The Dr. Oz Show
Airdate: September 19, 2012
Dr. Oz: Dying To Eat – Inside The
Secret World Of Binge Eaters
- Inside the hidden world of binge eating
- Moms share their struggle with food
addiction
Dr. Oz goes inside the world of binge
eating. Moms talk about their addiction to eating and how they
struggle to overcome what has taken over their lives and their
health.
Photo credit:
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Dr. Oz: Dying To Eat – Inside
The Secret World Of Binge Eaters
Binge eating: When the pain of life
drives a person to eat uncontrollably. Moms share their secret
struggle with binge eating, how it's taken over their lives, and how
they fear for their children.
Kelly, a wife and mother, said from
morning to night food consumes her every thought. There is no control
for her around food. Any stress in her life will trigger a binge.
Grabbing anything she can, Kelly said it's an animal instinct. She
can't get the food in to her mouth fast enough, she loses track of
time, her body goes numb.
Then it all crashes. Snapping back into
focus, she sees how much she ate and is disgusted. Guilt sets in.
Kelly says binging is ruining her life.
Seeing herself on video eating, Kelly
says she sees someone who is upset, depressed. She doesn't want to
hide, she wants to be a normal mom.
Kelly's binge eating began five years
ago while preparing for her wedding. She wanted to slim down and fit
into her wedding dress. The more she restricted food the more she
wanted to eat more and the more she ended up eating.
Before she binges her body begins to
shake, she feels anxious, the cravings grow and grow until she eats.
After binge eating, her mind is tired, her body physically hits. She
tries to push the depression down further and ignore it in the hopes
she can stop another binge.
She wants to be able to play with her
kids. She knows the amount of food is killing her. The worst was when
she ate for four hours straight. Her body rebelled and she threw it
up.
Husband works long hours and after the
kids are asleep she's alone and lonely. Her kids don't see her eat.
She worries that her daughter will binge like she does.
Dr. Oz said we've all done it at one
point in life, use food to soothe hurt and pain. He said he wants
Kelly to look for help in her husband. Kelly shared that her husband
knows that she struggles with food but not sure he understands the
extent of her binge eating. He has asked her to stop eating but she's
addicted. At the dinner table he asks her if she really needs to eat
so much yet still can't stop.
Dr. Oz: When Food Takes Over Life
For 20 years, Mary has been a binge
eater. But, binging alone wasn't enough. She has taught her daughter
how to binge. The only thing she and her daughter can do together is
binge eat.
A video of showed Mary and Stephanie in
their living room sitting in easy chairs in front of a long table
filled with food: soda, chips, sandwiches, doughnuts. Stephanie said
you would think a whole family ate here instead of just two people.
Sometimes she's no longer chewing, said Stephanie, she's just
swallowing the bites whole.
For Mary, food is her best friend and
worst enemy. Loneliness drives her eat and drove her to invite her
daughter to eat. Mary weighs nearly 400 pounds and cannot endure much
physical activity. Most girls shop with their moms, said Stephanie
but her mom can't move so they eat together.
Mary doesn't want Stephanie to be like
her but fear it's already too late. Her doctors were so concerned
about her health that they didn't want her to fly to The Dr. Oz Show.
She feels she has cheated Stephanie out of a normal life.
Stephanie says she binges daily with
her mom. She feels good for a short time then feels bad knowing that
she gains pounds at a time during a binge. Binge eating with her mom,
said Stephanie, is the only way they spend time together. Everyday,
she thinks that she doesn't want to end up like her mom.
Kelly said she would never let her kids
see her eat, would never show them how she binge eats. Kelly said she
feels mad at Mary for teaching her daughter how to binge eat.
Dr. Oz: Extreme Binge Eating
Camilla is addicted to eating. Her
mouth waters just thinking about food. She tries to starve herself
during the day then at home she starts eating and can't stop. People
think she's fat but Camilla is 7 months pregnant. When she binge eats
her baby moves around and she can feel him. Her mind races from
wondering if her baby is getting enough food then to thinking she's
crushing her baby.
The binge eating began for Camilla when
she was a young child, her family, particularly her grandmother,
would ridicule her when she asked for food.
Camilla's doctors do not know she is
binge eating. Dr. Oz explained that Camilla is setting her unborn son
up for an extreme risk of heart concerns, diabetes, high blood
pressure, and obesity.
Dr. Oz asked how it feels knowing that
she may be harming her son through her eating. Camilla said she
thinks about the implications all the time but it hasn't inspired her
to seek help, to talk to her doctors, to make any changes. Before
getting pregnant, Camilla was doing high-intensity exercise and was
told to stop by her doctors because it was too much for her body.
Dr. Oz said binge eating stems from
emotional pain, it could be something from in the past or something
more recent. Since getting pregnant, Camilla has moved back home to
live with her mother. She said she's happy and doesn't feel lonely
but has yet to come to terms with how her eating is harming her baby
and herself.
Dr. Oz: The Grim Reality of Binge
Eating
Dr. Oz said he wants these women to
understand the risks they are taking when they binge eat. As a
disclaimer, Dr. Oz said the images and material he was presenting
paint grim picture of the reality of binge eating and is not suitable
for children, they should not be in the room.
All three women were invited to put on
the purple gloves to examine a healthy stomach. The walls of a
healthy stomach are thin and flexible to allow for a little growth
during a big meal. Binge eating causes damage to the stomach tissue
and the blood vessels lining the tissue.
Dr. Oz showed a demonstration of what
happens to the stomach during a binge, such as a four hour binge. In
a large Plexiglas-container, a green bag represented the stomach
which sits above the intestines and in front of the pancreas. He
asked the women to pile in stacks of hamburgers, pancakes, doughnuts.
The stomach stretched and grew bigger and bigger and bigger pushing
on the intestines and the organs under and behind it. Eventually, the
stomach stretched so much that it obstructed the intestines, cut of
oxygen and blood supply to the intestines and organs.
A ultra-sound scan of normal stomach
showed a tiny circle in the upper right corner that was the stomach.
The remainder of the cavity shown was filled with the intestines, the
liver, kidney's, gallbladder. A second scan showed a stomach after a
binge which caused the stomach to expand to cover and squeeze all the
organs around the stomach. All that was visible was the stomach.
Now the graphic images. Dr. Oz showed a
photo of the stomach of a person who binged from 9pm to 5am. The
stomach grew so large no blood or oxygen could circulate and the
stomach died. The stomach was blue and filled the abdominal cavity.
The intestines were crushed by the gargantuan stomach. Dr. Oz
emphasized that this person wasn't over weight, their arms were quite
thin. Death by binge eating.
Each woman said they had to stop, they
couldn't stand the idea of what they are doing to their bodies.
Geneen
Roth, eating disorder and food addiction specialist and author of
Women
Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything,
said she has been through what these women have been through. Ms.
Roth shared that she once once gained 80 pounds in two months and she
broke free.
What the women need to understand, said Ms. Roth, is binge eating is
not about the food it's about repressing feelings then focusing on
the shame of eating instead of the negative feelings it's hiding.
Dr. Oz: Facing Fear to Save Lives
Intervention starts with asking the right questions, said Ms. Roth.
Why are they using food? We want life to be a hot fudge sundae, not
to eat the hot fudge sundae, said Ms. Roth.
Ms. Roth asked Kelly why she didn't start talking with her husband
about her feelings of loneliness? Kelly said it wouldn't help, his
job is to work nights. Yet, as her husband, explained Ms. Roth, it's
his job to there for her too.
After hearing Mary and Stephanie's story, Ms. Roth said it's Mary's
job is to be a mom to Stephanie first and that being her best friend
is low on the list. Mary, she said, needs to recognize her loneliness
and to understand it so she can be a mom.
What would happen, Ms. Roth asked Stephanie, if sbe didn't binge eat
with her mother? Would mom be hurt? Stephanie didn't know what would
happen. It is not too late for any person to make changes, encouraged
Ms. Roth. The women needed to learn that loving each other doesn't
have to involve binge eating.
Ms. Roth essentially gave Stephanie permission to feel anger toward
her mother for bringing her into this.
Mary broke down and shared that her mom passed away when she was 11
so she never had a mother figure. She's scared of being alone so she
has taught her daughter to binge to bring her closer. Ms. Roth said
Mary has to look at the root of her loneliness in order to break free
from it.
The shaming voice from Camilla's grandmother, explained Ms. Roth, has
been internalized so that it's the same voice Camilla uses to talk to
herself. Feeling like she's in a dead end job and that there's
nothing to do about it, Camilla turns to food then shames herself for
the behavior.
Ms. Roth said there is always a place to begin, that these women are
never in a hopeless situation.
These are serious issues, added Dr. Oz, and the first step for these
women is to make a commitment to change, to enter treatment. He's
going to give them an opportunity to make the commitment.
Dr. Oz: Treating Addiction to Eating
Eliza Kingsford, Director of clinical services for Wellspring
at Structure House, joined the group on stage to offer the women
treatment for their addiction to eating.
Wellspring at Structure House is offering each of the women a 28-day
full immersion program for binge eaters. The women will explore what
got them to this point and the emotional barriers blocking them from
success in their lives. They will attend group and individual
sessions to create new coping skills to be successful long term. The
goal at Wellspring is learning anew, overcoming this addiction and
never have to deal with it again.
All the women agreed to enter treatment. Kelly said there is nothing
for her in the life she's living, so she's willing to leave home, her
kids and husband, for a month to get help.
Our
relationship with food is complicated. Dr. Oz said we need to ask
ourselves what would it be like to feel your feelings rather than eat
your feelings?
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