Race, weight, diet
Oct. 5th, 2005 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganThis Big Fat Blog post is mostly about being appalled that some journalist is saying that Fat Acceptance is "disempowering" and that higher body self-esteem in minority populations is misplaced and dangerous. However, the very long discussion in the comments about eating disorders, dieting, and the "intuitive eating" approach were incredibly fascinating to me.
Many people hear about the Overcoming Overeating Approach, or even try parts of it, and think it doesn't work because they still overeat, even after they "legalize" all food and stop dividing food into "good" and "bad" columns. They feel the MUST have some food restrictions, calorie-counting, etc. in place or they'll overeat. My contention, and that of several other commenters, is that you're not seeing the full picture if you believe you'll be "out of control" in your eating habits without outside, arbitrary limits. "Legalizing" foods is just part of the process-- you also have to understand when you're eating for emotional reasons rather than for hunger. You need to examine the politics about weight, fat, food, and gender in this country (Fat IS a feminist issue). Legalizing all foods is just one of many steps to undoing all the sick cultural conditioning we all have pounded into us about food, fat, weight, and morality.
The comments by the registered dietician working with eating disordered clients who was a binger herself are incredibly touching.
http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/000488.php#comments
Many people hear about the Overcoming Overeating Approach, or even try parts of it, and think it doesn't work because they still overeat, even after they "legalize" all food and stop dividing food into "good" and "bad" columns. They feel the MUST have some food restrictions, calorie-counting, etc. in place or they'll overeat. My contention, and that of several other commenters, is that you're not seeing the full picture if you believe you'll be "out of control" in your eating habits without outside, arbitrary limits. "Legalizing" foods is just part of the process-- you also have to understand when you're eating for emotional reasons rather than for hunger. You need to examine the politics about weight, fat, food, and gender in this country (Fat IS a feminist issue). Legalizing all foods is just one of many steps to undoing all the sick cultural conditioning we all have pounded into us about food, fat, weight, and morality.
The comments by the registered dietician working with eating disordered clients who was a binger herself are incredibly touching.
http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/000488.php#comments
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Date: 2005-10-06 04:40 am (UTC)Q: Is "stomach hunger eating" considered better than "mouth hunger eating"?
A: Yes, and no! It is our ultimate goal to gradually move towards eating mostly from stomach hunger (demand feeding); however, we will all continue to experience mouth hunger occasionally (as even non-compulsive eaters do!). We have found that it's best to lovingly feed WHATEVER kind of hunger we're experiencing at any given time without laying a guilt trip on ourselves. If we make mouth hunger eating "bad", we'll start to rebel again and this will simply become a "stomach hunger diet"!! If mouth hunger and stomach hunger are considered equally "okay", and we don't struggle or fight against our mouth hunger, eventually we'll find ourselves eating from stomach hunger more often. It will happen naturally, without having to be forced.
Q: What should I do when I have mouth hunger?
A: In short, FEED IT!! After we've been legalizing all foods for some time, we may at times choose to gently nudge ourselves towards waiting for stomach hunger. Sometimes we'll choose to sit with the mouth hunger for a while and see if we can figure out what's causing it - other times, we'll simply feed it and not give it a second thought. But it's always OUR choice!