Headline in the Telegraph: Tackling emotional health ‘key to solving obesity crisis’
According to the Mayo clinic, 75% of Britons are overweight. According to Dr. Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, the problem is “even more serious than global warming.” (Whoa! Really?)
U.K. Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced the Government’s plans for a “lifestyle revolution,” including a suggestion to pay overweight parents to walk their children to school. (Imagine the response to such a suggestion in the U.S.!)
Amazon offers more than 25,000 diet books (a fact that says more about our problems than it does about solution).
Dr. Waine says, “Individuals eat because they are unhappy, and unhappiness makes them eat. Until people have dealt with their emotional problems, they won’t lose weight, but many health and government professionals are happier to treat the end results, rather than the cause.”
According to author Deborah Bonser, “Being overweight is a symptom of what is wrong with our lives. We eat to take away emotional pain… If you don’t love yourself, it is easy to overeat. It is also a response to a bad relationship, both personal and at work. I believe that 70 percent of people who are overweight are emotional eaters and suffer from stress.”
Physician David Haslam, who specialises in treating obesity, says, “It is more likely to be the result of trauma and stress. When people are upset, they raid the fridge to take the emotion away.”
Although some disagree, a teacher insists that eating is an addiction: “It is much worse than any other addiction because food is legal and so easy to get hold of.”
What can we do? Make emotional health a personal priority!
Original Source: telegraph.co.uk/health/3439724/Tackling-emotional-health-key-to-solving-obesity-crisis.html