Via a pointer from Michael Prager comes Marie Claire’s story of a woman dealing with compulsive overeating via Overeaters Anonymous. It’s not exactly a flattering review.
Michael’s response came from his perspective of someone who has successfully used an addiction approach to resolve his food issues: he’s lost 160lbs and maintained it for 20 years.
His take on the author’s “pretty disordered eating” was essentially that she was not seeing the forest for the trees. She might find OA “a deeply flawed best option” but whatever your thoughts about 12-steps, admitting you have a problem is a pretty good first step!
To that end, I found this paragraph particularly striking (emphasis mine):
Cutting carbs wasn’t the problem, which nixed Weight Watchers; my wallet couldn’t bear a pricey university clinic. The Anonymous meetings are free, available around the clock online and throughout town, no appointment necessary. They’re sort of like Cheers, the place on the corner where everyone knows your name. And your sin. Also, I was eating sprinkles with a tablespoon.
Guess what? If you’re eating sprinkles with a tablespoon and “frosting is [your] crack” … cutting carbs most definitely is a problem!
Here are this week’s interesting links:
So here’s today’s news from epidemiology world: 
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
