Who is feeding them?

Can you be sure it's got anything to do with food?

orca I can see from your post that you or anyone close to you have probably never had any issues with food. Have never had to use food as something to hide behind. Please dont judge people until you have all the facts.

Where did I judge?

Sorry I assumed in your post that by asking " who keeps feeding these unfortunates" that it was a form of judgement, my apologies if that was not intended.

I was trying not to be judgemental but to be fair I find it hard to understand. My query was directed at those who are caring for these people and providing their food.

I've seem several of these type of programs.They intimidate family and friends,call delivery people of fast foods,they find a way. some families are enablers and cook whatever they want because they feel sorry or too kind to say no.There is a hospital in NY where they live and are put on low cal. Diets but if they order food delivered the head of the hospital doesn't stop them.He says they are adults and that it is there choice.

Well I'm going to be very judgemental about these types of programmes - I think they are appalling and a modern day version of Victorian freak shows - we should never watch them!

Agreed.

They are being used as freak shows but they must be willing and probably get paid.
I agree with Orca though, there has to be someone else,
complicit in this when someone is otherwise bed ridden. It is very misguided help or love or whatever.

Probably, particularly in the USA they are are so darn poor and can't afford medical care they don't have much option for survival but to "freak show" themselves. Like like the Elephant man or Daniel Lambert who was seriously obese.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lambert

I agreed about the freak show aspect. I sort of wandered onto this channel and ended up watching in horror when I ought to have turned over. But this is a problem that's costing more and more each year. It's leading to an increase in type 2 diabetes, and specialist equipment is needed. And yet it's entirely preventable. Watching TV shows such as The Chase last week I was struck by how most of the contestants were well overweight, not to mention three of the Chasers!
Without wishing to offend other GNetters, though I suppose I will, isn't it time some serious thinking took place about this issue?

orca I haven't watched this programme, but I am not sure what you mean by 'serious thinking'.
A child was taken into care 3 years ago in North Tyneside because he was obese as this was deemed to be child abuse.
However as glass implies obesity is a complex condition, some would go so far as to say it is a choice, and no one can be forced to accept help, even if appropriate help is available.
By the way why did you put your thread into the tech section?
I thought you were going to be going on about trolls

I think obesity, anorexia and bulimia are just opposite ends of the spectrum, do you feel that to watch a programme on anorexia is also like watching a horror show.

These people have an illness whether its over eating or undereating, in most of these cases there are underlining problems, and because we cant see the reason for it does that mean that we should look on these individuals as freaks. I suppose it harks back to the dark days when depression was thought not to be a real illness, thank goodness we have moved on but how long do we have to wait for eating disorders to be accepted as an illness.

Like Orca, I wondered who was providing food to some of these poor souls. Obviously they have issues of which food is a small part BUT if someone you love is a drug addict and is killing themselves, would we just provide drugs for them because we love them? I don't have any answers but having had issues with food in the past myself I think psychological help is needed but the person must want it. In the meantime helping them to kill themselves with food can't be right.

Jane well spotted! My iPad is away for repair so using my friends Kindle Fire and its much smaller. I thought I'd posted on the TV forum but my big fingers must have misjudged!
By serious thinking, I mean coming up with something that would really help people lose weight. Some if these half arsed thought out policies I've seen on TV or read about are simply not going to work. The problem is getting bigger (! Sorry !) and won't just go away. I realise it's complex so that's why some really serious thinking is needed. Please don't jump to the conclusion that I want to take all fat kids into care or other draconian measures for obese adults.

A programme about anorexic people would most certainly be a horror show. It is a horrific illness and people close to anorexics suffer too because of its psychological complexity.

wisewoman that was exactly my point.

But Bags there is specialised help and units out there to treat anorexia, some even against their will. No such programme exists for the severely obese and they continue to eat themselves to an early grave, suffering greatly on their path to perdition.

orca there are some units that help with obesityone at least here in the North East, but I dont think its on the same scale yet. I am sure someone will come back with the figures and blow that statement right out of the water

I have to agree with Orca in the way that, whenever I see any such programme I wonder how anyone can afford to eat so much. When I try to work out how I can afford to retire my first thought is how much I can cut my food bill down by [the bill that I have the most control over]. This is without giving any thought to why these people have become so overweight [which maybe such programmes should explain]. But I do understand weight issues, having been on a diet for most of my adult life and never being totally in control of my eating [eg over Easter ]. Food is a very complex issue in our lives when we live in a part of the world where we can virtually eat as much as we want and some of us [me included] don't have a 'stop' button. Even so, I would never have become morbidly obese unless I had a health issue that reduced my mobility [and people do need help with that; something the NHS should recognise more]. Sorry to rant on [just woke up and still half asleep..]

Orca, I don't think we can talk about the will of an anorexic. The illness is that the will is focussed on one thing. Severely ill anorexics do not think rationally and they behave in extremely clever manipulative ways. Treatment against the will in my sister's case consisted of taking her clothes away to prevent her from running away from the hospital where she was being treated. This was when she weighed five and a half stone. Would it have been better to let her kill herself? She was allowed to have them back when she reached a certain weight. The next positive reinforcement was telling her she could go to my wedding if she reached seven stone in time. It worked. Sensible behaviour was rewarded. Mentally ill behaviour was prevented as much as possible. That's good treatment, not force.

So the idea of there being specialist treatment centres for severe obesity is probably a good one. I suspect the problem is knowing what to do that will effect an actual cure.

So when someone says an anorexic person is being force fed, that's the sort of thing they mean. It's not actual force feeding, though the foods offered do have hidden extra calories.

There was acase in the news recently of a severely ill anorexic woman who had been ill for a very long time. She was arguing that she couldn,t be cured and should be allowed to die. Her parents, despondently, agreed.

My sister wasn't quite that ill.

I heard somewhere this week that genes have been discounted as a cause of obesity.
That probably leaves only that it could be a psychological problem.

My DH is currently part of an initiative being run by the NHS. He wouldn't listen to any of the family who told him that he should lose weight (19st)
Via the doctor he's been doing 12 weeks at a slimming club and it's working!!
He's lost 1 and a half stone in 10 weeks. When his 12 weeks are up he is now motivated to continue.

Dare I mention that I also think that class comes into it but don't wish to elaborate.