European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 8, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse By Jane e. Brody the new York times throughout history and in much of the world today human survival has been a Battle to get enough to eat. But not in the United states where More than a third of the population struggles daily Soho eat from the Cornucopia of High calorie foods that has become the hallmark of american affluence. Their goal is to lose and keep off the fatty flesh that once served As insurance against famine and replace it with sinewy slim Ness that has become the National Symbol of Pulcher etude for men As Well As women. But As even the most optimistic statistics from commercial programs show it is a goal that at Best Only a relative handful of the nation s 60 million to 80 million dieters will Ever achieve and that Many diet researchers now say should be abandoned until further notice. Instead of trying to design diets to help their clients achieve a culturally dictated Ideal weight growing numbers of weight control specialists Are focusing on Why More than 90 percent of dieters Are destined to regain All they lose and then some. Their findings in turn Point to a new individualized approach to weight control that they say is More realistic and wholesome and less Likely to result in physically and mentally damaging cycles of weight loss and gain. Quot what i have to say a that there is no magical solution to losing weight a the Public does t want to hear Quot said or. Janet Polivy a psychologist at the University of Toronto. A diets teach people to ignore the natural biological signals of hunger and satiety. Then when they go off the diet they Don t know when to Stop recent studies have highlighted Many of genetic biological and biochemical factors that seem destined to undermine the resolve of All but the most determined dieters. A some Battle futilely against genes that have programmed their bodies to be efficient storage depots for even the slightest caloric excess. At least half the problems with obesity seem genetically determined studies of twins and adopted children have shown. Identical twins Are much More alike in body weight and fat distribution than fraternal twins. And adopted children Are much More like their biological parents and siblings than the parents who rear them. Even As adults those who had been adopted As children continue to resemble their biological parents in body size and composition. When or. Claude Bouchard at Laval University in Quebec overfed volunteers by 1,000 calories a Day twin pairs were much More like each other than like the other twins in the study in the amounts and distribution of weight gained. Some twin pairs gained a lot and others relatively Little. The body cannot distinguish Between intended calorie restriction to lose weight and enforced starvation that could threaten survival. Faced with a Low calorie diet the body goes into a starvation Mode fewer calories Are used to maintain the body at rest and fewer calories Are squandered on the production of body heat after eating. And when the diet ends or whenever an excess of calories Are consumed More of the calories Are stored As fat. Quot diets teach people to ignore the natural biological signals Quot says or. Janet Polivy left work with a University of Toronto students Ingrid Fedoroff Center and Traci Mcfarlane. Foi most people. Only makes tilings worse in fact Many researchers have concluded that the body is programmed to defend a particular weight Range or a certain amount of stored body fat that they Call the Quot set after weight loss there is an increased production of the enzyme Lipoprotein lipase that Breaks Down dietary fats and readies them for storage As body fat. Quot these patients would appear poised to regain weight As a result of the increased Lipoprotein lipase activity Quot said or. Thomas a. Wadden an obesity specialist at Syracuse University. In addition to the diet induced reduction in calories used at rest after weight loss people Are smaller and their daily caloric needs Are understandably lower a on average about 12 calories less for every 2.2 pounds lost. Even such a Small change can Lead to an inexorable weight gain. The signals of satiety a that feeling of satisfaction that prompts people to say Quot i be had enough to eat Quot a Are influence not Only by the Quantity of food consumed but by the specific foods eaten. Thus even after filling up on the main course Many people will eat More and therefore Over consume calories if exposed to foods with different sensory properties for example Sweet desserts. Studies show Many obese people prefer High fat oods foods that Are More Likely to be stored As fat than the same number of calories Tern . H pattern at least child cd of references Asher her genetics May be at play. Finally Many studies have sewn Hai he most Likely to maintain their esses Are net he pm Are the Best dieters but these inc Jse exercise As a weightless Aid and continue c pc pm regularly after reaching their Veigt Cicai. Exec Fra is the Niy no Crug Meiche mown a significantly raises the rate at , a Yaccov calories at rest. Furthermore exercise tear a is calories curbs the appetite relieves emotion at Rione of overeating and increases the Atic thus me c fat which in turn raises the ate at a Man he o r. Of calories. Polivy is among several specialists inc Cave come rely on a no dieting apr can c Ohio Leoo e Acreve and maintain what might be called a heir predestined natural weight. The researchers say it a an acc can a hat Rees dieters from the tyranny of constant Estrain Ana mus. N a weight they can maintain without a cure me a forr. They Point out further that a ices of ust 0 r count is often ail that is needed to counter he most venous Adverse health effects of obesity. This View is being expressed Mere and More n medical journals but it is net known Tew Manv practising physicians have stepped patients that they must achieve an Quot Deal Quot Vei get. Quot it s time we started treating Bedy we get More e height As a biologically determined trait. A Iago. Quot you done to see Short people Nan gig torn Cor Ramss trying to stretch themselves out or Tail Csc e Cam a my around heavyweights m Haces f annexing a whether Seif designed or Meccai v Comoro. Induce feelings of deprivation a hat Are eur Rena v challenging and socially stigmatizing canc if. Foreyt a psychologist who with or. Z. Ten ice on wrote living without dieting Harrison Ucran mgr. People on diets become obsessed Moo. Am obsession itself is . Men 5 id m Foreyt of Baylor University Louie is c undo a Houston explained that the meters Cov mows o an Effort to conserve Steif of using ewer Cai Orias. A deter starts thinking and dreaming occur Moo an Oeter is Likely to suffer wide Macc swings Cutten becoming depressed anxious Ana Fri a e arc m or org to feed As an emotional alive. Quot the worst thing a person can cd in u i a a r Modem is to go on a diet. In Caia. Foreyt and acc Drix aay hat As Man Ash car of people who Cin a Keigm font Sci programs Are r refers who frequently Dirge. Usual to an att eng Hen do Little or nothing m id Hesse Mac Rev Tai cres. Conran to what most Over Veigt ceo e m. A Ivy has found a the pest Vay m Aico Etc e or. Creating is to step them Tom Sim Ming ran m f people Are allowed c eat , Rev in a coined to overeat. People overeat Vren Rev Quot a a heir Ore Opportunity to eat a mod Rev a. Fri Ivy teaches eerie m sat Frau Rev us. f what they wart s is Cream a. Of. M a mat Orves dam Lisue creating s hat a a fit the cacs Tey ear. Van o re am a a. / sans ried. A a a v in a a Mnew Yorac to my everyone was laughing and pointing. They were making pig noises. I just sat there a says Aleta Walker reselling s classroom humiliation. Living a life of ridicule and scorn by Gina Kolata the new York times Aue Walker never had any friends during her childhood and adolescence in Hannibal to instead she was ridiculed and bullied every Day. When she walked Down the Halls at Sonori boys would flatten themselves against he lookers and cry Quot wide Load a but the worst was Iun onizime she said. Quot even Day there was this production of watching me a Lunon a Walker said. She tried to avoid going to the Sonoro cafeteria. Quot i would hide out in the bathroom. I would Nice Dut behind the gym by the baseball Diamond i would hide in the erne Day. Schoolmates started throwing food at her As one a at a table at lunch. Plates of Spaghetti splashed onto be face and the Long Greasy strands dripped onto Ner Ditnes Quot everyone was laughing and pointing. They were making pig noises. I just sat there Quot she said. Walker is fat. And like most fat people she has Beer dogged by ridicule and abuse throughout her life. 3ns Nas Felt discrimination on the Job. She is constantly us dieted to rude remarks and ugly noises like pig Grunt o Moos when she goes out and she has had a Narp time making friends. Despite Trie consistent findings by obesity researchers Tea mos people actually have Little control Over their body weigh researchers find and fat people confirm that society Cornue to deride Tat people for their condition. Studies Nave found that fat people Are less Likely to be admitted t elite colleges Are less Likely to be hired re e too make less Money when they Are hired and Are fee Mikei i be promoted one study found that Necemer sacrifice is ,000 in salary for every Pound turn Are Overwein a people Tel researchers that they Are accosted on tue spree m strangers who admonish them to lose we Ion tier. Trier own children Are ashamed of them. Etui i Nave known that even Many doctors find fat people disgusting and some refuse to treat them. Or e Decem studs of formerly fat people who had lost a get in Atie intesima1 bypass surgery researchers at Trie universe of Florida reported that virtually All said me Woupio Ratnef be Bimo or deaf or have a leg amputated tar be a again a overweight people Nave a condition that is unacceptable in our society Quot said or Kelly Brownell an of Ecru. Research in a Vale University school of Medicine none Amoeo unlike Trie dime or Trie deaf fat people Are sex rna me comic be trim if they really wanted to. Quot its c e Cupie Puni Sirrien Quot Brownell said. I a get a a obesity researcher at the arc o Renn Vivama agreed Quot there s that Tea Vij. Really could lose weight if cetane powr an stopped being seen a fat a be c e an a a a Foj to Nav i i acceptable to Quot a c a ecu a act. Saio do Estner Fiton Blum a psychologist at the University of Vermont who studies the social consequences of being fat. Sally e. Smith Tho executive director of the National association to Advance fat acceptance an advocacy group in Sacramento calif., said Michigan is the Only state that prohibits discrimination against fat people. Smith added that fat people have sued employers and sometimes won on Tho basis of discrimination against the handicapped but not on the basis of discrimination against the obese. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of americans Are obese defined As 25 percent or More above their Ideal weights. And most have tried and tried again to reduce. Often the fatter they Are the More desperately they tried. A t \ Walker 36, went on her first diet when she was 12. An Osteopath prescribed amphetamines and 500 calories a Day. In the intervening years she has tried virtually every weight loss program that has come along a the Cambridge diet the Rice diet the or. Atkins diet weight watchers opt fast twice. But every time she would gain Back the weight she so painfully lost. Quot i currently weigh about 300 pounds a she said. In april Walker and other fat people were in a sense vindicated by a conference called by the National institutes of health. The group of experts looked at data on Success rates of weight loss programs and concluded that diets including expensive commercial diet plans have abysmal Success rates in the Long term with virtually All dieters regaining the weight they had lost. The panel wrote Quot there is increasing physiological biochemical and genetic evidence that overweight is not a simple disorder of willpower As is sometimes implied but is a Complex disorder of Energy but these findings Are hardly new obesity researchers said. For example or. Jules Hirsch and or. Rudolph l. Leibel of Rockefeller University discovered years ago that when obese people lose weight they often have symptoms of chronic starvation a they feel cold All the time Are always hungry and Are obsessed with food. Women Stop menstruating. The formerly obese feel an overwhelming compulsion to eat until they Are fat again. Those few who do manage to to keep Tho weight off usually do so by making it a career to stay thin. They become weight watchers lecturers for example and fanatically Monitor every bite of food that passes their lips. Or. Susan c. Wooley director of the eating disorders clinic at the University of Cincinnati said that it is one thing to say that most dieters fail to lose weight and keep it off and another to really accept emotionally that fat people cannot help it. Scientists themselves Are As guilty As the rest of society Wooley said. Quot it has been Clear in the scientific Community that diets fail yet scientists have been extremely reluctant to let go of diet programs Quot she said. Quot Why should we expect the general population to be any quicker than scientists in releasing prejudice Quot Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday december 3. The stars and stripes Page 15
