Obesity, food and fasting
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Obesity, food and fasting
Eating disorders solve significant problems. Yes, you read that right.[1]
Nowadays obesity is deemed the problem and we quickly turn to the ‘causes’ of obesity. Sugar is a major culprit. Alcohol is a troublemaker. Grains dumb us down and cause brain disorders. And yes, all of that is true. Humanity is largely eating and drinking itself into many disorders and obesity is the obvious one, but not the only one.
But what is the root cause of food disorders (both obesity and anorexia)?
The finger points at psychodynamic issues… these are arising from adverse experiences, triggering (otherwise) latent body memory problems. These are usually serious adverse childhood issues.
For an obese person it could well be terrifying to return to a ‘normal’ body mass index (BMI) because that person will fear what happened way back, when he/ she was that ‘normal’ body mass and may have then encountered physical abuse, rape, verbal abuse, torture, isolation, bullying, rejection, separation, consequences of parental divorce, consequences of drug or alcohol abusive parenting, domestic violence, and so on. These fears are most often buried below our consciousness. There is a choice and that choice may well be that it is preferable to stay obese or anorexic rather than to return to a physical state that may attract the abusive circumstances again. Those originating circumstances could have been that terrifying. They don’t just fear the event being repeated – by remembering the actual event that happened back then, they also eat to numb that re-feeling.
It is rare to find someone born obese – humans become obese because they seek the layered protection of food from past abuse and from re-feeling the memory of the abuse.
Food is used for comfort. Food is used for protection. The abuse of food can be used to lock out the rest of society and to keep a protective distance from abusive people. There are unspoken benefits derived from poor food habits; secrets well kept, sometimes sub-consciously kept.
Sugar, processed foods, sugary drinks, alcohol, grains and dairy simply become conduits for protection. Non-serving foods are just pawns in the game of hide and seek played out by one’s inner knowing and one’s worst experiences.
It is never about food.
A fair question to pose: which is the bigger drug? Party drugs? Prescription drugs? Alcohol? Or food itself? Look around and the answer is obvious.
It would be easy to address obesity issues by fasting, supported by some key nutritional supplements during the fasting process. The body will happily feed away on the body’s fat reserves until the normal BMI has been attained. Obese people can never be hungry. But unfortunately, there is a hurdle that blocks the path of fasting. It is called the psychoactive benefits of foods – those benefits that protect or prevent the individual from feeling his or her hurts. The psychoactive benefits of food lead to the compulsive use (or avoidance) of food.
Diets don’t work because they do not deal with the psychodynamic issues.
Often, the biggest losers of weight are the quickest to return to the obese state because, although the fasting may have worked, it lacked the foundation of having dealt with that person’s hurts from the memories of a painful past. No foundation. No ability to withstand the inner fears and needs for protection. The food ‘drug’ efficiently offers that protection, especially when those foods are concocted by a largely irresponsible food industry.
Indeed, it is important to learn about real food and that real food is medicine. It is important to know that the body is made for a ketogenic diet (low in carbohydrates and high in saturated fats). It is important to avoid the ubiquitous processed foods like dairy, packaged supermarket processed foods, sugar and grain based ‘foods’. If the obese person can address those often subconscious hurts that need excessive food for protection, he/ she will still need to understand nutrition. Whilst institutional science will support the ketogenic way, the absolute science is the all-knowing body. We always need to listen to our bodies, full stop.
So, for those with eating disorders, it is about removing the shields and exposing, then dealing with, the hurts. It is about psychodynamic treatment first (until the hurts are no more) and fasting (for obesity) second (with some transitionary supplements to support that process). Only then can it be about an understanding of what is real food and a ketogenic way of living.
As Serge Benhayon has said;
“We cannot have a great adult life if we hold within an unresolved inner child”
It all eventually comes back to the way we live or what we know as ‘The Livingness’.
References:
Filed under
Domestic violence, Hurt, Obesity, Parenting, Eating disorder
