InnerSelf.com

by Dayna Macy. "Am I fat?" I’ve never actually asked this question of another human being — until now. I’m sitting in the office of Dr. Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor in the Biology Department at City College of San Francisco and author of Health at Every Size. “Yes.” I want to make sure I’ve heard correctly. “You just said I’m fat, right?” She nods and...

by Carol Emery Normandi and Laurelee Roark. Unfortunately many girls, in order to look like a supermodel, need to develop an eating disorder and spend a lot of time being concerned with their food and their weight. Bulimia nervosa is a form of compulsive eating where you binge and then purge. Types of purging may include vomiting, fasting, excessive exercise, or use of diuretics, laxatives, or diet pills. Anorexia nervosa is self-starvation. People with anorexia refuse to maintain their body weight over a minimal natural weight for their age and height.

Consider this: 167 million men and women in the United States are on a diet at any given moment. If that many people are trying a solution and it doesn't work, something's wrong with the so-called solution. Contrary to what proponents of expensive diet regimens say, these diets can't work long term, no matter how much willpower you have.

by Nicki Anderson.

The word diet simply defines the food we ingest each day. But it has become a four-letter word or a badge of honor, sometimes even a badge of martyrdom. Dieting has become a national pastime, with everyone waiting in line for the next diet of the month, guaranteed to make us all fit and trim.

by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.

Emotion Eaters are often at a loss to explain why the pounds they've lost creep back again, and they may blame themselves for their lack of willpower. But, in truth, it's really a lack of self-awareness that's to blame -- not being aware of what it is that drives them to eat so much.

by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.

Self-awareness is a key ingredient to recovering from the Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome. There are 16 feelings that Emotion Eaters most often confuse with physical hunger. These listings merely describe the fattening feelings and explain why they lead to overeating.

Everything we know about our prehistoric ancestors is that they were lean. If they finished lunch hungry, they had a choice. Go off for an hour or two and find more food or have a siesta during the heat of the day. You had to really want the food to go to the effort of getting it. Today of course, in the affluent countries, we are surrounded by food.

by Barry Sears, Ph.D.

For generations, every male on my father's side of my family suffered from a similar fate: a premature heart attack that cut their life short decades too early. I knew I couldn't change my genes, but I was determined to find a way to lead a normal, healthy life span...

If we are so gracious with flu symptoms in ourselves, or pneumonia symptoms in our friends, why then are we so cruel with symptoms of another disorder that affects nearly 70% of the American population? Obesity. Do we really think that someone would choose to be overweight? Do we really think that children say, "When I grow up I want to be fat?"