  What I reacted to was the magazine’s bold statements about what overeaters are hungry for:  “It’s Not Food.  In Fact, It’s Everything but Food.”  Because that is pretty much not true.

As many overeaters know, and science now confirms, certain foods do trigger intense appetite for more, and more.  Also, a larger body, more overall fat, and a stretched stomach all add up to more hunger signals reaching the brain.   It is of course extremely important for people to target their emotional overeating and find ways to care for themselves differently.  It’s important to meet those other, non-food, hungers with kindness and caring and the intention to bring into one’s life those things that really matter:  loving relationships, a sense of purpose, time for reflection, etc. (more…)

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EMOTIONAL EATING Part 4: Is This Addiction?

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

  If you eat to soothe or stuff your feelings, does that make you a food addict?

  For years, science said “no”, you can’t really be addicted to food, not as you can with alcohol or cigarettes.  Now, though, it’s become clear that the massive amounts of sugar, salt, and other substances in our foods do trigger our brains to want more and more, and to resist stopping.   With such foods, then, especially in large amounts, there are physical consequences once we start, and then try to stop.  And certainly we can become psychologically dependent on using food to tame emotions. 

  Groups like Overeaters Anonymous and Food Addicts Anonymous define chronic overeating patterns as addictions.  They help people change their behaviors by treating them as addictions, just as if binge foods were like alcohol.  For many reasons, though, these approaches don’t always stop overeating for good.  As people say again and again, “At least with drinking, you can stop completely….you have to keep eating.”  Also, people often do learn to eat “trigger” foods in moderation, even if this is not easy at first. (more…)

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CHANGE ONE SMALL THING….AND LOSE WEIGHT?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

(Watch for Emotional Eating Part 4 next week.)

Eating sanely means losing weight and keeping it off.  This, of course, requires learning to live in a way that maintains healthy weight.   Toward that end, knowing just how hard it is to do,  I sometime encourage changing “one small thing.”  (See the 1/4/10 blog, for example.)  Last Tuesday’s New York Times  took up this issue in an article on the nation’s obesity epidemic.  This overview reminded me once again of both how hard weight loss and maintenance can be, and of how and where the “one small thing” strategy can help.

If you have many pounds to lose, or if you’ve been heavy for a long time, changing one small thing may not lead directly to burned calories or melted pounds.  Cutting a hundred calories here or there may make a difference for some….but for many, such changes only cause the metabolism to slow down and accommodate the new change.  In other words, the body adjusts to the new calorie input and conserves the weight.  This is discouraging to remember, as more drastic dietary cuts increase hunger.  They require much more radical habit change and can feel extremely disconcerting.  As anyone who’s dieted knows, trouble begins soon after drastic changes are introduced.  (more…)

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