From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.support.diet
Subject: Re: Oprah Show on Food Compulsions
Date: 12 Nov 92 19:57:36 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Nov12.182527.9147@inmet.camb.inmet.com> mazur@inmet.camb.inmet.com (Beth Mazur) writes:

>My only caveat about this show is that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
>Even those of us who are lifetime compulsive overeaters (I am one) eat
>sometimes just because food tastes good and is there.  In other words, not
>every episode of overeating needs to be related to some feeling or
>subconscious action.

I agree.  Not _every_ episode needs to be.  But I do think that if those
episodes come every day, there's an underlying problem and chances are
real good that it's emotional.  I know plenty of thin people who overeat
occasionally.  But they usually undereat at some other point,
unconsciously, and things even out.  When a person overeats continually
and becomes obese, there's a lot more going on than just food enjoyment. 
For that matter, how much does one actually enjoy the taste of, say, a
whole box of cookies?  After the first one or two, what is one tasting?  

>In addition, I happen to believe that there is a physiological component
>to binge eating that is related to blood sugar and insulin levels.  I'm
>not sure how helpful it is for people to be thinking "I'm eating because
>I can't deal with my sexuality" when it could very well be "I'm eating
>because my insulin levels are sky-high and my brain is screaming at me
>to eat."

Yeah, but why do we then _over_eat?  Why don't we just eat a normal
amount, till we're not hungry and those insulin levels have gone back to
normal, and then stop?    

>Me?  I hate to say I'm past that, but five years of therapy didn't appear
>to do much for my overeating (my mother says "it got you ready to give it
>up"--yeah, like over a year and a half afterwards).  But its also possible
>that I just wasn't willing to do the hard work that Roth asks people
>to do.  And that's figuring out what eating is about when you aren't
>hungry.  (Frankly, I'm finding that giving up sugar has helped me, in terms 
>of eating behavior, far more than the therapy did.) 

I had less-extensive therapy, not food-related, that concluded more than a
year ago, and I'm just now ready to start attempting to eat out of hunger
and not for emotional reasons.  Why so long?  Why didn't I start nearly
two years ago, when I entered therapy?  I have no idea.  For whatever
reason, I wasn't ready.  Now I am.  Maybe it just took time for various
changes to come about in my life, largely related to issues that were
dealt with in therapy, in order to get me to this point.  I sure wouldn't
belittle the work that you did during that time; who knows where you'd be
now without it?  

>So anyways, definitely check out Roth's book.  But if anything is true,
>it is that we are all individuals, so Roth's pronouncement that "food
>is love" may or may not be the case.  Sometimes it's just a box of donuts.

For what it's worth, I don't think _anyone_ sits down and eats an entire
box of donuts purely because they taste good.  I just don't see people
without compulsive food problems eating like that.  

If Roth's theory is that food is love (and as I say, I haven't read her),
I'd have to agree with you that that's an oversimplification.  I think
each person eats for different reasons.  Why Roth eats is why Roth eats,
and what works for her might not work for someone else.  


-- 
The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world --
if only from time to time.     -- Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood"
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Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu