carnival of eating disorders, august 2008 edition – part 2

okay, here we are with part 2 of the 19th carnival of eating disorders. part 1 was about anorexia; this one contains articles on overeating and body image.

overeating

cravings

cravings – your biggest motivator is the title of FitNChic’s article:

most people give up their efforts after a while because they feel they are depriving themselves of all the good things in life without significant results or because they have cheated once (read: ate a piece of cake!) and don’t want to start the process all over again.

but, by using cravings to motivate you, you are consciously eating (not cheating) whatever you really like once a week. there is no doubt you are going to stick to your routine the rest of the week.

well, i don’t know about “no doubt” but it’s certainly worth trying; moderation usually works much better than deprivation.

reframing

sandra ahten from reasonable diet talks about the use of reframing in dealing with weight issues:

“my doctor says i better drop 15 pounds if i want to avoid having to take a medication.”

reframed: “my doctor says i get to drop fifteen pounds in order to avoid taking a medication.” with this statement, my mind is also able to say, “whew! i caught it in time that i don’t have to treat it with medication; thank goodness it is a condition i can do something about.” i might even add: “it is only 15 pounds!”

reframing shines a light of positive attitude. reframing enables us to look for what we are willing to do instead of just rebelling against what someone or some circumstance is forcing us to do.

obesity and poverty

tiernan o faolain from american red tory has an interesting list on the connection between obesity and poverty, another issue that is often overlooked. here are some points:

# supermarkets and grocery stores move out of poor neighborhoods; “convenience” stores and liquor stores move in.
# sometimes when you’re down on your luck, you just say, “screw it,” and indulge.
# for those of us working two or three jobs to stay afloat, whole foods and PCC aren’t open 24/7, while 7-11 is.
# and even if they were, who can afford them?! health food is more expensive than the crap.
# as the salon article points out, high fructose corn syrup and other bad things are federally subsidized, holding down their cost. (talk about gummint programs!)
# historically speaking, before the enclosure of the commons forced many of the poor to work for wages in the cities’ industries (owned or invested-in by their rural landlords!), they had family farms they worked, with all that physical exertion and relative self-sufficiency to boot. here in america we never even had a chance!

read here for tiernan’s complete article on what makes poor americans overweight.

the political psychology of fat

in a similar vein, erin and philip have a series on “political psychology”. here is an excerpt:

a 2006 washington post article conservatively estimated that producing the foods that generate so much of america’s obesity, then treating that obesity, would be a $315 billion enterprise by the end of that year. in 2004 alone, americans spent $37 billion on soft drinks, $3.9 billion on cookies, and $6.2 billion on potato chips.

… the citizen is someone who fully inhabits her or his life-starting with what and how much we eat and exercise. to put it bluntly, we-our bodies, to include our brains and the minds and souls they house-do not exist to consume garbage for the sake of corporate profits. we exist to live as strong, intelligent individuals at home in our bodies. the consumer-whose normal human emotions, insecurities and weaknesses are manipulated into eating vast quantities of processed foods and chemicals, then buying a host of gadgets in an almost inevitably futile quest to lose the weight overnight (when it was not so gained)-is antithetical to the citizen. …

and there is a simple way to start acting as citizens. we have ourselves sufficient power to bring all those who want us fat-and so lazy, stupid, hurt and sick-to their knees. all we have to do is eat less-and eat more local, unprocessed foods, especially fruits and vegetables-and exercise more. …

when george bush told us to go to the mall, he no doubt also meant the food court. we did. so the next time you’re at the food court in the mall, spend a moment as a citizen, looking around. and if you see it with new eyes…that’s a start.

body image

body dysmorphic disorder

sandra has an informative video on body dysmorphic disorder. (not only is it informative but also very well done technically, and even my cranky laptop, which often gets hiccups from video providers such as youtube, likes it)

olympics and the body

this is an interesting collection of links about how olympic athletes and the general public view and treat athletic bodies. laura’s final observations are that about the paralympics and special olympics. you may have noticed that i did not write a thing about the olympics. i did, however, have an article that related to the special olympics, and am looking forward to writing about the paralympics.

that’s it for this time. the next carnival will take place on september 30 – and it will be hosted by the very laura collins i just mentioned. laura is the mother of a someone struggling with an eating disorder and feels passionate about involving parents as much as possible.

in the meantime, if you have an article you’d like to see here, please let me know, using this submission form.

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