I rarely blog on political issues, in fact I don’t think I have before, however I thought that the Department of Health (DOH) statements on obesity and losing weight were somewhat patronising. They reduced the challenge of maintaining a healthy weight to one of a pure ‘calorie’ equation. However attaining and maintaining a healthy weight can be very difficult for many people and I felt that I wanted add a comment or two. It is often more than a simple equation of eat less and move more.
The original article on the Department of Health website can be found here: http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2011/10/13/government-calls-time-on-obesity/
In the article “England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, set out a fresh approach and called for everyone to be more honest with themselves about their eating and drinking habits – and for the majority of adults and many children that means eating and drinking less.”
I am sure that doctors, nurses and anyone working in the caring or talking therapy professions have found people who are less than honest with themselves about the amount they eat or drink when they are trying to lose weight. I know I have, and if truth be told I am probably less than honest with myself as I would benefit from being somewhat lighter and maintaining a healthy weight!
My concern however is that in addition to pure greed, habit, boredom or sometimes ignorance there are also times when overeating is an inappropriate coping mechanism. By that I mean that a person who is depressed, anxious or traumatised may try to anaesthetise their feelings with food (or perhaps with alcohol or drugs).
To suggest that people who are suffering in this way can help themselves purely by being honest about the amount they eat or drink is not necessarily very helpful. In fact for people who are challenged in this way ‘being honest with themselves’ might only mean that they would continue to believe that they have no alternative to their current behaviour. As a result they just end up feeling more helpless and worthless than they do already.
The problem for many people who struggle with their weight is that the reason they overeat is never addressed. This is why short-term diets are rarely successful. The key to attaining and maintaining a healthy weight is, as we are constantly told, a balance of nutritious food and exercise. However for many people achieving that goal is perceived as impossible because the reason they overeat and, or take virtually no exercise is held in the subconscious part of the mind. This means that it is therefore mostly unknown to them, and even if they do know about it they may not have an effective method for making the changes they seek.
My experience and that of others is that some talking therapies, amongst them Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Hypnotherapy can be of real benefit in helping with weight loss. These therapies seek to change the unhealthy beliefs and demands which cause unhealthy negative emotions and their consequences into healthier beliefs, preferences and a more positive, accepting and assertive mindset. I would have liked the DOH to have given some consideration to those aspects of what is for many people a debilitating and demeaning problem.