Friday, May 07, 2004

weight


I spent years trying to heal the self-punishing attitudes towards food I grew up with and resenting deeply doctors who told me to lose weight. I changed physicians when I was diagnosed with diabetes--I had finally gotten the message to my family practitioner not to talk about my weight, but he really didn't know what else to say. Controlling my blood sugar is causing me to lose weight and that may help the diabetes and certainly gets me credibility for how I am managing it. I don't actually see that any of the many things that I was told I could fix by losing weight have improved for that reason, but clearly the way I am eating (plus more exercise) is good for my health and for how I feel. What I am doing is very different from what I grew up with--my mother's motto is "if you aren't hungry you aren't losing weight," while my experience is that if I keep my blood sugar from spiking I don't get hungry and therefore lose weight without trying.

Still, I am so hostile to being told to lose weight by doctors that I am pleased to see a new book is coming out arguing that the focus on obesity as the cause of health problems is a prejudice not well supported by the evidence. There is an extensive article in the Guardian based on the book.

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