{"id":908,"date":"2013-09-11T15:02:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T20:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.powerfulhunger.com\/powerful_hunger_blog\/?p=908"},"modified":"2014-04-28T10:53:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T15:53:58","slug":"call-food-addict-reconsidering-weight-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powerfulhunger.com\/powerful_hunger_blog\/call-food-addict-reconsidering-weight-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Call Yourself a Food Addict? Reconsidering Weight Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you call yourself a “food addict”? Does it seem that an awful lot of people would like to believe overweight is primarily a purely behavioral issue and those of us who have dealt with serious obesity must be out of control “addicts”?<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control define “obese” (vs “overweight”) as having a BMI of 30 and above. Yes, we all know using BMI as the measurement standard is flawed but we’re just generalizing. The CDC reports<\/span><\/a> that an incredible 36% of Americans over the age of 20 are obese. Oh dear, that does sound worrisome. That’s a LOT of people. So if we believe that they’re mostly dealing with a “behavioral” issue, what percentage of that third of all Americans should we consider to be likely “food addicts”? Half of them? A majority of them? All of them?<\/p>\n

Would you be shocked to know the percentage of the general American population who may be actual “food addicts” could be as low as 5%, according to a new study?<\/p>\n

Dr. Arya Sharma recently commented on the study in his Obesity Notes blog.\u00a0Read the post here.<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Considering that our culture is very quick to assign the “food addict” label to just about anybody with 50lbs or more to lose, that 5% estimation would suggest we are making unfair and inaccurate assumptions about literally millions of people. That’s bad enough but consider also that if we persist in believing the obesity problem is being driven by behavior and “food addiction,” we won’t be making any progress in addressing it anytime soon.<\/p>\n

I firmly believe the view that obesity is primarily behavioral-driven is rooted in bias. Too many people want to believe that we all experience hunger, appetite, and cravings exactly the same. Even medical professionals who should know better will argue that obesity is caused by nothing but plain weak, indulgent will and poor judgment. This is also the basis for much of the animosity against weight loss surgery.<\/p>\n

Where I believe many of us who deal with weight drink the Kool Aid ourselves is in the belief that we are “broken” and suffering. When the alternative is being hated for what is believed to be your wanton gluttony, I contend that many people hope they will be extended a measure of sympathy if they claim to be fat because they are “wounded.” Besides, in a culture that vilifies and despises obese people so viciously, it’s easy to begin to believe there MUST be “something wrong” with you if you don’t demonstrate a superhuman effort to become thin and acceptable.<\/p>\n

If there were a primary driver behind obesity, we’d know what it is and we’d work at resolving it. If it were behavioral, we’d say we had an “emotional issues epidemic” and we’d need legions of therapists to get working on it. But the “causes” of obesity are deeply complex. We cannot continue with the simplistic views that it’s about “eating less and moving more.” We also cannot continue with our culture blaming and shaming fat people. And more than anything, we need to stop blaming and shaming ourselves. You could never hope to point to one definitive specific reason why you deal with weight. If you could, I’m sure you would have handled it a long time ago. I certainly would have.<\/p>\n

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Do you call yourself a “food addict”? Does it seem that an awful lot of people would like to believe overweight is primarily a purely behavioral issue and those of us who have dealt with serious obesity must be out of control “addicts”? The Centers for Disease Control define “obese” (vs “overweight”) as having a … <\/p>\n

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