Dr. Val FarmerDr.Val | |||
Rural Mental Health & Family Relationships | |||
Dieting Is Not The Answer To Weight LossJanuary 29, 1996 Chronic dieters, here is a weight control plan you probably won't like, but it makes sense. I. Change your lifestyle and eating habits first and your weight may or may not go down. 2. Eat when hungry. Eat moderately. Pay attention to body signals and stop when full. 3. Choose the foods you like. There are no bad or good foods. Eat balanced meals. Use restraint with high fat foods. 4. Be active and exercise regularly. 5. Manage the stress in your life and watch stress related eating. 6. Don't diet. Diets are anything but healthy. 7. If your body size is bigger than the norm, keep your weight stable and try not to gain additional weight. Avoid yo-yo dieting. Monitor for cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose. Accept yourself as you are and enjoy life without guilt or self-reproach for not having the ideal body size being pushed by advertisers and culture. The author of this really seditious program is Frances Berg, a licensed nutritionist and family wellness specialist. She is the founder, editor and publisher of the Healthy Weight Journal and author of a recent award winning book, "Health Risks of Weight Loss." Diet facts. Consider these facts Berg has pulled together about the frequency of dieting.
Psychological effects of dieting. Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., author of "Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness," states, "The tyranny of the ideal image makes almost all of us feel inferior. We are taught to hate our bodies and thus learn to hate ourselves. This self-hatred takes an enormous toll in feelings of inferiority, anxiety, insecurity and depression." In her book, "Health Risks of Weight Loss," Berg documents a psychological syndrome that goes with chronic dieting: lack of concentration, lack of ambition, irritability, moodiness, apathy, depression, ineffectiveness in daily living and an increased focus on self. Studies on starvation show an increase in self-isolation, antisocial behavior and self-absorption. Berg believes that self-starvation in the quest for thinness make people less generous and less inclined to volunteer. The higher status conferred on people with thin bodies helps create an atmosphere where people concentrate on themselves - their own good, appearance and personal development - to the exclusion of neighborliness and human kindness. The health risks of dieting. Health professionals are now questioning the wisdom of weight loss in overweight individuals because of its harmful effects. The Michigan Health Council Task Force to Establish Weight Loss Guidelines cites these negative effects of weight loss.
In her Healthy Weight Journal, Berg exposes the health risks of nutritionally deficient diets, very low calorie diets, vitamin injections, food supplements, herbal tea diets, fad diets and diet pill abuse and the general ineffectiveness of dieting overall. These are misguided strategies used in our obsession with thinness. The $30 to $50 billion dollar weight loss industry wants people to think otherwise - to keep on chasing the holy grail of thinness. That dollar amount doesn't include the clothing industry, cosmetic firms, tobacco companies or media and advertising businesses, all highly involved in promoting thinness. Berg's sobering message goes against the grain of our cherished and culturally programmed view of what we should look like. It is hard to give up our dream of being thin and accept ourselves as we are. I told you you wouldn't like it. |
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