Comfort Eating and Regular People
The psychological food dependence-addiction lens is a new and still somewhat unpopular paradigm, because it has to do with addiction to food as the cause of much obesity. Looking through that lens, we see that while legislative measures are useful, what really needs to be addressed is the tendency of people to become addicted, at […]
A Psychological Problem, Not a Nutritional Problem
“Will Marriage Make You Fat?” is the question asked by Cynthia Ramnarace in an article that follows the histories of three different couples. She got interested in the emotional basis of obesity because of something she read: A 2008 study in the journal Obesity showed that couples that lived together more than two years — […]
Childhood Obesity and the Common Cold
Every now and then, something comes from out of left field. A connection between childhood obesity and the common cold? Who would have thought of it? Somebody did, and while there have been other studies tracking possible associations between obesity and viral infections, this one seems to be attracting a lot of attention. The study’s […]
Outside the Box with Overweight Teens
Here’s an interesting phrase: “spontaneous recovery.” It sounds like it should mean something good, but this is counter-intuitive, because in addiction medicine the term doesn’t mean anything good. It means someone who seemed to have gotten better, but returns to the old behaviors that had caused trouble in the first place. At wiseGEEK, Tricia Ellis-Christensen explains: Medical […]
Sending Toddlers on the Food Addiction Path
Just when you thought you’d heard the epitome of absurdity, along comes another crazy notion to top the last one. How about formula for toddlers that is laced with chocolate and vanilla flavorings? Of course the stuff is marketed as not only benign, but actually healthful, because of its added ingredients. Apparently, it’s supposed to […]