Redefining Obesity?

What, eating too much is an 'addiction'?

Perhaps driving too fast could be classed as one too, or wife-beating...

Sleeping?

I don't know where the European court comes into whether or not this country defines obesity or drug/alcohol addiction as a disability. I do know that people who are classified as drug/alcohol dependent get whatever incapacity/sickness benefit is now called. Many obese individuals I've worked with are on similar benefits because health problems associated with obesity (arthritis, respiratory, heart etc) mean they aren't fit to work.

I have just read this crap diet advert that popped up on the side of Facebook.

It sounds just like snake oil and laxatives to me. It is full of disclaimers at the bottom of the article. It's quite amusing really.

"Raspberry Ketone Advanced has been shown to:

Increase 4 Times More Weight Loss Than Diet and Exercise
Boost Energy
Contain High Levels Of Antioxidants
Promote Cardiovascular and Digestive Health

Although we were pretty skeptical, we wanted to find out for ourselves if this product could actually do everything that it claimed. Most of the success stories talk about combining Raspberry Ketone with a colon cleansing product to achieve maximum weight loss. The idea behind combining the products is that while the Raspberry Ketone encourages weight loss and increases energy; the colon cleanse helps rid your body of toxins and allows your body to work and burn calories more efficiently. After further research, we chose Nutra Green Coffee Cleanse to test."

inorganicswetrust.com/index-2.php?vcd=30955421x741x1949

Ana Eating disorders do have characteristics of addictive behaviour.
There is also evidence that people can be addicted to sugar.

The questions are whether and at what stage obesity becomes an addiction, whether it should be classed as a disability, and how it should be handled by employers in the context of the relevant employment law.

Yikes!

Everyone wants a quick fix or a magic pill or supplement. How about 'vanishing cream' that you rub on and all that gloppy fat just melts away

Can't people realise they just need to eat less?

I know what you meant Aka, and I agree with you. I think it is very possible for some people to become addicted to sweet and fatty foods. Or it could be that eating delicious tasting stuff is simply a too-good-to-resist way of escape from difficult life circumstances. Who knows?

Whether addiction can be classed as a disability is a difficult one.

janeainsworth I am sceptical - i think the idea if sugar addiction is over-rated.
In George Orwell's day poor people used to consumed a great quantity of sugar. It was a cheap source of calories for the very poor. However they did not get very fat because they burned off the calories. Orwell cites the miner's family (man, wife and 2 children) that budgeted for 8 pounds of sugar a week.
I think it is on a par with the "sex addiction" that makes a pretty penny for therapists in affluent areas of the USA. Or "addiction" to chocolate or new shoes.

ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79r/chapter6.html

Is there a difference between addiction and habit? I can see that a heroin addiction is real but I am not convinced that a chocolate biscuit with your morning coffee every day can possibly be classed as an addiction. Surely it's just a habit?

I agree Gaga

Gagagran

A quick google turned up the answer:

www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/addiction/

In a nutshell (from what I've read): The psychological/physical component is not an issue as it is with an addiction

It seems some of you may need to be a bit more tolerant of your fellow human beings

jess This is a quite interesting overview which I won't pretend to understand in its entirety
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/

It does point out that research has been confined to laboratory animals, but highlights the difficulty of defining addiction, and prefers the term dependency, and also cites some anecdotal evidence from patients:
'Neural systems that evolved to motivate and reinforce foraging and food intake also underlie drug-seeking and self-administration. The fact that some of these drugs can cause addiction raises the logical possibility that some foods might also cause addiction. Many people claim that they feel compelled to eat sweet foods, similar in some ways to how an alcoholic might feel compelled to drink.'
and
'The concept of “sugar addiction” has been bandied about for many years. Clinical accounts of “sugar addiction” have been the topic of many best-selling books and the focus for popular diet programs (Appleton, 1996, DesMaisons, 2001, Katherine, 1996, Rufus, 2004). In these accounts, people describe symptoms of withdrawal when they deprive themselves of sugar-rich foods. They also describe food craving, particularly for carbohydrates, chocolate, and sugar, which can trigger relapse and impulsive eating. This leads to a vicious cycle of self-medication with sweet foods that may result in obesity or an eating disorder.'

I'm not sure however, that it reinforces the suggestion that obesity resulting from sugar or food dependency is a disability.

It s certainly true that you would not see any fat children in my school photos, whereas now there are many, from a very young age.

I sometimes watch TV documentaries on hospitals and am always intrigued that so many of the nurses are overweight: firstly you would think they would be health-conscious; and secondly they are on their feet all day. One Born Every Minute always shows the midwives stuffing cakes and chocolates between deliveries! - and some of those midwives look as though they are due to deliver!!

Mishap - not just the nurses but some of the doctors as well.

At the age of 48, I was referred to an oncologist, he reminded me of a weeble. One of the first things he said was 'you could do with losing some weight' - I am 5ft 6" tall and size 14 I told him 'that's a rich comment coming from someone whose stomach comes through the door before his feet do'. I sometimes think they say the current line of rebuke without even thinking.

Crikey! Were you a private patient, Holly?

There are size 14's, and then there are size 14's.

That was a joke!

I will never be convinced that sugar, in appropriate quantity, is not a useful food.

Like Gagagran suggests, it can't really be an addiction. If you stop eating chocolate, you want more but you don't get any physical reactions.

There was a series of TV programmes a year or so ago about the food industry.

They said that the idea of snacks in between meals first started in, I think, the late 30's with Kit Kat bars ("Have a break, have a Kit Kat") and was taken up by more and more manufacturers. I seem to remember that Milky Bars were marketed as "the sweet you can eat between meals" because of it's "fluffy" centre!

The marketing ploy of providing bigger servings for a little more money came from the USA when manufacturers realised that giving bigger portions didn't cost as much as the extra amount they charged, and therefore increased profits substantially. A good example of this is the "buckets" of popcorn and enormous drinks found in cinemas.

But do you with tobacco?

It's too hard!

If not an addiction some people believe it's a compulsion, the same thing?
There's an organisation called Overeaters Anonymous, for compulsive eaters, which uses the same 12 steps system as Alcoholics Anonymous etc.

janeainsworth - I have been, our health service leaves something to be desired! But that particular chap was an on-Island NHS oncologist (and to be honest, it produced quite a smile on his face, he looked genuinely amused) and we got on fine afterwards.

jinglbellsfrocks

There are size 14's, and then there are size 14's.

Ah, but at that time, I had an ironing board flat stomach to go with it

That was a joke!

I know

TriciaF

I didn't know that there was an organsiation for people who overeat - I'm glad there is though; anything that helps has to be a good thing.

From my post further up-thread: People with an addiction do not have control over what they are doing, taking or using. Their addiction may reach a point at which it is harmful. Addictions do not only include physical things we consume, such as drugs or alcohol, but may include virtually anything, such abstract things as gambling to seemingly harmless products, such as chocolate - in other words, addiction may refer to a substance dependence (e.g. drug addiction) or behavioral addiction (e.g. gambling addiction).