Posted by habbyshabit on September 6, 2003, at 5:15:31
In reply to Re: how about the abuse of food as a substance ? » daizy, posted by galkeepinon on September 5, 2003, at 14:13:11
Regarding Overeater's Annonymous - I would just correct your impression, Gailkeepinon, that people in this program refrain from white flour and sugar. SOME do, but OA does not endorse any diet, just abstinence, which is very generally defined as refraining from compulsive overeating.
When I did it, I ate using the American Diatetic Associations 5 food groups, their portion sizes and the number of portions from each group that would be appropriate to a woman of my age and activity level. With in those parameters, I ate what ever.
The OA abstinence tool I did use was the 3/0/1 rule. Three meals a day, nothing in between, and one day at at time. I lost thirty pounds. I lost my abstinence in the airport on the way to see my dying mother. A year later, I've gained it all back. Relapse.
I believe in the process, but have a hard time with the twelve step/ higher power part. I didn't attend a lot of meetings. I was going to go back to that routine the first of sept, but I only had one abstinent day.
We all know diets don't work, but make eating disorders worse. And I think the phrase "eating disorder" is just a euphemism for addiction. Whether it's addiction to throwing up, eating too few calories, overexercising, overeating compulsively, Junk food cravings that MUST be met, etc.
I do think some of us are true addicts to food.
Why we are, where the addiction is located - in the brain, in the foods, in our psyche - I just don't know. It does seem to run in families...
poster:habbyshabit
thread:257208
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20030903/msgs/257525.html