Social Networking and Obesity, Part 3
We talked about the Internet & American Life Project from Pew Research Center, which found that online social networking has generally good effects on people. Of course, it would not be at all surprising if obese people excelled at electronic communication for its own sake. In real life, a meeting with a friend comes with […]
What Can Be Learned From Kirstie Alley?
Entertainment writer Jennifer Graham Kizer composed a splendid history of actress Kirstie Alley’s second career as an obese person: Showtime’s 2005 funny-but-short-lived scripted series, ‘Fat Actress,’ loosely chronicled the Emmy winner’s travails as an overweight Hollywood star. Off the set, Alley also became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig’s weight loss program. By 2006, the ‘Cheers’ […]
Comfort Eating and Kirstie Alley
Actress Kirstie Alley is a wild woman who has freely admitted to an interviewer, “It was the greatest thing in the world getting fat.” But being fat? Not so much. Still, if there is one public figure (besides Oprah Winfrey) whose every ounce of gain and loss has been tracked, minute by minute, by millions […]
The Thing About Compulsive Overeating
The thing about compulsive overeating is, there are a lot of things about it. It’s a very hefty subject with many fascinating areas of inquiry. For women, the hormones involved in the monthly cycle are implicated as compulsive-eating triggers. But males can be compulsive eaters, too — what’s up with that? What does it mean […]
Comfort Eating, Food Addiction, and the DSM-V Manual
Not long ago we mentioned Jennifer LaRue Huget, the Washington Post reporter who began to take seriously the notion of food addiction after meeting Michael Prager. This is encouraging, because childhood obesity won’t be stopped until food addiction is understood to be as real as addiction to hard drugs, alcohol, and even the range of […]
Obesity Tales, Part 2
Connie Bennett quit sugar more than 10 years ago, and wrote about it in her book, Sugar Shock! This all-pervasive substance can be a problem not only for the obese, but for just about anybody. Bennett says, The theory of sugar addiction or dependency — which has been suggested recently by such esteemed scientists as […]
Denial Among Parents of Overweight Children
by Meredee Lloyd A recent poll conducted in Minnesota found that most adults there are in denial about their true weight status. They also tend to overlook overweight and obesity in their own children. In fact, some parents in this poll were concerned about their kids being underweight when in actuality they were within the […]