NYC in-patient rehab hospital for the morbidly obese
 

One year in Canada, there was a documentary of a NYC inpatient rehab facility for the morbidly obese. I have never heard about it since and wonder if it is still in existence.

The documentary interviewed both in-patients and staff. No mention was made of the type of diet at the facility but several patients complained of its tastelessness (low-fat?) and others complained about the amount of food given (low calorie?).

Emphasis seemed to be placed on exercise and diet, limited visiting, an admission that some patients ordered and received pizzas - no control?

I have never heard of any results - positive or negative - and I have never heard of them again

Anyone else see the program?

I've never heard of it, but with the apparently low-cal/low-fat food, and exercise, it sounds a lot like a hospital version of Biggest Loser, only without the fame and prize incentive to do whatever it takes to lose weight (hence ordering pizzas).

I disturbs me that they referred to it as a rehab facility, because it sounds like they consider overeating to be purely a food addiction, which means they were trying to treat it as if its just like a drug addiction or alcoholism. It's not the same. It's certainly possible to go your entire life without doing drugs or drinking alcohol - but food is a necessary part of life, just like breathing. If it was a true addiction, they'd need to cut out food altogether, for the rest of their lives. The real problem seems to come down to what you're eating, especially in a world where processed food corporations do everything they possibly can to create perfectly legal addictive substances: "foods" designed to make you want more, more, more.

I too intensely dislike the term 'food addiction'.

Every animal on earth has a food addiction. If we quit eating we'll starve to death.

I also think different people are obese for different reasons. What works for one may or may not work for another.

I don't like rehab either, but don't have a suggestion that seems better.

Bob

Did not see that program, but would take a wild guess that it didn’t survive due economic reasons. Housing and feeding patients in New York City is very expensive.

Also expensive, but would be less so than NYC, are the various Duke University weight loss programs that have existed for decades and Only this spring had to suspend operations. The Duke Diet and Fitness program is now directed by Dr. Will Yancey and did offer since his arrival both LF Calorie Counting and very low carb options. I know nothing beyond the announcement in late June that the residential program will end.

https://dukeintegrativemedicine.org...rogram-changes/


Structure House, another program in Durham, is reopened. https://www.structurehouse.com/
Large website, but I think their healthy eating plans are the eat less, move more basics.

Thanks for these links, Janet.
I do think that residential treatment programs are a good idea, especially for those who are in the triple digits starting with 3
Just as resident programs for alcoholics - such as the Betty Ford Center - help to jump start a life of sobriety with education, exercise, group meetings, etc - residential programs for the morbidly obese could help many jump start a dietary program. The support offered during the withdrawal period both medical and psychological would be as beneficial as it is for alcoholics. The basic premise of accepting that "I have a problem with carbs" is similar to accepting "I have a problem with alcohol."

The other thing I like about residential programs is the medical supervision beginning with a physical and blood work. Establishing baseline health issues would direct program objectives for each person.

I wish there were more of them and that they were more widely advertised.

Then again, I can see how it is the same. The substance itself used to be blamed for addiction: it's an "addicting substance."

But a few decades of open-minded research has changed that view. For one thing, we can become like addicts when it comes to our own body chemicals. Obsessive shopping and gaming and gambling can flip the dopamine switch where our brain gets a burst of good feeling from "accomplishing something."

Adrenaline cravers or the lure of comfort foods all create happy chemicals in our brains. When someone leads a properly supported life, without the incessant stress so common from poverty, untreated mental illness, or dysfunctional childhoods or toxic cultures, many of these "irresistible addictive substances" have no power over people.

Recent studies on the hoarders among us point constantly back to people under stress and under-supported who hoard because they don't have the tools to handle loss, for instance. It's a dysfunctional tool but it's all they have in the toolbox.

Many of us have the experience of surgery or injury where we get pain-killing drugs and we put up with them until we heal. Or we are casual drinkers or gamblers or we know people who "don't have a sweet tooth."

All these substances and experiences are the same. What differs is how each person sees it, and what their other choices are. The lecture, now book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté outlines this exact process.

People addicted to anything are desperate people. Their brains are screaming for relief and they have to fix that. Having gotten over an Eating Disorder, I could conceivably fit that pattern. I've recovered to the point where I have more, and better, options. I haven't binged in decades. I no longer need it.

That's how the latest research indicates addiction works.

Well said !
:agree:

hi everyone,

The off-topic discussion about hoarding has been split out and now lives on as its own thread here .. Hoarding vs Collecting.
Let's keep THIS discussion about residential weight loss programs etc :)

.

Augh, sorry!

Thank you Doreen!

Thanks Doreen. I sometimes run off on a tangent. Sorry about that.