What do you think?

Last night I was watching “Thintervention” with Jackie Warner. I had never watched it before, but hub and I came across it while channel surfing and I was curious. I had watched a few episodes of her previous show. Based on the eyes wide apart “horsey” look she has going on in the face, I suspect she’s been using steroids (that’s a side effect).

ANYWAY. That’s not the point here. They were having the therapy session at the end of the show and Jackie talked about overweight people using food as a form of self punishment. How we talk negatively to ourselves and hurt ourselves with food.

I’m not sure I agree. Most emotional overeaters do so to comfort themselves – to make ourselves feel better. Does overeating have negative consequences? Yes, but they aren’t generally immediate. If you overeat when you’re young, your body can cope with a lot. As you get older you may gain weight, but other side effects may not show up till middle age (high cholesterol and blood pressure). Sure these things show up earlier in some folks, but as a general rule the gratification is immediate and the down side seems far off in the future.

Do I dunno. Do we overeat because we love ourselves or hate ourselves? Or both? Or neither?