October 2003

The skinny on dieting

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

Yes, it's true.

In this time of easy access to instant calories, endless "food" options, enhanced claims by (rich) diet celebrities, and more information than you can chew, yes, America has a new public health crisis: obesity. Figures as high as 61% of the population (including our children) are reported to be overweight.

What happened?

Isn't knowing what to eat and when to eat (and when to stop) as natural as other daily bodily needs? Don't we know when to sleep and when to poop? Oops, many people don't do those naturally any more either, so is eating the latest flicker of humanness to be dimmed on the march towards the repackaging of everything natural? Hmmm, let us not go quietly.

When we look for what's hurting, there are plenty of symptoms to report.

‑‑ Cigarette companies have bought food companies and applied their skills in developing addictive substances to food (i.e. Philip Morris owns the world's second largest food company).

‑‑ Fast food chains have normalized "supersized" products and the collateral damage is abnormally "supersized" clients.

‑‑ Schools are so financially strapped they're a bull's‑eye for money‑dense opportunists to swoop in and dangle funding in exchange for access to students' souls (some sugary soda to wash down the Ritalin?).

‑‑ The descent into empty pre‑packaged snack foods has left many unfamiliar with fruits and veggies.

‑‑ More moms working harder and kids scattered into an excess of after school activities, means that the once ordinary evening ritual of a home cooked (not out of a package) meal with the entire family has become rarer, more of an extraordinary event.

‑‑ Our architecture changed ‑‑ there's more sprawl and fewer communities designed with sidewalks, bike paths, and neighborhood centers to encourage walking around town.

‑‑ There's conflicting public education from dueling diet gurus, bookstore aisle waistlines bulging with their newest trends, but who's really making significant changes for the public?

‑‑ Computers have replaced TV as a daily babysitter (both have kids sitting on their butts for enormous amounts of time)... an issue all parents may want to re‑think.

‑‑ A side effect of medication can be weight gain, such as with Hormone Replacement Therapy. While possibilities of breast cancer, blood clots and heart attacks are serious but abstract for many women, they knew the pills made them gain weight (every woman knows when she's gained five pounds).

Used by every generation and gender, diets are known for their ambition, anxiety, and commonly, audience abandonment. Like many of you, I had done diets (pre‑chiropractic): as a model, a model diet (you don't want to know); when sick, a macrobiotic diet; as a triathlete, "The Zone"; and when I discovered political correctness, vegetarian diet. All of those diet approaches were "outside‑in," and ultimately my body gave feedback that I needed to be less restrictive, less symptom‑oriented, and more whole.

I know better now. Symptom‑centric approaches can net partial progress, but to make a lasting difference it's important to address the cause. For that kind of guidance I turned to a familiar source of clarity and comfort, "Stephenson's Chiropractic Text Book." Here's his skinny on dieting (pp.127‑9):

"Dieting...is not Chiropractic. Dieting is an educated attempt to regulate Innate or to regulate something against the wishes of Innate... If it is done to cure dis‑ease, it will be unsuccessful, for the cause of dis‑ease is always in the spine.

"To attempt to cure a dis‑ease by a prescribed allowance of food, is treating effects and not removing the cause;... Innate Intelligence...knows her own mind, knows what should be introduced into the body."

And he continues: "Foods and water introduced into the body when not needed are poisons. Foods and water denied the body, when the need is made known normally, is an insult to Innate and results in injury late, if not immediately...artificially prepared foods are poisons for they are not natural."

This perspective makes so much sense. It's so...EASY, the experience of feeling nourished from a meal and the knowledge that your body received fuel to function well, is distinct from the experience of eating from emotion or stress, to fill up, or because a book declared so, irrespective of your natural rhythm.

Economist Paul Zane Pilsner states: "America has become a healthocracy, a two‑ party system of 'haves' and 'have nots' ‑‑ divided between those who successfully manage their health and the health of their families, and those who don't." It's clear those under chiropractic care increase the connection to their body's needs, they are part of the "haves"; next time you see someone reaching for a diet book, introduce them to the benefits of chiropractic care, don't let ignorance weigh them down.

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at drmadeline@drmadelinedc.com)