I guess I am fat because I love to eat

impaired cognition

Submitted (fiction science) to Gimi Kahn from EV, Toledo Ohio

I am obese, 80lbs. overweight and each year I grow fatter. Like so many of my ‘landsmen’ I have tried diets and they work for awhile and then all hell breaks loose and I gain the weight back again. It is a huge struggle and I am losing the fight. Should I give up? Help!!

Perhaps I need to have my stomach stapled but that means I have been defeated in my struggles to leave my eating addiction behind me. Is it weakness, a lack of will power? I sometimes think so but in so many other areas of my life I am effective and disciplined. The ads that are made of combinations of claims, smiling faces, and the prospect of easy diets with the promise of pounds melting away are such seductive lies and yet I keep coming back for more disappointments.

What is the eating addiction all about and of course it is an addiction. I have read several of the posted stories and news snapshots on your website and of course I also appreciate the extent of the obesity problem in our society. I am not alone when I realize that relapse in food addicts is about the same as it is for hard core drug addicts and alcoholics (close to 90% of us ‘fall off the wagon” over and over). I read a study published in Nature Neuroscience on March 28, 2010 (authored by Paul Kenny of the Scripts Research Institute) which showed that  rats, just like food addicts like me, are delighted to stuff themselves with fatty treats such as bacon, sausage (my favorite) chocolate (light and dark) and even cheesecake. I was also not surprised to learn in that article and others like it that eating, just like sex, drugs, and winning a prize in an essay writing contest triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine  which is the neurochemical that is the lead player  in our reward system. Controlling my eating and losing weight is very hard and the way my brain responds to food lets me know why this is the case. HELP!