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indwe magazine – April 2005
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The Disease of our Times
Alan Ford’s Conquest |
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Text: Sam Weber
Images: © L'Esprit Photo |
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There is a pain shared by millions of people across the world. It stems from living with a disease that is fast becoming an epidemic. Health ministers and practitioners everywhere are beginning to count the cost of fighting this disease – a disease that in itself leads to further health complications such as the increased risk of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. Life insurers penalise those who show symptoms of having this disease since it is regarded to be disabling and even life threatening.
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| Those who have this disease are regarded unfairly by society as being less intelligent and generally less successful. There is a stigma attached to this disease, a general perception that all that is required to shake it is ‘a little self-discipline’. Sufferers typically bear the shame and pain of this disease silently, secretly, while showing a deceptively jovial face to the outside world. The disease is obesity. The vast majority of those currently offering to help obese people are snake oil salesmen with their slitty eyes fixed firmly on a diet industry that is worth some $40 billion per year in the US alone. Across the pond, in the UK, 22% of men and 23% of women are obese, with around 40% of the total population being overweight. In South Africa, statistics are not readily available but estimates are in line with the US and the UK. Obesity is a complex disease, not easily treated. Sufferers are desperate enough to try any (and every) magic bullet advertised. Sadly, obesity becomes a lifestyle that revolves around food and yo-yo dieting, which often leaves bodies that are already chemically out of balance even more scarred and damaged. The reality is this: obesity is a disease that requires treatment on multiple levels. The greatest cause of obesity, and the reason why the prevalence of this disease is spiralling out of control, is our modern lifestyle. Most people spend their working lives glued to a desk with demanding careers and home lives that leave little time and energy for gyms and healthy home cooking. This causes a vicious cycle: the less energy one has, the less one feels like exercis  ing and the less one exercises, the less energy one has. This sedentary lifestyle, coupled with a diet of processed, high carbohydrate foods, causes an imbalance that creates pre-diabetic conditions in the body. This means that, as insulin and serotonin levels drop, the sugar craving is born, demanding to be satisfied. For many people, this becomes an addictive cycle over which they, like any addict, can exercise little or no control – yet another vicious cycle. On this level, obesity needs physical treatment: a balanced diet that can restore the chemical balance in the body, coupled with a realistic exercise programme that the sufferer can stick to. However, the near impossible self-control required to implement these seemingly simple changes should not be underestimated. In beating any other addiction, recovering addicts wholly avoid their drug of choice. This is not possible with food. “I used to wonder what was wrong with me! If I could be disciplined enough to get up at 2am every morning and go to work, why was I so miserably undisciplined when it came to food?” says Alan Ford, well known radio personality and TV producer, who has successfully managed this disease for two years now. In this regard, a crutch may be needed and sufferers will need the assistance of a credible professional, be that a diet clinic or medical doctor with a true understanding of this problem. From the time we are newborn babies, food is further associated with love and comfort. For many people, food becomes a source of comfort with the price built in: as we medicate our feelings with food, we become less likely to receive the comfort we crave from a world that discriminates heavily against overweight people. “I never fit in. I wasn’t good at sport. I remember throughout growing up being teased about it, which just sent me back to food. Food brought me back to a happy place. It was about big family, celebrating, Sunday lunches, belonging...” remembers Alan. Thus another self-defeating cycle is created. There is a void, a nameless and all pervading empty pain that we try to fill with food. As we create the increasing challenge of overweight we are more and more disgusted with ourselves and the void grows. We see our disgust reflected in the eyes of others and the void grows. It becomes increasingly difficult to function in the world and the void grows. We try to solve the challenge by obsessing about food. We fail and the void grows. Eventually, like Alan Ford, we have to ask: “Did I make the fat or did the fat make me?” Eventually, if we are to be successful, we have to find emotional support. The road to recovery from obesity can be a very lonely one but the rewards are indescribably rich. As battered and defeated as obesity sufferers sometimes may feel, we cannot give up. It is up to us to find the right answers and to save our own lives. Besides, in the words of Alan Ford (now a svelte dreamboat of a man): “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!” |