Eating Ice Cream With My Dog (40 page)

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“You’ll eat essentially the same food for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and change up options for dinner. By decreasing the variety of food eaten throughout the day, you’ll decrease the chance for the hedonistic rampages that can be so dangerous.” Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz,
You: On a Diet
(New York: Free Press, 2006), 237.

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Breakfast can be 1 cup cooked rice;
¹
/2 cup (before cooking) oatmeal, kasha, or other hot multigrain cereal; or six ounces of potato. Lunch is almost always 2 cups salad and 1 tablespoon oil. All three meals include four ounces of protein.

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Overnight Oatmeal: In slow cooker, combine 8 cups water, 2 cups steel-cut oats,
¹
/
³
cup each dried cranberries and chopped apricots, and salt to taste. Cook on low 7 to 8 hours until oats are tender and creamy. Makes 8 1-cup servings, 4 Weight Watchers points each. To reheat, add a little water or milk and heat in microwave.

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Legal-but-lethal food is that which is on the edge of one’s food plan and should not be allowed in the house. Katie has to guard against cheese, bananas, and deli meats; Mimi can’t have chocolate, peanut butter, or raisin bread in the house, and sticks either to Weight Watchers, Skinny Cows, or melting half the carton of low-fat ice cream in the sink. Lindsay targets anything made by Nabisco and Frito-Lay as legal-but-lethal, and Wendy’s list includes, among other items, tortilla chips (with salsa and cheese, she calls this the “trifecta of delight”), pizza, and cheese. It’s rare that I eat one serving of peanuts, peanut butter, or Grape-Nuts.

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His statement was made as spokesman for Shape Up America! in response to the news that Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories was taking Phen-fen off the market.

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Radley Balko, “The Terror of Fat,”
National Post
, June 16, 2004.

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J. Eric Oliver,
Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 74.

⁷¹
http://www.msnbc.msn.com (accessed April 2, 2007).

⁷²
As of April 15, 2009, United Airlines has taken NAAFTA and the MSNBC etiquette points literally. A passenger who cannot fit in a single seat, fasten the seat belt with a single extender, and/or put the armrest down, will be forced to purchase an extra seat or upgrade if s/he cannot be reaccommodated next to an empty seat. http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,52985,00.html.

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HAES promotes “Natural diversity in body shape and size; [the] Ineffectiveness and dangers of dieting for weight loss; [the] Importance of relaxed eating in response to internal body cues; [the] Critical contribution of social, emotional and spiritual as well as physical factors to health and happiness.” Jon Robison, PhD, MS, “Health At Every Size: Toward a New Paradigm of Weight and Health,” Medscape General Medicine, http//www.medscape.com/viewarticle/506299_print (accessed July 12, 2005).

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Laura Frater,
Fat Chicks Rule!
(Brooklyn: Ig Press, 2005), 12.

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“Fat admirers (FAs) get off on the thrill of being surrounded and engulfed by fat partners…NAAFA supports FAs, believing ‘that a preference for a fat partner is as valid as any other preference based on physical characteristics…’” Ibid., 189.

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Marilyn Wann,
Fat! So?
(Berkeley, Ten Speed Press, 1998), 29.

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Frater, 12.

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Gary Taubes,
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 393.

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According to the American Diabetes Association, 7 percent of the American population is diabetic. The figures I’ve given exempt type 1 and gestational diabetes.

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M. S. Eberhart, C. Ogden, M. Engelau, B. Cadwell, A. A. Hedley, S. H. Saydah, “Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes: United States 1988–1994 and 1999–2002: The standards outlined,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
53, no. 45 (November 19, 2004): 1066–68.

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The other two types of body fat are intramuscular fat, which veins skeletal muscles, and the subcutaneous fat under the skin, the fat we curse on our thighs and buttocks.

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Glenn A. Gaesser,
Big Fat Lies: The Truth about Your Weight and Your Health
(New York: Ballantine, 1996), 130–33.

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James Gavin, “Diabetes Onset: A combination of genes & environmental influences,” http://www.isletsofhope.com (accessed).

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“Use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your waist at its smallest point—usually just above your navel. A waist measurement of greater than 40 inches (102 centimeters) for men or 35 inches (89 centimeters) for women indicates increased health risks [i.e., coronary disease, diabetes, ovarian/prostate/testicular cancers]. Use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your waist at its smallest point. Then measure the circumference of your hips at their widest point. To calculate your waist-to-hip ratio, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. A waist-to-hip ratio of greater than 0.9 for men and 0.85 for women indicates increased health risks.” Martha Grogan, MD, http://mayoclinic.com (accessed).

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Martha Beck,
The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace
(New York: Rodale, 2008), 2.

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Fructose is found in honey, many berries, true fruits, some root vegetables (sweet potatoes, parsnips, beets, and onions), usually combined with glucose. The digestive system also manufactures fructose from table sugar (sucrose). Sucrose is the combination of fructose and glucose. Jack Challem, “Fructose: Maybe Not So Natural…and Not So Safe,”
The Nutrition Reporter
(1995).

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John B. Dixon, MBBS, PhD, et al., “Adjustable Gastric Banding and Conventional Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
299, no. 3 (January 23, 2008): 316–23.

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Keith Taylor, ASMBS Fact Sheet, March 15, 2009, http://www.asmbs.org/Newsite07/media/asmbs_fs_surgery.pdf.

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This was absurd. At five feet six inches and 419 pounds, Katie’s body mass index was sixty-eight. The North American Association for the Study of Obesity advocates that bypass candidates have a minimum BMI of 40 or more without comorbid conditions, and 35 with one or more complications such as “cardiovascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and other obesity-related diseases.” Edward Saltzman, et al., “Criteria for Patient Selection and Multidisciplinary Evaluation and Treatment of the Weight Loss Surgery Patient,”
Obesity Research
13 (2005), 234–43. Katie had not, however, stopped smoking, which is another prerequisite for weight-loss surgery. This was not brought up in her meeting.

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The bypassed duodenum and jejunum results in lack of iron, calcium, and B-12 absorption. Some surgeries also require supplements of vitamins A, D, E, and K.

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Neil Hutcher, MD, “Cost of Weight Loss (Bariatric) Surgery,” April 20, 2009, http://www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/bariatric/cost.htm (accessed).

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J. Eric Oliver,
Fat Politics
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 54.

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Richard A. Perugini, et al., “Predictors of Complications and Suboptimal Weight Loss After Laparascopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass: a Series of 188 Patients,”
Archives of Surgery
(May 2003): 541–46.

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K. Juhasz-Poscine, S. A. Rudnicki, R. L. Archer, S. I. Harik, “Neurologic Complications of Gastric Bypass Surgery for Morbid Obesity,”
Neurology
68 (2007): 1843–50.

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“Dumping” refers to any combination of the following: sweating, weakness, bloating, faintness, and/or cramping. It occurs when undigested food is released too quickly into the small intestine.

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Oliver, 55.

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Gina Kolata,
Rethinking Thin
(New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2007), 58.

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The folds of skin left after dramatic weight loss are breeding grounds for bacterial and fungal infections and they can be as uncomfortable as the fat was before because of rubbing and girdling. On the other hand, contouring plastic surgery is more invasive than the original bariatric procedure, with fluid and blood collections at the extensive wound site (the resulting scars can run twelve inches), possibly more blood loss, as well as a much longer and more bedridden recovery time. The surgeries—belly, thighs, arms, breast, and face—are not usually performed in one procedure because of the dangers of lengthy anesthesia. Ranit Mishori, “Leaving the Folds: After a Gastric Bypass, Some Formerly Obese Patients Need a Riskier Surgery to Shed Excess Skin,”
Washington Post
, May 30, 2006.

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Brian Wansink,
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
(New York: Bantam Books, 2006).

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See any one of Geneen Roth’s many books on the subject:
Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
(New York: Plume, 2003);
Feeding the Hungry Heart: The Experience of Emotional Eating
(New York: Macmillan, 1992);
When Food Is Love: Exploring the Relationship Between Eating and Intimacy
(New York: Dutton, 1991).

¹⁰¹
J. Eric Oliver,
Fat Politics
; Brian Wansink,
Mindless
; Gina Kolata,
Rethinking Thin
(New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2007); Gary Taubes,
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007); David S. Kessler,
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
(New York: Rodale, 2009).

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Joan Ifland,
Sugars and Flours: How They Make Us Crazy, Sick, and Fat and What to Do about It
(Bloomington, IN: 1st Books Library, 2003), 28.

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Kessler, 37–38.

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Indeed, J. Eric Oliver, who improperly hyphenates
overeaters
, uses it as part of a cultural wave: “the emaciated Twiggy emerged as a beauty icon, when anorexia nervosa became a widespread disorder, when diet organizations such as Weight Watchers and Over-Eaters [sic] Anonymous were founded, when diet books became best sellers…”
Fat Politics
, 85. Gina Kolata discusses OA in the same paragraph as TOPS and caricatures it by tying it to Hollywood and its spiritual ties to AA.
Rethinking Thin
, 58.

¹⁰⁵
Anne Katherine, MA,
Anatomy of a Food Addiction: The Brain Chemistry of Overrating
(Corlobod, CA: Gürze Books, 1991), 39.

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Lea Winerman, “Intelligence, Sugar and the Cat-lot Hustle Headline WPA Meeting,”
American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology
36, no. 6 (June 2005): 38.

¹⁰⁷
Angela Pirisi, “A Real Sugar High?,”
Psychology Today
(January/February 2003).