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Backgrounder on the Origin and Treatment of Food
Cravings
How Food Cravings and Food Addictions Develop
Historically, weight management in America has centered
on the avoidance of food (dietary restriction). Even when
exercise also is undertaken, many dieters drastically reduce
food intake in order to lose as much and as quickly as possible.
In most cases, this translates to a denial of favorite, high-calorie
foods.
The trouble is, people usually end up craving the
foods they deny themselves.
And it doesn't stop there. When dieters give into their
food cravings, they frequently overindulge. Indeed, for many
chronic dieters, the process becomes an unending cycle of
restricted eating and overindulgence, to the point where they
have come to identify certain foods as "triggers"
that set off out-of-control eating.
Today, many treatment centers and a growing number of books
promote the abstinence model used in alcoholism in an effort
to help individuals control food cravings and subsequent overeating.
In this model, overeating is viewed as a "food addiction"
and abstinence -- totally avoiding trigger foods -- is the
recommended treatment.
What's not recognized, however, is that almost all people
experience food cravings, whether or not they struggle with
weight.
"It's virtually impossible to live in our society without
experiencing food cravings. Food surrounds us, and we have
many pleasurable associations with food that go far beyond
just satisfying hunger, " says Alan H. Wayler, PhD, nutritional
biochemist and executive director of Green Mountain At Fox
Run. "In essence, food cravings are a normal physiological
reaction. While other programs characterize them as abnormal,
we maintain that food cravings and overeating are part of
normal eating. It's the reaction to cravings or overeating
episodes that sets apart people who struggle with their weight.
Today, in the aftermath of several decades of dieting, if
we've learned anything, we understand that for most people
successful weight management approaches must be based on establishing
a normal eating pattern."
Indeed, the 25 year experience at Green Mountain At Fox
Run with over 4000 women shows that total abstinence generally
does not work. Abstinence is just a continuation of the behavior
that creates and/or exacerbates eating and weight problems.
Psychologists recognize that when individuals totally avoid
objects and situations they fear, the avoidance reinforces
the fear; it doesn't help conquer it. Conquering a fear or
phobia requires learning to respond differently to the feared
object or situation. It necessitates managing one's attitude,
beliefs, emotions and physical symptoms differently in order
to produce a more positive response.
While it might be helpful for some people to avoid certain
foods at certain times, the Green Mountain staff has found
that total abstinence most often escalates eating and weight
problems. It traps people in an "all-or-nothing"
cycle that removes the element of choice from decisions about
food.
In the long run, it leaves people feeling
powerless over food.
The issue is not food itself, but the fear of food and belief
that one is unable to control her intake of food. In other
words, it's not the craved food that triggers overeating,
but the belief that "I cannot control my eating when
I eat food I crave." The fear of a cookie binge becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e., "If I eat just one
cookie, I won't be able to stop; I'll have to finish off the
box."
Instead of advising total avoidance of so-called trigger
foods, as advocated in many fat
farm, weight loss
camp or boot camps for weight loss , Green Mountain helps
participants develop practical strategies to begin to eat
these foods in moderation. Instead of treating an addiction,
Green Mountain treats the fear -- of food, eating and fat.
As a logical outgrowth of its highly-successful Liquid Diet
Recovery program, Green Mountain At Fox Run introduced in
1992, a new component to its ongoing program, Managing
Food Cravings: OPTIONing Instead of Abstaining.
OPTIONing represents:
- Organizing a healthy eating routine
- Practicing eating "trigger" foods
- Taking responsibility for behaviors around food
- Increasing physical activity
- Omitting negative self-talk and false beliefs
- Nurturing oneself without abusing food
With Green Mountain's structured, supportive and "safe"
environment, women develop strategies for successfully managing
food cravings and food addictions. They begin to face
their fears about food and change their attitudes about their
ability to manage their eating behaviors. And with Green Mountain's
experienced, caring staff close-at-hand to help them deal
with anxieties and difficulties that may arise, participants
are encouraged to experiment eating the foods they fear (in
our dining room, while dining out, or even after a trip to
the store to specifically purchase such a food).
Located in Ludlow, Vermont, Green Mountain At Fox Run is
a 25-year old residential weight and health management center
dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eating and weight-related
problems in overfat and normal weight women. Based on the
belief that such problems are often symptomatic of other inappropriate
health behaviors, Green Mountain offers women a chance to
develop and practice livable strategies for improving health
and achieving healthy weights. While not for anorexics, the
Green Mountain program is ideal as an aftercare program for
recovering eating-disordered women who seek a realistic approach
to eating and healthy living.
About Green Mountain
at Fox Run
Pioneer in the non-diet approach to health and weight
management
Nestled in the shadow of Okemo Mountain in central Vermont
on 26 secluded, wooded acres, Green Mountain at Fox Run is
this country's first residential healthy
weight loss program and lifestyle retreat for women only.
Green Mountain is dedicated to helping women get fit, healthy,
and happy—and permanently achieve healthy weights without
dieting by developing real, lasting solutions. Providing serious
alternatives to the fat farm,
weight
loss camp and boot camps for weight loss, Green Mountain
at Fox Run marks its 33rd year helping women feel good again.
For more information on Green Mountain at Fox Run and its
life-changing program, call (802) 228-8885 or (800) 448-8106,
or visit online at www.fitwoman.com.
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©1989, Green Mountain at
Fox Run, Ludlow, Vermont.
This information is the property of Green Mountain at Fox
Run.
Permission to use single copies for personal, noncommercial
use is authorized.
For further media information,
contact:
Marsha Hudnall, Program Director
P.O. Box 164, 262 Fox Lane
Ludlow, Vermont 05149
800.448.8106
Marsha_Hudnall@fitwoman.com
For media inquiries only
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