I love writing a column and on the subject I am so passionate about. Before I was an addiction counselor, registered nurse and hypnotherapist, I was a journalist. I have come full circle. I decided to start right off, with an epidemic.
Who would have imagined that food could become a national concern? Has the war on drugs taken a back seat to the war on cheese puffs?
Surgeon General David Satcher announced in December that "the nation's obesity epidemic has worsened to the point that it may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death." He attributes much of our excess baggage to "junk" food. Annually, 300,000 Americans suffer premature death.
Food is so often used as a reward. How will young mothers ever get their children to behave in the store if they can no longer bribe them with a lollipop? Every holiday has some sort of decadent fattening glob of gooey commercialized substance. What would Easter be without chocolate bunnies?
To find out if you are obese, you can measure your body-mass index. Or, you can add the number of potato chips you ate yesterday, to the number of pancakes you wanted to eat, but didn't have time to make, subtracted by the amount of money you tipped the waiter at dinner, divided by the trips you made to the bathroom during television commercials. Anyone who goes to all the trouble of completing a mathematical equation to determine a weight problem, doesn't have one.
The most effective approach to any health problem is through education. The majority of people lack knowledge of what constitutes a healthy diet. I grew up in Nebraska, we ate meat and potatoes and bread. Fruits and vegetables were available only in the summer. People are more likely to prepare foods that are familiar .. like the old family recipe for fried chicken. Actually anything can be included in a balanced diet with all "questionable" goodies in moderation.
Reports indicate that 60 percent of adults are obese and 13 percent of children, with rates increasing yearly. Parents do not intentionally set out to create health risks for either themselves or their children, weight gain is insidious and misunderstood. Snack foods are easier to get. Fast food places are beginning to offer "healthier" choices and it will be just a matter of time before the masses choose salad and broiled chicken over a double bacon cheeseburger. I had to use hypnosis on myself to change my preference to fruit and vegetables.
I would suggest we begin public service announcements that effectively show the consequences of being overweight, just like we did with cigarettes. It isn't easy to be a smoker now, everyone looks at you like you have the plague. Giving the facts on what fat looks like in an artery might be a good place to start.
The best way to decide if you have need for change is to determine if the food consumption or 'excess' pounds is causing problems. If it causes a problem, it is a problem. Problems can include: High blood pressure, diabetes, limited mobility, heart disease, low self-worth, limiting relationships, and depression. Every two pound increase in weight raises the risk of arthritis by at least nine percent.
I have worked in addiction treatment for over 20 years, treating all areas of substance abuse. Growing numbers of people with excess weight are searching out workable solutions to increase their chances at longevity. It helps to evaluate your eating patterns and then determine the TYPE of food or weight problem specific to you. I don't believe that diets work. If they did, you would only need one.
Here are the more common profiles:
- For some it is the food. An addiction (or allergy) occurs, requiring abstinence from that substance either for life or until control can be maintained.
- Others, grow up with 'unhealthy' messages about food, and consumption, developing bad habits, such as eating so fast, you never really taste food, so you are still feeling hungry. You may have heard at each meal "there are starving people someplace faraway so clean your plate." I no longer have to consume every morsel on my plate, and I have no guilt.
- Many overeaters are "heavy". They carry the woes of the world on their midsection. Everyone else comes first. Treatment, allows them to let go.
The first step in successful weight loss begins with a commitment to health and well-being.
I admit now that I am addicted to fruit smoothies!
(C) copyright 2005 Pamela Harper
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