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YOUR HEALTH...
On December 22, 1997, an interview was broadcast on Bay TV (local cable
channel 35 in San Francisco) between anchor Susan Blake and nutritionist and
University of California at San Francisco associate professor Laurel Mellin.
The following transcription was created by scott richie for Winky.
.
Susan Blake: The tragic and premature deaths of comedian
Chris Farley and El Cerrito (Ca) teenager Christine Corrigan*
have raised a whole lot of questions on the issue of obesity recently. No
one disputes that excessive weight gain is unhealthy. The question seems
to be how to handle it. Laurel Mellin is a weight loss expert and a professor of
family and community medicine at UCSF. She is also the author of The Solution.
It is a book that provides some answers to the problem
of obesity and we welcome you this morning. Nice to have you back.
Laurel Mellin: Thank you.
Susan Blake: Let's talk about this and the issue of obesity,
because it can kill.
Laurel Mellin: Well, it's
interesting, obesity was finally defined as a disease in 1992. Up until
then, it was just considered a condition, but I think it's better understood as
a risk factor. You don't die of obesity. You die of the conditions
that come on as a result of obesity, like a heart attack - -
Susan
Blake: So it really is a symptom?
Laurel Mellin: I believe it's a
symptom. It's defined medically as a disease, but in fact, it's not an
on-and-off switch, it's not black-and-white. The heavier you are, the
larger you are, the more you carry it in the middle, and the more you have a
family history of diseases, that are made worse by obesity, the greater the
medical risk.
Susan Blake: So, there is a genetic
influence then?
Laurel Mellin: But that's very
small. Only 5 to 25% of the variation in weight comes from genetics; the
rest is environment; the rest is something we can do something about.
Susan Blake: Chris Farley really has brought up this
issue, you know, for all of us around the country, who recently - - John
Candy, also died a number of years ago, another well known comedian. And,
um, working with this problem, it makes you wonder, what is the real issue when
they're talking about -- because recently with Chris Farley you're talking about
that he'd been on a binge - - eating recently.
Laurel Mellin: Well the real issue
is really not tapped into in most obesity treatment. You can't change
genetics much, and if you just give diet and exercise advice, the literature
is very clear that it doesn't work. What does work is to go right to the
roots of the problem and what's under overeating and inactivity is just
not having some of the basic skills on how to nurture yourself and how to set
limits and follow through. And if that's not implanted in you early in
life, most people thought you never could get it. But now we're finding
in our research that people can learn how to nurture and set limits with
themselves so they stop wanting the extra food and get themselves off the couch
because they have the limits and nurturing skills inside to do that.
Susan Blake: OK, so what's the
beginning point to be able to do that?
Laurel Mellin: The beginning point
is simply to start learning how to honor yourself, how to recognize your
feelings and needs, and begin to meet them. To get your nurturing inside
instead of looking outside for the personal trainer, for the right relationship,
for that really good chocolate chip cookie; and also to get the limit-setting
skills put in place, to have reasonable expectations, not those harsh or easy
ones; and to be able to follow through and accept the essential pain of life
which is that things aren't always easy; and when we do that, we can follow
through with our exercise plan, with eating a little bit less, with getting to
work on time, with spending a little bit less money; those basic skills are what
we really need to solve weight problems.
Susan Blake: Those
are two of the issues in your book, The
Solution; you talk about that. It sounds like it is simple, but
I think for those people who have struggled with weight to go back and
understand those basic nurturing instincts is really a lot of
work.
Laurel Mellin: It is. In
fact, what happens is, some people, they read the book and they already have
enough of these skills, they just need a little bit more; and they acquire the
skills just from reading the book. So, some people need more training and
that's why we have solution groups that are very loving, supportive
communities that help us get more of these skills inside. It's not
about psychotherapy, it's not about insight, it's about how you're functioning
right in this moment, and changing it.
Susan Blake: Those
were two of the six steps that you go through in The
Solution; the next two are body pride and good health.
Laurel Mellin: Right. Some
of the fat activist groups right now say, you know, you just have body pride;
but you know people won't have body pride and accept and honor their bodies
until they have a nurturing inner voice, and they are able to set limits
so some of societies weightism** can bounce off of
them.
Susan Blake: And health is also part of
that issue.
Laurel Mellin: Absolutely.
Taking care of your health, so you have optimal physical vitality,
so you feel like getting up off the couch is the way you go and exercise after
work instead of sit around and watch television.
Susan Blake:
And the final two steps of balanced eating and mastery
living?
Laurel Mellin: Yeah. Mastery
living; we need a way of life that feeds us in ways that food never could; to
move our bodies every day, to have something meaningful that matters in the
world that we do, and very, very hard for most of us is to take time to restore
ourselves. So that we fill back up the well.
Susan Blake:
I have to ask you, in the case of Christine Corrigan, who is the young
girl who died recently, her mother has been on trial*; there is also discussion of whether there is an actual
physical eating disorder where the body craves food and doesn't know that
you're full?
Laurel Mellin: Certainly
overeating causes overeating, because there are physiological changes, for
example, increases in insulin that create a situation where a person wants more
food. But the fact of the matter is those are modifiable. Children
raised in an environment that's responsive, not permissive or depriving,
where the parents nurture and set limits, don't get into that kind of a
bind, or if you do
they turn it around. This is a very sad case. But I think most
culpable is actually the medical community because what happened in this case is
this child actually showed up in a physicians office, massively, morbidly obese,
and nothing was done. And it wasn't that that physician didn't know,
because there are services for obese kids, that give them nurturing and
limit-setting skills and would have helped that mother deal with what she was
dealing with in a difficult situation. In fact, those services weren't
provided.
Susan Blake: All right, Laurel Mellin,
and we want to let everybody know that the book is The Solution and we have a telephone number in case you're
interested in obtaining the book or more information and the telephone number is
415.457.3331, and also you have a website which is weightsolution.com.
Laurel Mellin: Thank
you.
Susan Blake: Laurel, thanks again.
Laurel Mellin: A pleasure.
[end transcript]
* Christine's mother,
Marlene, is currently facing trial for felony child
endangerment.
[from CNN: "Mother Charged With
Abuse in Death of Obese Daughter
Christine Corrigan was 13 years old when
she died weighing 680 pounds. Police charged her mother Marlene with child
abuse, claiming she failed to care for her daughter. Christine was lying in a
dirty bed, scarred with bedsores, when she died of heart failure. Defense
lawyers contend that Christine had Prader-Willi syndrome, characterized by an
insatiable appetite and slow metabolism. Marlene Corrigan's lawyers say she was
an overworked single mother who also cared for her two elderly parents. They
claim doctors and Christine's school district rebuffed her attempts to get help
for her daughter."]
** weightism is
but one of too many stigmatISMs...winky suggests now may
be a great time to visit winkys ISMs
webpage...
The Solution (Six Winning Ways to
Permanent Weight Loss)
...nothing new here in this part of the Universe since
10:07 P.M. P.S.T., Monday, May 18, 1998
last updated on Monday, July 19, 2010 at 9:03 P.M.
P.S.T.
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