For a great book on the emotional weight of food... (sorry about the pun)... I highly recommend "Appetites: Why Women Want," by Caroline Knapp. Knapp was a gifted writer with a lot of insight into her own and other women's complex relationships with food. She was anorexic in her 20s, and she fought back to become healthy and fit...

There are some interesting discussions on food in The Economist...

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2282754

WHEN the world was a simpler place, the rich were fat, the poor were thin, and right-thinking people worried about how to feed the hungry. Now, in much of the world, the rich are thin, the poor are fat, and right-thinking people are worrying about obesity.

Evolution is mostly to blame. It has designed mankind to cope with deprivation, not plenty. People are perfectly tuned to store energy in good years to see them through lean ones. But when bad times never come, they are stuck with that energy, stored around their expanding bellies.

From the Economist editorial:
Statistically, yes, insurance co's should be allowed to discriminate. Unfortunately, I don't think this would change a damn thing...in fact, given that 2/3 of the US population's overweight, I think we'd have rioting at the ballot box. Even if it stuck, we'd just have a lot more fat, uninsured people. This proposal's one of the many "people work like logic machines" mistakes that those on the right are so prone to.

amy

Depression, depression, and depression. That's what it is for a lot of people, and the important thing is THEY DON'T CARE. They're too depressed to care.

I betcha my bottom dollar that if there were less child abuse in this country, people would be thinner. But then you can argue saying that there's child abuse in other countries and they don't gain weight, right? But the thing here is that food seems to be on the Top Ten List of act-outs or "bad habits that make us feel good" in America.

Nobody ever thinks about the "emotional" causes of obesity enough. I've seen on other message boards where people were calling the obese "lazy.” But again, what nobody thinks about enough is "what causes the laziness".

Yes, we all have pain. But another thing many people in this world don't understand is that everybody has different ways to make them feel better. Where food works for one person,- obsessive sex, being mean to others, anal retentiveness, cigarettes, drugs, over-working, or bulimia works for another. We are all unique in how we cope with our pain or "nurture ourselves". I think we need to focus more on this point, in my opinion.

I will have to agree with you on that one!

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/7764544.htm

Did you see this report. Obesity cost a massive $75 billion in 03 in US

I am a surgeon who is appalled at the option of obesity surgery. Do potential patients understand that there is a 0.5% chance of dying, and 2-3% chance of severe complications, including wound infections, multiple operations, etc. I have spent too much time taking care of patients with complications to recommend the surgery to anyone. The current effective obesity operations prevent the patient from eating very much, but do nothing to the psychological component of eating. Patients can defeat the operation by drinking soda and high calorie liquids. My mother said that she was sending me to medical school to learn the cure for obesity, and my answer was that I already knew the cure for obesity -- "don't stay home and care for ungrateful children for 17 years." I think the money is better spent on working on the psychological components of eating issues, and a gym membership at Curves!

Well said mommidala!! :yes: