| Several years ago at a nutrition conference, I took a | | | | when our lives feel out of balance, our relationship with |
| test designed by researchers at the Rudd Center for | | | | food also becomes unbalanced. Eating is comforting, at |
| Food Policy at Yale that consisted of quickly circling a | | | | least in the short term. Over time, however, overeating |
| series of characteristics which may or may not | | | | as a coping mechanism never works, and becomes |
| describe an overweight person. Here we were, a | | | | just another stress-producing part of life. |
| roomful of dietitians whose professional lives are | | | | Our deep connection with food and eating is brilliantly |
| dedicated to helping those who struggle with weight | | | | exploited in advertising, with large portions of |
| and eating, and when the results came in, we were | | | | Haagen-Dazs and other snack foods offered up as a |
| shown to be rife with our own weight bias. The | | | | salve for what ails us. Studies have shown that food in |
| speaker shared that her experience with health | | | | advertising is also presented as means to relieve |
| professionals across the country suggested that all of | | | | loneliness, replace relationships, reward ourselves, and |
| us "down to a person" carry deep bias against people | | | | manage stress. At the same time the media suggests |
| of size. We are a nation terrified of gaining weight and | | | | we keep the medicinal chocolate cake handy, it also |
| intolerant of those who do. Social stigmatization of | | | | peddles images of beauty that are impossibly thin. |
| overweight people is at an all-time high. All the while | | | | What can we do to escape the cycle of eating and |
| we grow larger by the day. | | | | intolerance? |
| This mass aversion to weight appears to be based | | | | - We can relax. By occasionally unplugging from the |
| less in science than fashion. Body weight, scientists are | | | | constant-contact, always available, 24/7 culture, we |
| finding, does not predict health as well as healthy | | | | can begin to unwind. By slowing down we just say no |
| lifestyles and physical fitness do. More Americans are | | | | to the media-driven messages of disordered eating |
| fit and fat, and thinness does not guarantee good | | | | and unhealthy body image. As we do that, a quiet |
| health. | | | | whisper of truth can finally be heard, and more natural |
| Obesity is being blamed for everything from higher gas | | | | ways of being can emerge. |
| prices to global warming. The latest round of zealous | | | | - We can learn to feel our emotions fully - without |
| investigation of the costs of obesity is an article in the | | | | pacifying or burying how we feel with food or |
| current issue of The Engineering Economist, which | | | | shopping. Just taking a brief walk can be a great way |
| calculates how much more gasoline is used by | | | | to manage stress, to think, to breath, and to elucidate |
| overweight Americans. The findings are in the same | | | | and integrate how you feel about something. |
| vein as an article by the Centers for Disease Control | | | | - We can try this simple process when we feel the |
| and Prevention last year, that calculated how much | | | | red flag of intolerance toward ourselves or others: |
| more fuel airlines use now that the American waistline | | | | Slow down. Breathe. Relax. Watch. Allow. |
| has expanded. | | | | - We can practice compassionate self-observation |
| "People are out scouring the landscape for things that | | | | without judgment. What are the parts of your body |
| make obese people look bad," noted Kelly Brownell, | | | | that you feel are most beautiful? Can you let those |
| director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy at Yale in | | | | good feeling expand to your whole body? |
| a recent New York Times article. Is that a bad thing? | | | | - We can try less. Try less of anything we approach |
| Opinions are decidedly mixed. Some educators feel | | | | with a consuming mindset, be it food, busyness, money, |
| that anything that can be done to motivate people to | | | | or exercise. Don't believe the lie that you have to do |
| eat less and exercise more should be done, including | | | | everything or be perfect. |
| social ridicule. | | | | Each of these simple (though no easy) practices |
| Does this public flogging work? Research suggests | | | | cultivates conscious renunciation of the crazy culture |
| that for weight issues, it does not. | | | | we live in. They are a simple (but not easy) means of |
| Unlike other public health issues - smoking, substance | | | | taking control of your own life experience. |
| abuse, peer pressure around obesity seems to make | | | | We all need to live in the world. And our world is a |
| the problem worse. Several recent studies reported in | | | | bountiful place where anything is possible. Fashion, the |
| Obesity Research suggest that the stigma of | | | | media, and all the gizmos of modern life can be fun |
| overweight and its emotional fallout leads those who | | | | tools for creating a productive and meaningful |
| struggle with weight and eating to eat more, not less. | | | | existence. There is nothing inherently evil about our |
| Why might this be so? For smoking, drinking and other | | | | culture except that parts of it are designed to make us |
| unhealthy habits, abstinence is a viable and sometimes | | | | feel horrible about ourselves as a strategy to keep us |
| preferable choice. But we need to eat to live, so with | | | | shopping and eating. |
| food abstinence is not an option. To eat consciously | | | | The obesity epidemic is a global health crisis. And it |
| we must learn to be moderate. And moderation is not | | | | may be that our growing waistlines contribute to global |
| a widely observed American trait. | | | | warming, high gas prices and other societal ills. Let's |
| Eating is a sensual experience, with its emotional roots | | | | forgive the researchers who spent their time, talent, |
| deep in our earliest memories. From our first nursing at | | | | and our money to make these calculations. And let's |
| our mothers breast (or from the bottle offered by | | | | not calculate how much they contributed to global |
| dad), eating is what humans do when we come | | | | warming through their stigmatizing efforts. Research |
| together, be it family dinner or special celebrations. | | | | suggests that they have only made the obesity |
| Food is not only the fuel that enables our survival; it | | | | epidemic worse. |
| represents connection, comfort, even love. No wonder, | | | | |