Friday, September 28, 2007

Obesity Epidemic? Use The Solution Method

Beginning on October 18, 2007, nine conferences on the revolutionary Solution Method will be held at universities across the country for health professionals who are seeking an alternative to gastric surgery and calorie counting for their obese clients. Joy is not optional. It's essential for weight loss. Through The Solution, a novel method that is backed by scientific research and developed at the University of California, San Francisco, overweight clients learn the skills to experience bursts of feel-good neurotransmitters throughout the day that reduce their cravings for food. The chemical shift that produces joy turns off the drive for comfort eating and prompts weight loss. When used over time, the skills retrain the brain for lasting changes. Learning and teaching these skills will be the focus of a nationwide series of conferences to launch in San Diego in October.

Another magic bullet that, in 5 or 10 years, will prove not to work any better than any other solution they've come up with so far. It might work, if fat people got fat by overeating. But we know that isn't so for the majority. They talk about food as a "fix" (can we say shades of addiction here?) and forgetting about food when you're happy. *head desk*
FWIW, I see desperation here. Dieting isn't working to get and keep people thin, WLS isn't working to get and keep people thin, so they have to come up with something else. Oh! Let's try JOY, that's got to work this time. And underneath it all, lies the assumption that fat people got fat because we can't stop stuffing our faces, not that fat is just one of nature's many body shapes. We're all gluttons because we're so stressed that we just have to reach for food to console ourselves.

9 comments:

  1. Great points. I also love the assumption that all fat people must be unhappy, and that we eat to kill the pain. Sigh.

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  2. "a novel method that is backed by scientific research and developed at the University of California, San Francisco, overweight clients learn the skills to experience bursts of feel-good neurotransmitters throughout the day..."

    Dude, ain't nobody gonna allow you to smoke that [deleted] at work...

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  3. You guys, how are we going to market happiness? It couldn't possibly be a perfectly good goal in and of itself. No, we need a hook if we're gonna get people to be happy -- I know, tell people it makes you lose weight, that'll do it!

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  4. KH, yeah, it's the same old same old, unfortunately.
    Kell, I was thinking the same thing.
    Fillyjonk, it has to be marketed because, obviously, no one is smart enough to figure out that happiness comes from within, it can't be purchased, given, or earned.

    Everyone deserves to be happy, but each person has to reach that on their own, in their own way, in their own time (took me 45 years to realize that and then apply it to my life). Better late than never, I say.

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  5. Yeah, it just drives me UTTERLY SPARE when people have to use the "obesity epidemic" as a hook to sell no-brainers like happiness or well-nourished kids.

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  6. At least it sounds an awful lot less harmful than nearly every other method shilled for weightloss!

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  7. But-but-but what about fat and jolly?

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  8. I really have to disagree with you, although I understand your scepticism. I'm suspicious of the people peddling this, but the underlying principles it is based on sound reasonable, it's not even new, as it seems based on how the brain works. What you are really criticising is the reporting and the fact that it is presented in the context of the 'obesity crisis' do not let this put you off. Also, note that it speaks of depression etc as well. If anyone knows someone studying the brain and CNS they should look this over, definitely. What harm is it going to do? It is ludicrous to compare it to dieting or WLS.

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  9. mumboj, the problem I have with this is not that joy is a part of life, it's that they are promoting joy as a way to cut back on what one eats in order to lose weight. Restricting calories, no matter HOW it is done, does NOT accomplish anything permanently, period. Short-term, yeah, it might work. But long-term, I don't care how long you restrict calories, or how much you restrict them, eventually you WILL quit losing weight and you WILL start regaining that weight. Feel-good neurotransmitters have nothing to do with permanent weight loss. As far as I am concerned, there is no magic bullet for guaranteed, permanent weight loss, there never has been, and there probably never will be.

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