Live-In Addiction Programs and Permanent Change
Many live-in addiction treatment centers include food addiction in their agenda, and a place called Shades of Hope, located in Buffalo Gap, Texas, specializes in “eating disorders and co-occurring addictions.” Oprah Winfrey is profiling this center in her new series, “Addicted to Food.” Here is the center’s definition of food addiction: Food addiction is loss […]
Denial = Bad, Awareness = Good
Childhood obesity is a tough problem, and when parents look for answers, the answers might depend on the attitudinal states of various family members. Maybe you realize that your child has a problem, but he or she refuses to acknowledge this. Or maybe your child is asking for help, and you are the one […]
The “DSM-5” and Obesity, Part 1
We’ll get to the obesity relevance in a minute, but meanwhile, here is an interesting detail about the upcoming revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The Roman numerals are being dropped in favor of Arabic numbers, so the new version will actually be DSM-5. Another footnote of interest: the third […]
Eat for Success, Part 5
Rule #1: Geography is destiny, so do not live near fast food outlets. From the University of Leeds, in Northern England, comes scientific confirmation that childhood obesity is more likely to be found in kids who live near fast food restaurants, or attend school near them, or both. Media liaison Paula Gould recently announced the […]
Body Image, Honesty, and Openness to Change
One of the foundations of Dr. Pretlow’s philosophy is the principle that the kids themselves are the experts, and they are worth listening to. In fact, we’d better listen to them, or we will wind up spending a lot of resources on programs that are doomed to fail, while ignoring more promising leads. We do […]