How to Handle Holiday Stuffing

How to Handle Holiday Overeating For Immediate Release Instead of worrying about weight gain and calories this season, Victoria , B.C. eating disorder expert Michelle Morand encourages people to enjoy the holidays guilt free as long as you know how to handle holiday overeating. “There’s a perception that a little overindulging during the holidays is so me how dangerous. The truth is people have used food as a focal point for celebration since the dawn of time and a balanced relationship with food includes some social feasting,” says Michelle Morand, director and founder of The CEDRIC Centre. “When we truly allow ourselves to eat as much as we’d like, of whatever we’d like, invariably, we end up eating less. So if you’re feeling especially out of control around food during the holidays, chances are food is an issue the rest of the year, too.” What is the difference between bingeing and eating a lot at Christmas? “I get asked that a lot,” Morand acknowledges. “The difference lies in how you feel afterwards: accepting and relaxed, or guilty and shameful? How often do you engage in overeating? If you overeat occasionally and can return to your normal eating patterns right away without guilt, then you’re probably experiencing a balanced relationship with food.” On the other hand, “If you’re eating consistently when you’re not hungry, and feel guilty and shameful afterwards, you’re likely experiencing disordered eating.” With increased family expectations, more responsibilities, and increased spending it’s only natural to feel stressed at this time of year. “During times of stress, people turn to food, drugs, alcohol, and/or chemical substances to cope with their stress,” says Morand. “These coping strategies remain very popular for an obvious reason: they work, at least in the short run. But using overeating as a coping mechanism prevents us from learning how to deal with the true causes of our problems. As a result, we get trapped in a dependence upon overeating, especially during high stress times, such as the holidays.”

It’s Good to Know How to Handle Holiday Overeating

The cure for overeating? “Ironically it’s the last thing most people would ever dream of,” says Morand. “Successful treatment of all eating disorders involves looking at the root issues, finding new, healthier and life enhancing ways of coping, and allowing ourselves to eat, without guilt or shame .” The CEDRIC, (Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues Counselling), Centre specializes in the treatment of clinical eating disorders, sub-clinical disordered eating patterns, and related issues such as anxiety, depression, and distorted body image. Their counsellors provide bodywork, group, and individual counselling, as well as community outreach presentations for schools, educators, and health professionals. All of The CEDRIC Centre’s counsellors have long standing recovery from an eating disorder, and are proud to have facilitated the recovery of hundreds of men and women in Victoria , BC and beyond. The CEDRIC Centre’s Holiday Stress Helper
  1. Create Realistic Expectations-don’t try to make this the “Perfect Holiday.”
  2. Learn to say no to extra obligations.
  3. Allow yourself to enjoy every bite-without guilt. Remember that all binges stem from feelings of restriction.
  4. Create a budget for gift spending-you are entitled to be financially secure.
  5. Ask for help when you feel overwhelmed.
  6. Spend ti me only with those who respect you and with whom you feel safe.
  7. Visualize how you’d like to feel during the holidays- peaceful, relaxed, etc. What needs to happen and what do you need to do to make that happen?
 

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Teen Diets Lead to Weight Gain and Eating Disorders

Diets for Teens May Lead to Eating Disorders For Immediate Release According to recent research published in the U.S. medical journal, Pediatrics, diets for teens are three times more likely to become overweight than non-dieters. The study tracked the dieting habits of 16, 882 participants aged nine to 14 over three years. It found that dieters gained more weight than those who did not. Dieters were also far more likely to binge eat and girls who dieted less often gained slightly less weight, but still significantly more than non-dieters. “Essentially,” says Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The CEDRIC Centre, “The study found that all dieting is counterproductive – children who dieted gained more, not less weight than non-dieters.” Morand, a recovered binge eater who now counsels others, isn’t surprised with the results. “When we imagine someone with an eating disorder, we think of a young woman with severe anorexia, and it’s easy to associate that image with extreme dieting. However, it’s harder to see the link between dieting and binge eating, but it exists. In fact , binge eating is a natural response to a diet that should be expected by anyone who diets.” “Our culture is highly invested in the notion that diets work, to the tune of $33 billion a year,” Morand points out. “But 98% of diets fail, whether you’re 14 or 44.” In her work, Morand is seeing increasingly younger clients, and regularly receives calls and e-mail from parents of children who struggle with weight. “Dieting leads to a cycle of restrictive eating followed by bouts of overeating or binge eating. This is a natural, physiological response the body has perfected in response to starvation.” The fact that dieters were more likely to binge eat in the study than their non-dieting peers, supports this. “Without the diet, or a sense of restriction, there is no impetus to binge.” “The cure for eating disorders addresses the root causes,” Morand explains. “And if you suspect your child is eating for emotional reasons, dieting is definitely not the way to approach the situation.” She says, “The more we emphasize weight and appearance, the more our children will engage in eating disorders like binge eating.” The CEDRIC Centre, (Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues Counselling), specializes in the treatment of clinical eating disorders, sub-clinical disordered eating patterns, and related issues such as anxiety, depression, and distorted body image. Their registered clinical counselors provide bodywork, group, and individual counselling, as well as community outreach presentations for schools, educators, and health professionals. All of The CEDRIC Centre’s counsellors have recovered from an eating disorder, and are proud to have facilitated the recovery of hundreds of men and women in Victoria, BC and beyond.  

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Help Provided to Overeater

Help for Overeaters and Chronic Dieters By Jennifer McLarty Victoria News Apr 06 2005 Aileen Pickard has waged war against her body for nearly 50 years. A compulsive over-eater and chronic dieter, the five-foot-two Salmon Arm resident has weighed as little as 115 pounds and as much as 250. In her darkest moment, she could eat a dozen doughnuts, a pint of ice cream and a loaf of bread and still not feel full. But last year, Pickard turned a corner after attending an emotional eating seminar hosted by Victoria ‘s Cedric Centre that there is help for overeaters. The workshop helped identify the underlying reasons for her pattern of bingeing and dieting, and point her in a new direction of healthy eating. “Food has always been a comfort – a friend. I used it to fill a void that really had nothing to do with eating at all,” said Pickard, 55. “When I went to the Cedric Centre that was my last attempt. At first I didn’t believe what I was being told – that I could give up dieting. But I was willing to listen because nothing else had worked.” The emotional eating seminar, facilitated by Cedric Centre founder Michelle Morand, will run again this weekend, April 8 to 10, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Its focus is helping women get to the root of their destructive eating habits, and teaching them that food isn’t the real problem. Morand subscribes to the theory of natural eating – consuming what you want until you’re full, then letting your body find its own unmanipulated weight. The concept can be tough to swallow for many women. But according to Morand, positive change is fleeting until the binge-diet cycle is broken. “Many of our clients have spent years trying to treat their unbalanced relationship with food by using diets, only to find they gain more weight and become more unhappy with their bodies,” said Morand. “Are you tired of dieting? Are you tired of feeling bad about your body? Do you have an unhealthy relationship with food that doesn’t meet the criteria of a clinical eating disorder? Then this would be an appropriate seminar for you.” One year after attending the Cedric Centre workshop, Pickard has made peace with her body and started to lose weight. She credits the Cedric Centre with her breakthrough, along with the discovery her weight problem has been exacerbated by a lazy thyroid. She is now on medication, and practicing natural eating. “When I’m in a stressful situation, I don’t even think about food now, which is a huge improvement for me,” said Pickard. “It’s still early days, but I I’m listening to my body and I feel I’ve really turned a corner. So, it is true that there is help for overeaters being provided, its just a matter of knowing where to look and whom to ask. “It’s a momentous step in what’s been a lifelong journey.”  

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Naked Truths

by, Caroline Skelton, staff writer Times Colonist, August 27th, 2004

This is Beautiful project celebrates women’s relationship with their body

As I write this, I am a size six. Maybe an eight. About a 30 around one place, 34 around another, and about 130 when I’m standing on our twitchy bathroom scale. But last Sunday, I and 16 other women weren’t any numbers at all. We had no clothes to define our size, and no critics to point out our rolls or scars or fading tattoos. And because we had no one to tell us otherwise, in the cocoon of the Lynda Raino studio we felt beautiful, just as we were. We were just 17 of the 175 Victoria women who responded to Seattle photographer Amanda Koster’s call for participants in the first Canadian location of the This is Beautiful project. Now on its third location (there are two locations in Seattle), Koster’s project draws together female participants of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds for a nude photo shoot and following gallery exhibition. Her hope is to send these photos blazing into North American society, pushing the images of normal women into the cultural mainstream. Eventually, she hopes to produce calendars, a documentary and a book of her images. In the age of twiggy supermodels and reality shows that carve normal bodies into walking Barbies, Koster says many women are getting fed up. “They’re so ready to let go of all their body issues,” she says. She hears from the women in This is Beautiful, “I’m here and I’m alive and I’m existing, and why am I not in my own culture?” The CEDRIC Centre, a community eating disorder counselling centre in Victoria, invited Koster to visit after seeing her in an interview with Q13 Fox news in Seattle. “There’s such a lack of real images of women’s bodies out there,” said Brooke Finnigan, communications and administrative co- ordinator for the centre. And for many women, these images help to “create an unbalanced women’s relationship with their body.” “We all have to learn the hard way that we’re fine just the way that we are.” The women, who asked not to be identified by name, trickled in Sunday from a grab bag of lifestyles: Nurses, youth workers, media members, retirees, full-time mothers. One had terminal cancer, while another was pregnant, near her due date. Two brought their babies — another brought her sprightly four- year-old daughter. They all came for different reasons. For some, a violent past, sexual abuse, rape or eating disorder. For others, persistent struggles to love their bodies, despite worldly judgments. Koster, now 33, had experienced both rape and bulimia before the age of 21. But while in the studio, Koster asked us to dwell on the happy present, not sad pasts. Bring upbeat music, dance and have fun, she implored. When robes started falling Sunday morning, I retreated to the change room, where I spent as much time as possible. After a night of restless nervousness and too much coffee, the thought of shedding my teddy bear bathrobe had about as much appeal as jumping out the studio window. When I emerged, the bright studio was terrifyingly crowded with naked bodies. The women, leaning against the ballet bars and standing with crossed arms, looked like they were guests an awkward cocktail party. The question seemed to hang in the air: Where do you look when you’re talking to a naked woman? “Sorry-s” and “Pardon me-s” were audible as bumping into other women became a very personal encounter. The clock rolled toward noon, with Koster diving in and out of our makeshift social groups, camera snapping at, er, everything. But as the stereo blasted an eclectic mix of everything from the Jackson 5 to celebratory Indian music, a new feeling started to eclipse the terror of naked small talk. Women began comparing their bodies. “We have matching heart tattoos.” “Did that piercing hurt?” “Are we all innies?” Suddenly, differences became laughable — as inconsequential as zipper or button flies. Koster had warned me about this phenomenon. “Once we all get together and we take off our clothes and we’re standing there naked (we realize) ‘what’s the big deal?’ ” She says the photo shoots tap into something starving in untold numbers of women: Without clothing or props, they are somehow able to shed years of insecurities. “It’s really showing their bodies, and it’s just a total release for the women,” she says. “You can’t hide behind anything.” For many, removing one inhibition opened emotional floodgates. Some cried, while others told total strangers about years of inward terror — hating their bodies and feeling judged by the rest of the world. Others simply revelled in the joy of sudden release, twirling and jumping to the music. At a coffee shop later in the evening, Rita, Lynn and Barbara, who asked I only use their first names, looked back on the strange transformations. Growing up, Rita’s family constantly reminded her, “you shouldn’t laugh so loud, shouldn’t talk to much, shouldn’t eat that, shouldn’t wear that,” she says. In the second grade, she went to the hospital to treat a case of pneumonia and put on 15 pounds. Since then, she has grappled with her weight. “I’ve spent my entire life feeling less than,” she says. On Sunday, she says all these body image issues were momentarily gone. “It wasn’t about who had the least amount of stretch marks and who has the biggest boobs,” said Rita. “People were feeling free to be whoever they wanted. To be in the moment,” said Barbara. She says the setting let her dispense with fears and judgments — “all of the layers that all of us carry.” In the afternoon, Koster moved on to individual shots. Women chatted about dance classes at the YM-YWCA, or traded career ups and downs. Some cheered for those posing for pictures. As the women congregated for a final group shot, they pressed together, with no “sorry-s” and “pardon me-s.” And at that moment, a fateful CD shuffle produced an appropriate song. “It’s your thang, do what you wanna do,” blared from the stereo. One woman took this message to heart. Lynn hopped onto the window ledge, posing for cars and buses stopped for the traffic light at Yates and Douglas Street. Proudly, and without fear, she stood on the ledge, curling her biceps and lunging like a track star. The rest of us cheered. Later she confessed she was thinking, “I have nothing to hide.” When Koster had amassed over 150 e-mails from women interested in participating, she sent them all a questionnaire. One of the questions, she says, planted a seed in the minds of the recipients. “Describe your beautiful body,” she asked. The responses ranged from descriptions of cellulite to life stories. She chose participants for their diversity and enthusiasm — but some wrote back saying they no longer needed to be in the shoot. The question made them think about their bodies for the first time, and this was enough. “People participate (in This is Beautiful) on many levels,” says Koster. “By thinking about it, or by talking about it with someone else.” When she comes back in March to hang the exhibit, Koster hopes to do another shoot with the women who didn’t get a chance. But for now, she is intent on getting our 19 naked bodies out to the world. She says the women in This is Beautiful become aware, “I’m standing here and I’m OK … I feel support and I feel compassion,” even without cloth es, props, glamour lighting, or surgical nips and tucks. And Koster says, “my goal is for that feeling to resonate everywhere.” On the Web: Amandakoster.com thisisbeautiful.org (Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 2004)  

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Seminar Tackles Emotions Behind Eating

Appeared in October 2003 Issue of Island Parent Magazine You’ve prepared a wonderful dinner for your family. Chicken Marsala , fresh spinach salad, and a creamy risotto. Just as you’re about to tuck in, the kids start to complain. They pick at the rice, stab at the chicken, and whine about the spinach. The battle over food has begun. You want them to eat healthy, nutritious meals, and they want hot dogs and ice cream. Over the years, our perceptions about parenting and food have changed. We’ve been implored to make sure our children eat enough fruits and veggies, avoid processed foods, and watch their fat intake. The results have left everyone, especially concerned parents, scratching their heads. Because if this approach works, then why isn’t it working? A third of Canada ‘s adults are considered obese, as are a quarter of our children. Thirty-three percent of women report the onset of an eating disorder at the ages of eleven-fifteen. Fifty percent of nine-year-old girls and eighty percent of ten-year-old girls have dieted. Fifteen percent of college aged women relate to the term disordered eating, and thirty percent of the nation admits to binge eating. Yet, we’re also a nation of calorie counters, dieters, and health conscious parents. The dichotomy lies in the Diet Mentality, and the answer lies in Natural Eating. The Diet Mentality is a way of thinking that has been ingrained in us by messages we receive from our family and friends, from advertisements, and media messages. These views about how we should look, feel and behave have become a part of our way of life. According to the diet me ntality, there are good and bad foods and you are good or bad depending on what you eat, and how much. Eating is restricted to certain times of the day, (breakfast, lunch, dinner), which forces us to tune out to our body’s natural hunger and fullness signals. Natural Eating, the opposite of the diet mentality, isn’t defined by rules. It’s about listening to your body, and feeding it on demand. Everything is legal. Pizza for breakfast, pancakes for dinner. As long as you’re eating when you’re physically hungry and stopping at fullness, you’re eating naturally. But rather than being the precursor for wild abandon and unchecked indulgence, the fact that we are allowing ourselves what we really want, actually means we eat less and are more satisfied. Therefore, we focus less on food. A basic analogy is one every parent can understand: Potty training. Why is it that after toddlers are potty trained, we step back and never question their inalienable right to use the bathroom, when and where they need it? After a child learns to use the bathroom successfully on their own, we trust their judgment that they will be able to regulate themselves, and know when to use the bathroom. Eating can and should be, the same way. It’s a natural function, and at one point, we were all able to regulate our hunger. If we were lucky as infants and toddlers, our cries for hunger were answered, regardless of whether it was a set mealtime . We ate when we were hungry, and stopped when we reached fullness. It is very, very rare for an infant or toddler to be obese, unless, a caretaker intercedes in some way, or there is an existent medical condition. Unless food becomes an emotional issue, there is no reason for children to overeat on a daily basis. A recent study conducted by Donna Sprujitz Metz at USC, showed that the more a parent pressured a child to eat, the less the child ate. The flip side is also true: The more parents pressure children not to eat the more the child internalizes the message, “I’m not okay the way I am,” and seeks comfort in food – thus eating more rather than less. Alternately, if a parent motivates a child to eat something they don’t want with promises of a treat after, they unwittingly give the child two very conflicted messages. First, tune out to your internal signals of fullness. Secondly, someone else knows more about your needs than you do. Parents must set some boundaries. But, making a child eat something they don’t want, and then rewarding their behaviour with food, sends a very dangerous message that distances our children from the natural signals that their bodies give off about fullness and hunger levels. Here are some common questions parents have on the topic: If I follow the Natural Eating approach won’t my child binge on junk food and become overweight? Aren’t I encouraging obesity? In the beginning of the process, your child may consume a diet that is filled with processed, fatty foods. And this is when it’s most important to step back, and reserve judgment. Once your child trusts that they will not be restricted or criticized, those previously taboo foods lose all power and allure. Part of growing up is becoming independent. Eventually, your children will have to learn to make food choices on their own. If they’re school aged, they already do so on a daily basis: at school, with friends, and while you’re apart. Giving them the tools and permission to stay in touch with their inner hunger and fullness signals is a gift. Okay, this sounds like something my family would like to try, how? Letting go of control of your child’s diet is difficult in our culture. Giving them autonomy over their food intake will take ti me and practice. Start with a discussion. Let your children know you’re trying something new, you’re letting them make their own decisions around food, and you trust them. Your child won’t starve, won’t become undernourished, or overweight if you let them have what they want without guilt. Guilt is a major factor in disordered eating. The body knows what it needs. Eventually, the body will demand veggies, fruit, and whole grains. Continue to provide these options, model natural eating for your children and they, too will associate food with nourishment. What if I let my child eat whenever he/she wants and the overeating or constant eating of junk food continues? How long, is too long? How long depends on each child. Generally, a parent could expect that the more the child perceived certain foods as being off limits, the more time he or she will need to adjust to their newfound freedom, and experiment with hunger, satiety, and even overeating. 3-6 months would be average. After that, it’s probably time to check in as a family. What do I do if my child is reaching for food when they aren’t hungry? Occasionally, even natural eaters will use food for emotional comfort. This is normal. If you see your child reaching for cookies after being teased during school, and you know she’s just eaten, you can bet she is eating to soothe her pain. Let her have her cookies, and talk to her after the binge. By doing this, you’ve acknowledged both emotional pain and her autonomy. Most importantly, you’ve provided her with alternate coping skills. Next time, she’ll be able to deal with the problem directly. On the other hand, if your child is consistently reaching for food for comfort, this is an indication that they have adopted food as a coping mechanism to avoid other, more painful issues. If your child is frequently eating/restricting for emotional reasons, it’s important to get help. By following natural eating as a family, you’re giving your children independence, and encouraging them to trust themselves and their bodies. Gone are the heated arguments and the power struggles over food. Your children are less likely to develop eating disorders, to diet, and are more likely to have higher self-esteem and self-awareness. By, Brooke Finnigan  

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Women asked to bare it all for health

Amanda Koster in Vancouver Island women are being asked to bare it all for a multimedia documentary that celebrates the female form in all its shapes, sizes, colours and abilities. Koster’s photography will be in Victoria Aug. 21 and 22 to make a photo shoot and interview subjects who’re willing to pose nude for her project, This is Beautiful.

Amanda Koster, Working with The Cedric Centre

“I work in the media and wanted to contribute with images that I think are beautiful, in addition to those that are already out there,” said Koster, who’ll be working with The Cedric Centre, an eating disorder counselling program based in Victoria. “I want people to look at these photographs and accept who we really are, feel comfortable with these women and their bodies and respect them.” Koster first began working on This is Beautiful in 2001 in collaboration with fellow artist Sandra Marchese. The pair issued a call to women across Seattle to be photographed nude and then write about their bodies. One of the people who took part was a Seattle Times reporter, who agreed to publish her experience for the newspaper. The piece garnered such an “electric response” from women across the United States that This is Beautiful gained momentum for a second chapter in 2002. Amanda Koster stop in Victoria will mark the third installment, after staff at The Cedric Centre saw a televised news item about her work on Q13 Fox and encouraged her to visit Canada. “Women of all ages are under incredible pressure to strive towards an arbitrary physical ideal, and it’s up to all of us to counter those messages with positive images that celebrate all women as beautiful,” said Michelle Morand, Cedric Centre founder and counsellor. Anyone interested in the August photo shoot can get more information at http://www.thisisbeautiful.org. “I don’t pose anyone. I don’t tell them what to do. I’m looking for the natural interaction of different bodies, what they look like when they come together, and the beauty of that diversity,” said Koster, who’s struggled with her own body issues and eating disorders. “For some reason, every day we don’t see that diversity, or accept it. If you go to my website, and you don’t see yourself there, then please consider coming out” Koster – who has worked for several national U.S. magazines including Newsweek – will return to Victoria in the New Year for an exhibit of her photos and a book that chronicles the project. Her other multi-media works include AIDS Is Knocking, a still and video documentary of AIDS orphans and widows in Kenya. Reprinted from the Saanich News  

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Dieter Fed Up Trying to Control Her Waistline

Controlling Your Waistline Cynthia Sinclair has been on a diet since she was 14 years old. She’s gained and lost hundreds of pounds, and has everything from a size 5 to a 20 hanging in her bedroom closet. She’s counted calories, signed up for Weight Watchers and endured a tasteless liquid protein diet that caused her to pass out on a city bus. She’s lifted weights, exercised compulsively and even sat down with a therapist. But seven months ago, Sinclair did something radical – she said enough is enough. At age 52, she’s finally done with the diet game, and is pursuing a new life of “natural eating.” “I know everything about trying to lose weight and controlling your waistline – believe me. So it amazes me I’d never heard about this until last September,” said Sinclair. “I’m in it now to make long-term changes, and I’ve had an epiphany. I finally realize diets are the problem.” Could she be right? After all, it goes against everything we’ve ever been told – especially now, amid a virtual hurricane of high-profile diet trends in the past two to three years. Atkins’, South Beach, The Zone, Ornish and even the all you can eat Amish diet. You name it; it’s out there. Americans spent $40 million on diet books last year alone, with the number expected to increase in 2004. An Ipsos-Reid study last August showed 61 per cent of Canadians currently limit their carb intake to avoid gaining weight, while six per cent are on some form of low-carb or no-carb diet ala Dr. Atkins. But in the weight loss numbers game, statistics also show more than 80 per cent of people who adopt a diet will gain back any weight they lose within two years. And what’s to account for the alarming rate of obesity in Canada and the United States if diets are actually doing their job? Fat is considered such a big health risk today that it’s been dubbed the “new tobacco” by organizations like the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Michelle Morand with The Cedric Centre in Victoria hopes women will start asking some of those pointed questions on International No Diet Day May 6. “So many people engage in the experience of dieting without ever questioning why or what the affects will be,” said Morand, whose centre provides community eating disorder and related issues counselling. “Ideally women would throw their diet out next week. In reality, I’d be happy if they could ask ‘Could I throw out my diet?’ If it scares them to let go of their restrictions – even for one day – then it’s no longer about health. It’s about something else in their life.” The Cedric Centre’s clientele ranges from girls as young as 10 to a woman who’s 68 years old. While their life experiences and backgrounds vary, there’s a common thread in how they believe diets – or more specifically the personal control gained through restricting calories – can improve their lives. Those desires are often supported by the mass media, and what has become a woman’s Holy Grail in modern society – the perfect female form. “I can’t tell you how many people come in and say they want to look like Jennifer Aniston,” said Morand. “It’s that underlying belief that if they look a certain way, they’ll get everything they want in life – fame, success, happy relationships. All of a sudden, everything will be put right. “It’s sad because the reality falls well short of that. Brad Pitt isn’t dumping Jennifer.” Instead, Morand tries to help women break the vicious cycle of cutting calories, bingeing because they’re hungry, feeling guilty about eating excessively, then dieting again. In her opinion, weight loss through regimented eating only sets people up for failure, and until they get free of it, they’ll never be happy. Instead, she proposes what’s been coined “natural eating” or eating what you want until you’re full and letting your body find its own unmanipulated weight. As part of that process, Morand also helps women get to the root of how and why food has become a lifelong focus, and why diets are getting in the way of more important things. You may never squeeze into a size two using “natural eating”, but at the same time a petite waist line will no longer be a barometer for your self worth, according to Morand. “I’m sure Dr. Atkins’ intent in developing his diet was to help make people healthy,” she said. “But it doesn’t recognize that a majority of people out there aren’t dieting for better health.” This is the “salvation” Sinclair says she’s been searching for after years of not understanding her own relationship to food, and her subsequent addition to diets. Since taking a course at The Cedric Centre in September she’s stocked her kitchen with cookies and whipped cream, but no longer has the desire to run in and eat it all in one serving. “This works when you accept at a gut level that diets don’t work.” said Sinclair, adding a tumultuous relationship with her parents and a tough time in high school is what initially turned her to food for comfort. “I had this vague feeling that I needed something. Maybe that something was cheese. So I’d have a piece, and when that didn’t change anything, I’d have more. Of course that didn’t work, so I’d try ice cream, then cookies. The next thing you know, I’m criticizing myself, ‘What the hell did you do that for?'” “I always thought because I was a larger than normal body size, something was wrong – I was doing something wrong,” added Sinclair, who hasn’t lost a significant amount of weight since September, but feels hundreds of pounds lighter emotionally. “I’ve concluded there are 300 genetic freaks in this world who are keeping the rest of us in line, and at 52-years-old, I’m just not buying into it anymore. “If my story can reach just one person on International No Diet Day then I’m glad to have shared it.” © Copyright 2004 Victoria Weekend  

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It’s a fat, fat, fat, fat world

Jody Patterson, Times Colonist

Here’s the skinny on a mass dilemma: About half of all Canadians are either overweight or obese

Trans fats. Atkins diet. Lite. Low-carb. The words roll off our tongues easily, as familiar in our weight-obsessed culture as a bacon-and-eggs breakfast was to a previous generation.

Diet books blaze to the top of bestseller lists. Vitamin stores bustle with newcomers drawn in by the writings of the latest weight-loss guru. If talking about it was all it took to lose weight and get fit, we’d all be poker-thin and rippling with muscle by now.

But the talk has turned out to be much easier than the walk. The diet industry is bigger than it has ever been, but so are our waistlines. Around the world, in all but the poorest countries, people are growing fatter.

The U.S. leads the world, with 63 per cent of Americans now either obese or overweight — a 17 per cent increase over the last 40 years. Young Americans are experiencing weight gain at an even faster rate; their numbers have tripled to 15 per cent.

With half of all Canadians now either overweight or obese (the former refers to body-mass indexes over 25, the latter to 28 and up; see box at right for how to calculate), our country is not far behind. A recent Health Canada report says weights have been on the rise for at least a decade.

Rising health costs and mortality rates linked to obesity are catching the attention of developed countries that have suddenly found themselves with a weight problem.

Britons, Asians, Europeans, North Americans: All over the world, people are gaining weight.

The continuing rise in obesity is a particular blow to the U.S., which set a goal in 1990 of reducing the prevalence of obesity to 20 per cent within the decade. Instead, the rate rose to 27 per cent.

“Unfortunately, current body-weight trends are leading us farther away from rather than closer to [national] goals,” noted an article in November’s on-line edition of Restaurant and Institutions magazine.

How can a world that talks so much about weight seem so helpless to do anything about it? The answer is extremely complex and the problem not easily solved, says UVic biochemistry professor Tom Buckley. While the essence of weight gain is simple enough — too many calories in, not enough out — people’s relationship with food is anything but.

“If we don’t understand how complicated it is, we’re never going to fix it,” says Buckley. “It’s not just chemistry. It has a lot to do with economics, sociology, all kinds of things that make us people. Why is it that the poor are more obese? Why do women perceive weight problems differently than men? And why are we all so gullible?”

Governments of the past have tended to view body weight as a personal issue and left it up to individuals to make their own decisions. But the disease burden from obesity has become too obvious of late — high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, certain cancers, and a far greater risk of death from all causes. The kind of talk that led change two decades ago when cigarette smoking was first being considered for regulation is now being heard around the subject of obesity.

Linked to cardiac problems, hypertension, Type II diabetes and several cancers, obesity-related disease now costs Canada about $2 billion a year. In the U.S., the tab is approaching $120 billion.

“Overweight and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking,” cautioned U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher this fall. “People tend to think of overweight and obesity as strictly a personal matter, but there is much that communities can and should do to address these problems.”

Definitely, say health and fitness experts. But they stress that there’s no silver bullet. Battling the global bulge requires a little regulation and a lot of self-policing, says regional medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick.

“Super-sizing our meals is OK if we’re prepared to super-size the health system right along with it,” says Stanwick. “If these trends continue, the new dialysis unit we opened in September 2002 at Royal Jubilee will be at capacity in five years.”

B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association president Geoffrey Howes agrees. His members hope they never see a day when the government tries to tackle obesity by forcing restaurants to feature detailed nutritional breakdowns of their ever-changing menus.

“We’re taking the attitude that it’s calorie in, calorie out,” says Howes. “If you’re eating a lot of food, a lot of carbs, then you’re going to have to exercise.”

What’s missing is daily attention to diet and exercise, says local nutritionist Rosemary Quinn — just what the quick-fix generation doesn’t want to hear. People typically underestimate the amount of calories they’re taking in and overestimate their level of activity. Burning off an extra 150 calories in a day, for instance — the amount in a can of pop, or three Oreo cookies — requires two kilometres of walking.

The population is also aging, a major factor in weight gain if people don’t stay active.

“After age 20, the body automatically loses half a pound of muscle every year. That’s the one mechanism that helps us burn fat,” says Quinn, of Fitness Works. “When you consider that every pound of muscle burns 40 to 70 calories a day just existing, you could end up storing 200 to 350 extra calories a day by age 30.”

Less understood are the emotional components of obesity. Food is entangled in our lives from birth on, says local hypnotherapist Lani Andrews, of Mindful Solutions.

“From the time a baby is fed when it cries, there’s a relationship between our feelings and food,” says Andrews. “Maybe the baby just wants a cuddle or a hug, but instead it gets food. The child starts to associate food with comfort.

“And then one day you’re an adult. In an emotionally empty moment of your life, what else would you turn to but food?”

While our cultural relationship with food is complex, the body’s reaction to it is simple enough. All food is eventually broken down into sugars by the systems of the body, and what isn’t used soon after for energy is converted into fat and stored for later use.

Carbohydrates and proteins both contain four calories per gram, while fat contains nine. (Alcohol contains seven.) The combined calorie count of what you eat and drink in a given day, regardless of its source, is ultimately what matters; surplus calories from any source are stored as fat if the body doesn’t require them for energy.

But while a calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from, there are certain facts of body chemistry that have put the high-carbohydrate Western diet in the spotlight as a factor in rising obesity. While carbohydrates are vital for sustaining life — and happiness, as they’re used in the brain to produce mood-regulating serotonin — too much of a good thing is turning out to be bad.

Here’s why: While protein and fat take longer for the body to break down, carbohydrates — particularly the ones abundant in sweet or processed foods — convert easily to sugar in the body. They provide the closest thing to instant energy, which is what endears them to athletes.

Unfortunately, most of us aren’t athletes. Excess carbohydrates not only add pounds, but require the pancreas to put in extra time producing insulin to level out the subsequent rise and fall of blood sugars from eating. Over time, that can dull the body’s insulin response and lead to Type II diabetes.

The spikes in blood sugar also trigger feelings of hunger, sending people back to the kitchen cupboard to do it all over again.

“We’ve spent many years trying to reduce our fat intake, but that has led us to eat more carbohydrates. And carbs are the way to Type II diabetes,” says Reg Mitchell, a UVic chemistry professor now controlling hi s own diabetes through diet and exercise.

“Eating fats at least means your body has to do some hard work to break them down, move them around and store them. You don’t get the blood-sugar rush. But that happens with carbohydrates, especially the sugars.”

While genes definitely play a role in determining body weight, researchers doubt that the current rise in obesity is about changed genetics. It began around 1980, and tracks along with a growth in fast food, eating out, larger portions and sedentary office jobs and leisure activities.

People now put their dishes in the dishwasher and their clothes in the automatic washer. They drive instead of walk, spend hours at computers, and regularly dine out at fast-food restaurants and vending machines instead of making meals from scratch.

The number of meals eaten away from home in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the last two decades to almost 30 per cent in 1995, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Where people eat really shouldn’t matter, but convenience foods and restaurant fare are frequently high in carbohydrates.

Health Canada recommends consuming 55 per cent of daily calories as carbohydrates — about 330 grams a day on a 2,400-calorie diet. Low-carb adherents suggest far less: the popular Atkins diet prescribes just five grams of carbs a day to start out with, and it’s not uncommon for seasoned Atkinsonians to level out at around 20 to 50 grams a day.

But the bigger issue is whether people are even managing to hold their intake to 55 per cent, and are balancing their overall calorie consumption with the amount of activity in their lives.

If they’re eating fast food with any regularity, the answer is likely no. As well as being extremely high in fat, fast foods are also high in carbohydrates. As Corinne Netzer notes in her Complete Book of Food Counts, the standard fast-food burger starts at around 38 grams and climbs as high as 60. A medium-size chocolate milkshake at Burger King contains 105 grams of carbs; super-size fries at McDonald’s contain 61. And watch out for those low-fat muffins and pastries, some of which contain almost 70 grams.

Gram for gram, junk food is even higher in carbs, particularly pop. It’s no coincidence that children’s obesity rates in the U.S. have tripled right along with their daily consumption of pop in the last three decades, which has risen to 520 grams a day for boys and 337 for girls.

But even those who avoid fast food can still end up eating more carbohydrates than they’re burning off. Fruit juice is high in them, as are a surprising number of low-fat products in which sugar has been added to make up for the lack of flavour from fats.

“I think carbs are the closest we’ve come to understanding the problems of the Western diet,” says Ken Peters, senior nutritional consultant at Lifestyle Market. “Carbs first thing in the morning or last thing at night are the worst, because you get that blood-sugar spike. Starting the day with a glass of orange juice is like starting it with a cup of Coke as far as your pancreas is concerned.”

A trip every couple of months to the fast-food counter isn’t going to hurt anyone, says Stanwick, who admits to the occasional foray himself. “But one in every three meals, that’s a little different,” he says.

He saw an old TV episode of The Honeymooners recently that highlighted just how dramatically body types have changed over the years.

“Back in those days, Ralph Cramden was thought to be a really fat guy,” says Stanwick. “Now, he’d blend right in.”

Unfortunately, fast food is the only restaurant meal affordable to lower-income families, and the simple carbohydrates found in macaroni and white bread are all that they can afford for their kitchens. In developed countries, that reality is resulting in a disturbing link between poverty and obesity, especially for women.

In the United States, the ongoing National Longitudinal Survey of Youth has found that adult women who were obese by late adolescence on average went on to have less post-secondary education, a lower rate of marriage, smaller incomes and higher rates of poverty. The social handicap lingers even among those who eventually lose weight.

Negative attitudes toward the obese are seen in children as young as six, Pediatrics magazine reported in a 1998 issue.

Michelle Morand, head counsellor at Victoria’s Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues (CEDRIC) Centre, meets a disproportionate number of women who eat to hide self-esteem issues.

“There’s such a prejudice, so much shame,” says Morand. “People are reaching for food when they’re not hungry because they’re using it as a coping strategy. It’s like spending all your money, or gambling, or alcohol — people are ‘numbing out’ using food. And that can become a problem in itself, but our focus is to view the weight gain as a symptom of something else.”

Another kind of poverty — in this case, that of cash-starved schools looking for money to pay for after-hours sports activities and equipment — has dramatically increased young people’s access to snack foods in the past decade. Schools in the capital region and throughout North America earn tens of thousands of dollars a year by selling junk food to their students.

Claremont Secondary counsellor Lizanne Chicanot looks forward to the day when “it’s just not going to be acceptable” to have vending machines in schools. Reynolds Secondary principal John Harris, however, says his school can’t afford to give up the $10,000 a year it makes on snack-food sales. A large mainland school with a name-brand pop contract faces giving up three times that much if the practice was prohibited, he estimates.

“One hundred per cent of that money goes to helping kids do extracurricular activities,” says Harris, who worked with Ryan Vending a year ago to reduce the prices of the healthiest fare in the school’s vending machines. “We paid for 18 fall-season teams in the first three months of school here at Reynolds with money from our sales. Where’s that money going to come from?”

Such social and emotional considerations quickly complicate the debate around obesity, says UVic biochemistry professor Tom Buckley.

People eat when they’re lonely, and when they’re bored. They eat to forget a broken heart. They eat because that’s what they saw their parents do.

Race is a factor as well. A “thrifty” gene in Canadian aboriginals, biologically intended to help natives fatten up quickly for lean times ahead, converts even normal caloric intake into excess fat among First Nations populations, says Stanwick. In the U.S., obesity rates are rising particularly fast among those of African and Latin American descent.

Buckley has taught nutrition for more than 30 years, but admits to being no closer to unravelling the mysteries of controlling a population’s weight gain.

“One of the laws of the universe, the real universe, is that if you take in more energy than you use, you’ll gain weight. Energy can’t be created or destroyed, and that’s that,” says Buckley.

“But it’s getting people to accept it that’s impossible. We’re people. We believe what we want to believe. We have to find better ways of telling people that they’re taking in huge calories from some of the things they’re eating.”

Aware of a growing chorus of criticism around its own role in rising obesity rates, the food industry is attempting to take action before regulators step in.

“An increasingly volatile debate has arising around one question: What responsibility, if any, do the nation’s foodservices operations have in addressing this problem?” asked Restaurants and Institutions magazine.

Snack-food manufacturers are currently scrambling to eliminate trans fat, a hydrogenated oil linked to heart disease that’s common in everything from crackers and chips to raisins and Fruit Roll-Ups. Meanwhile, the public’s growing inte rest in low-carb diets — first popularized in the 1960s under monikers including the Air Force Diet and the Drinking Man’s Diet — is being duly noted and acted upon by entrepreneurial bakeries and restaurants.

In the capital region, Villages is testing low-carb pizza, and a number of bakeries are selling low-carb breads. Restaurants are highlighting low-carb and low-cal entrees.

At the Fish House in Stanley Park, executive chef Karen Barnaby is such a devotee of reduced carbs after losing 70 pounds herself that she now offers low-carb desserts and afternoon teas at the restaurant, and teaches low-carb cooking.

“A lot of people think it’s going to be boring to watch your carbs, but it’s not boring at all,” says Barnaby, whose recent Japanese tea featured low-carb yam noodles and miso-broiled eggplant.

She came across the book Protein Power four years ago and credits it changing her life: “I knew I was going to die by 60 if I didn’t do something.”

South of the border, Applebee’s Neighbourhood Grill and Bar in Overland Park, Kan., now features Weight Watchers points on its menus. Au Bon Pain in Boston has installed computer monitors so diners can check the nutritional content of the sandwich-maker’s products.

Some people don’t want to change their eating and exercise habits, however. They drive the market for the dozens of prescription drugs and supplements claiming to reduce appetite, speed up metabolism and block fat absorption, and a diet industry now worth almost $50 billion a year in the U.S. alone.

But the dizzying array of diet drugs, books, clubs and extreme measures that have come and gone in the past 20 years haven’t stopped the rise in obesity rates. Neither have they made it any more likely that dieters will keep their weight off; 80 per cent regain lost weight within a year.

That’s because the only strategy that works over the long term involves “a very multi-faceted approach that takes time and a conscious attention to detail,” says Ashleigh Gass, medical exercise specialist with Synergy Health Management.

If nothing else, advises Gass, “increase the vegetables and decrease the processed foods. Right away, that eliminates a lot of what’s in the grocery store.”

In terms of health improvements, even a little weight loss makes a big difference. In a U.S. study that tracked women with existing obesity disease for 12 years, even those who lost 20 pounds or less still saw their mortality rates drop by a fifth. They also saw a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in diabetes-related death, and a 40 to 50 per cent drop in death from related cancers.

Ultimately, the simple formula of eating less and exercising more — Health Canada recommends an hour a day — is what it takes to lose weight. But convincing people to adhere to that is the challenge, says Stanwick.

“Is that going to be easy? No. But on the other hand, is this a serious issue? Absolutely,” says the medical health officer.

“This is the next epidemic that’s going to hit us. A generation from now, when we’re seeing life expectancy plummeting because people are dying younger, we’re going to ask ourselves why we didn’t do something.”

jpaterson@tc.canwest.com

– – –

WHAT’S YOUR BMI?

The gold standard for body weight in North America has long been the Metropolitan Life insurance tables. But the more accurate standard these days is body-mass index, or BMI.

A BMI of 25 or more could mean you’re carrying more weight than is healthy. A BMI of 28 and up signals obesity, although you’re not at a high risk of obesity-related disease until your BMI hits 35.

What’s yours? Figure it out by dividing your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared, and then multiplying by 703. Or divide your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared.

Or if all of that seems too much, go to www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm and let the computer do it for you.

A BETTER LUNCH?

A nutritrious lunch menu by aspiring cooks at Spectrum Community School:

– Egyptian feta cheese style omelette;

– Spicy garlic pepper-style shrimp accompanied by pasta and braised cabbage;

– Beef crostini accompanied by hot German potato salad,

– Rainbow pasta salad
© Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)


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Not Another New Year’s Resolution

Accepting Your Eating Disorder and Talking About It A year and a half ago, Deb Purse was ready for drastic measures. A veteran of diets, Deb decided her New Year Resolution would be to lose the weight she’d been battling since she was 10 years old. Her solution was extreme, gastric by-pass surgery. At the time, a procedure with a mortality rate of 1 in 200 seemed better than going on another diet, or worse, spending the rest of her life overweight. After much soul searching though, Purse didn’t go through with surgery. Instead, she sought to combat her weight by understanding it on a deeper level. Deb joined a counselling group at The CEDRIC Centre, and it was there that she began to resolve her history with food and weight. The CEDRIC Centre (Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues Counselling), specializes in the treatment of clinical eating disorders, sub-clinical disordered eating patterns, and related issues such as anxiety, depression, and distorted body image. Their counselors provide bodywork, group, and individual counselling, as well as community outreach presentations for schools, educators, and health professionals. All of The CEDRIC Centre’s counsellors have long standing recovery from an eating disorder, and are proud to have facilitated the recovery of hundreds of men and women in Victoria, BC and beyond. At first, Deb was skeptical. She didn’t think of herself as someone with an eating disorder. And she didn’t see how talking about food would work. “It took me some time to talk about things that I had never mentioned to a soul in my life. It took awhile to even hone in on what my problems were.” In her groups, Purse discovered she wasn’t alone in her struggles with food, weight, and the complicated emotions that led her to over eat. For the first time she had a name for what she did, compulsive eating. Compulsive eating is estimated to affect up to 30% of the population and yet, like Purse, most people have never heard of this eating disorder. “Too me,” said Purse, “eating disorders were bulimia and anorexia. I had never heard or thought that being overweight could be a disorder.” It is often assumed people with eating disorders experienced childhood trauma. While there is a correlation between eating disorders and trauma, it’s not the rule. In fact, recalling her own childhood, Purse conjures up the image of the typical middle class Canadian family. “I used to say I had a ‘Leave it to Beaver’ childhood, and I did. There was never any physical abuse, we never wanted for anything. My parents were normal, my Mum would bake pies on Sunday, and my Dad would look after our large yard and he would fix things.” Regardless of her happy childhood, Purse developed an eating disorder. She learned to use food to stuff feelings that might upset her family. Eventually, she lost touch of her feelings altogether. “All my life I gave the impression that I was confident and I never new it was just a cover up for my insecurities. I had given them different titles like, ‘shy around strangers’, ‘don’t like to rock the boat’, ‘don’t hurt their feelings by saying the truth’,” Purse said. Spring is a particularly tough time for people who struggle with food and weight issues. Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The Cedric Centre explains, “We’re bombarded with messages to diet, and for those who grapple with food issues, diets only lead to binges and self-recrimination. And more diets.” “There are many studies that support the statement diets don’t work. You may lose weight on a diet, but there is a less than 5% chance that you will be successful in keeping it off,” says Morand. Despite the stats, it is predicted that more than three-quarters of all wo me n between the ages of 25 and 54 make diet and weight-loss resolutions each year, according to a nationwide survey sponsored by Gardenburger Inc. Nearly nine out of ten respondents reported only occasional or no success, while almost half lost little or actually gained weight instead, the survey found. Morand says, “It’s no wonder so many women feel overwhelmed, 35% of those with disordered eating behaviors started those behaviors after a diet.” Purse echoes the shared experience of many, “Diets only worked as long as they were the focal point of my life. As soon as anything changed in my life, I would be back eating as usual. It wasn’t natural for me to eat less-I was obsessed with food and it controlled my mind for most of my waking hours, magnified when on a diet. I would starve myself for days, weeks, and then, I couldn’t take it any longer, and I would run for my favorite foods.” Of her New Year’s Resolution’s, Purse is pragmatic, “Like most people, I did the New Year’s resolution diets, but they aren’t worth mentioning. I joined gyms and went on diets but before 2 weeks were up, so was I!” But her involve me nt with The CEDRIC Centre is a different story. “I have benefited so much that it makes me emotional to think about it. I am so much stronger as a person, I have much more confidence, and self worth.” As for the weight loss surgery, Purse is quick to answer. “My sister had the surgery about two years ago. She paid about $4,000.00 for her surgery. I am very grateful that I didn’t go that route. I don’t think she’s as happy with the success as she thought she would be.” Purse beams as she concludes, “Food is no longer the devil in my head. But there is more than just releasing that hold, I have learned a lot about why I am the way I am, and I’m working on insecurities that had accumulated for 49 years. I just celebrated my 50 th birthday, and I am confident that my next 50 years will be so much richer, and more fulfilling.” By, Brooke Finnigan  

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Healthy lifestyle, or politically correct eating disorder?

Katherine Dedyna Times Colonist Vegetarianism a healthy lifestyle or not — it’s up to you. But counselor Michelle Morand is worried that many people use vegetarianism as a method to mask an eating disorder. Victoria eating disorders expert Michelle Morand used to binge on “giant salads with tonnes of dressing” in her years as a vegetarian with a serious food fixation. Based on her personal experience and her clientele at an eating disorder centre, Morand worries that vegetarianism a healthy lifestyle  is being used as a socially sanctioned way to mask eating disorders. “I would say at least one-quarter of our client population is currently or has been vegetarian,” says Morand, 34, founder of the Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues Counselling Centre (CEDRIC), and a registered clinical counsellor. “It’s really clear that people who have disordered eating patterns and concerns about body image are turning to vegetarianism as a way to get away with restricting themselves.” Morand is not alone in her concerns. A leading dietitian and advocate for vegetarianism, Brenda Davis, notes in Becoming Vegan that up to 50 per cent of people with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa are vegetarian. But she writes that “the large majority of vegetarian or vegan anorexics and bulimics chose this eating pattern after the onset of their disease. The restricted vegetarian or vegan eating pattern legitimizes the removal of numerous high fat, energy dense foods such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, ice cream, milk, yogurt, sour cream, whipping cream, butter, and numerous desserts and main dishes containing these foods.” These vegetarians ignore healthful vegan foods such as nuts, seeds, nut butters avocados to limit calories. Morand says people who feel pressure to be thin, and cut out meat for that reason, may not even be aware of their motives. “They’re not doing it because they’re interested in health and wellness,” she says. But it’s difficult for outsiders to question a choice ostensibly made for ethical or health reasons. Meredith Weiss, 23, a Saanich accountant who has been a strict vegetarian for two-and-a-half years, couldn’t disagree more. “I think that’s absolutely silly,” she says. “I’ve heard of people going vegetarian to lose weight and it certainly helps,” she says, but that has nothing to do with eating disorders. “The vegetarians I know are all healthy.” But recent studies dovetail with the concerns of Davis and Morand. A 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that “self-reported vegetarianism may be a marker for college women at risk for disordered eating.” The study tracked 143 California college students, of whom 30 were vegetarians, all with similar height, weight, age and body mass. The scores on an Eating Attitudes Test showed 37 per cent of the vegetarians at risk for disordered eating compared with eight per cent of non-vegetarians. A much larger University of Minnesota study of 4,746 adolescents published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2001 found that vegetarians were more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies and be involved in healthy and unhealthy forms of weight control. They had been told more often by a physician that they had an eating disorder and they were more likely to have contemplated or tried suicide. Vesanto Melina, a B.C. registered dietitian and author of Becoming Vegetarian, stresses there is no cause and effect relationship between vegetarianism and eating disorders although people who have eating disorders may label themselves as vegetarians “so that they won’t have to eat.” Melina, who co-authored Becoming Vegan with Davis, says that responsible studies should screen out people with eating disorders from the sample of vegetarians with a healthy diet. A refusal to eat higher fat, energy-dense vegetarian foods or added fats in salad dressings are red flags, Davis writes. “People who turn to vegetarianism as a politically correct eating disorder typically don’t do it well,” agrees Morand. They just cut out the meat, fish or dairy products and don’t ensure they are getting the necessary iron and protein. “That was my case. It took me years to start exploring tofu. So for a long time, I was very unhealthy because I really wasn’t getting the nutrition that I needed.” Weiss contends that getting enough protein is simple: a cup of soy milk, a veggie wiener and a veggie turkey sandwich give her a day’s intake. Morand didn’t lose weight as a vegetarian because she would still binge on nachos and salsa. And young women today doing the same thing will still suffer food and body image obsessions as well as serious health implications. Morand says she’s all in favour of people opting not to eat meat for ethical or environmental reasons; she just worries about lifestyle changes morphing into an eating disorder. Morand had a “crazy and uncontrollable need for food” when she was in her 20s. She thought of food much of the day, ate when she wasn’t hungry, exercised compulsively and underwent six months of weekly and twice-weekly counselling sessions to come to terms with her search for comfort in food and find confidence in her body and trust in her own needs. When she was pregnant with her son, nearly four, she had cravings for meat and abandoned vegetarianism. MINDFUL EATING: The Community Eating Disorder and Related Issues Counselling Centre is offering several courses in the near future. A two-day workshop on mindful eating is slated for Feb. 28-29 at a cost of $150, and a five-week course on Letting Go of Emotional Eating will begin March 24 at Commonwealth Place from 5:30-7 p.m. at a cost of $91. The latter also begins Feb. 5 from noon-2 p.m. and is offered bi-weekly at the Cedric Centre. For more information, call 383-0797. Ran with fact box “Mindful Eating” which has been appended to the story. © Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)  

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