I was taken aback by a recent New York Times Magazine article about pregnant women who are morbidly obese.

It is a ghastly image: up to 600-pound mothers-to-be in unprepared maternity wards. Beyond the demand for bigger scales, extra-wide operating tables and longer surgical instruments (obese women are twice as likely as normal-weight women to require Caesarian Sections), the situation is dangerous. Newly-minted “bariatric obstetricians” are desperately try to manage the risks:

Continue reading "Getting Fat/Thin and Pregnant" »

After another weekend of carpooling my 12-year daughter to soccer, I came across a timely study on the theme of athletes and menstruation. There’s been an alarming trend in teenage female athletes: As many as 25 percent of our daughters who participate in athletics stop menstruating -- compared with 2 to 5 percent in the general population.

Continue reading "Why Did I Lose My Periods? Ask Your Gut" »

Anyone who’s tried dieting has been lambasted with the concept of “willpower.” It’s a voice in your head that barks, “don’t eat this and that or you’ll get fat.” In the case of eating disorders, willpower also translates to willing yourself not to binge or purge or restrict.

That may sound like the right approach to healing. But if you think about willpower this way, healing is submitting to a punitive, parental force that tells you “don’t” when some other child-like part of you says "do." Maybe not such a good healing tactic.

Continue reading "A Brain Teaser: the "WIll" to Recover" »

Even Goby fish do it.

Dieting, that is.

Why, you may ask? You’d think that dieting would be a death sentence for a tiny osteichthyes, no bigger than a bloated paper clip. But some goby fish see slimming down as survival.

Continue reading "Couples with an Eating Disorder: A Fish Story" »

Is chocolate addicting? Common wisdom would say, yes. There are countless, self-professed “chocoholics” who swear the savory sensation of a square of Godiva, melting on their tongue, undeniably engenders an uncontrollable craving for more.

But is this craving an addiction? And, by the way, what’s the difference between craving and addiction anyway?

Continue reading "A Chocoholic? Not" »