The Experts Disagree - As Usual

[Guest guest]

Today was a leisurely at-home day and I decided to finish some IE-type reading.

I had two books and amusingly, they disagreed strongly on why diets don't work

and how we should handle desserts and other " problem " foods.

" When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies " by Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter,

blamed the majority of the problem with diets on psychological factors. Here's

a quote from page 96: " Every diet is premised on two beliefs: that you are not

okay the way you are and that food is an enemy from which you need protection. "

They spend well over 300 pages detailing all the wrongs of society again women

and how basically, we just need to learn to love ourselves and deal with our

emotions without food. They say in order to learn to trust ourselves that

treats will always be available, we should buy massively more quantities of all

our former binge foods than we could possibly eat and surround ourselves with

them. They do admit that we'll likely gain a good deal of weight, but believe

it is a required step before we can possibly learn to relate to food in a

healthy way.

" How to Become Naturally Thin By Eating More " by Antonello, on the other

hand, believes diets cause obesity directly by a biological feast and famine

cycle. On page 50, she wrote, " People's bodies make them and keep them fat

because of their maladaptive eating patterns. These faulty eating patterns

create a physical need for fat accumulation that overrides all weightloss

efforts. " She advocates filling one's kitchen with low-fat, low-sugar " real

foods " and allowing oneself " pleasure foods " only once or twice a month.

Yet both books advocate waiting until one is hungry and eating until one is

satisfied. Both discuss the peace with food and our bodies, and eventually,

attaining and maintaining a healthy weight, which this method will produce.

Personally, I hated both these books. They probably both have portions of the

truth to them.

Seems like some authors want to psychoanalyze and some want to add diet tricks,

but the basics are simply listening to our bodies' signals of hunger and

satisfaction. Think I'll stick with that internal focus and ignore the

" experts " and their rants.

Jane