Project 1 of 12 - assess for psychological wounds, and reduce them
Study: Dieting Hardest for
Emotional Eaters

Reuters, via Yahoo News, 11-9-07

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The Web address of this article is http://sfhelp.org/research/01_emotional_eaters.htm

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        This reprint is one of a series of Web articles and reprints on family Project 1 -

  • understanding, assessing for, and reducing toxic psychological wounds, and...

  • raising family nurturance levels, in order to...

  • break the pervasive [wounds + unawareness] cycle that is weakening our families and society.

        These research findings support the premise that symptoms of these wounds and related inner pain  are public inability to control excessive weight and unhealthy eating habits. These are increasing relentlessly among U.S. kids and adults. See the commentary after this reprint for perspective on this and links to similar recent research summaries.

- Peter Gerlach, MSW

        Pause and reflect - why are your reading this - what do you need?

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Emotional eaters -- people who eat when they are lonely or blue -- tend to lose the least amount of weight and have the hardest time keeping it off, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said the study may explain why so many people who lose weight gain it all back.

"We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, the less weight they lost," Heather Niemeier, an obesity researcher at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a statement.

"Amongst successful weight losers, those who report emotional eating are more likely to regain," said Niemeier, whose study appears in the journal Obesity.

The study included 286 overweight men and women who were participating in a behavioral weight loss program.

A second group consisted of more than 3,300 adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.

Niemeier and her team analyzed responses to an eating inventory questionnaire.

They focused on people who ate because of external influences, such as people who eat too much at parties, and people who ate because of internal influences, such as feeling lonely or as a reward.

What they found is that the more a person ate for internal reasons, the less weight they lost over time.

"Our results suggest that we need to pay more attention to eating triggered by emotions or thoughts as they clearly play a significant role in weight loss," Niemeier said.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Perspective

        This NIH study supports this nonprofit Web site's premises that...

  • "emotionally troubled" (psychologically wounded) people use unhealthy compulsions like addictions to comfort themselves, and...

  • they are more prone to related emotional problems, serious illness, and premature death than more wholistically-healthy people.

This study doesn't comment on food/eating addiction, or explore the likely connection between signif-icant childhood neglect (i.e. low-nurturance family environments) and the psychological wounds that trigger unhealthy eating.

        The study authors conclude "...we (Americans) need to pay more attention to (self-comforting  eating)" and "weight control." Like many other researchers, they stopped short of examining why so many adults and kids need to distract and comfort themselves with chemicals and compulsive activities like overwork, gambling, and sexual excitement.

        Premise from 27 years' research: compulsive overeating, obesity, and unsuccessful dieting are epidemic symptoms of the primary problem: public apathy and denial of the silent toxic [wounds + unawareness] cycle that causes unwise child conceptions, inadequate parenting, and unintended child neglect. For three powerful ways you can help to break this epidemic cycle, see this.

        For more perspective, see these similar recent research summaries:

        Notice what you're thinking and feeling now. Recall why you read this - did you get what you need-ed? If so, what do you need to do now? If not, what do you need? Who's answering these questions - your wise resident true Self, or "someone else"?

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