worry and overeating

Peggy, 27, has the sole financial and care-giving responsibility for her disabled husband, Ben, and whenever she worries about things – losing her job, getting into debt or Ben’s situation worsening – she overeats in a futile effort to make her feel better. It never does. She just ends up worrying that she’ll get so fat she can’t do half the work she does now.

"I’ve been a worrier and a binge eater for most of my life," explains Peggy. "My father deserted my mother, leaving her with seven kids to support – meaning she had to take on two jobs to support us – and being the eldest I took responsibility for the care of the other six kids and I didn’t have much of a life.”

“All that changed when I met Ben,” says Peggy. “We were so happy in the first year of our marriage, doing crazy things, and then he damaged his spinal cord, became a paraplegic and once again I became a care-giver, a worrier and a binge eater.”

"I know that just sitting here passively stuffing my face with food and stewing over something that may or may not happen is a silly thing to do," admits Peggy, "but it’s a hard habit to break.”

“I’m perfectly aware that if I allow this negative behavior to continue I will accomplish nothing other than poisoning my mind and my body – and, because I don't know whether things will get better or get worse, my fears and worries may very well end up escalating a situation out of all proportion – and in doing so making myself fatter than ever.”

“I guess worrying and overeating is a coping mechanism, a bad habit that I should be able to conquer,” says Peggy, “but so many bad things happen, one after the other, that sometimes I feel as paralyzed as Ben.”

"Rather than stewing and overeating, wasting precious time and energy worrying over something that may or may not happen, but most likely is not going to happen," concedes Peggy, "I suppose I should distract myself by doing something enjoyable – more enjoyable than eating – but what?”

“Ben is a paraplegic,” explains Peggy. “It’s difficult getting out with him and I would break his heart if I went out on my own – even to a gym – and left him alone.”

Read more about Peggy:

caring for disabled husband

trusting vs stewing

stewing on the job

hotheaded managers

overeating and early graves?

Since giving up smoking Emerald, 62, has been drinking and eating more to compensate for her lost pleasure, and now that her weight is being affected she is terrified that overeating will put her into an earlier grave than smoking.

"I don't have any alcohol or food related complaints yet," says Emerald, “but because I'm drinking and eating more to compensate for giving up smoking I think I should re-examine what's worse for me in the long run."

"Apparently, overeating – especially the high-calorie, fat-laden foods that I like – is one of the surest ways to an early grave," says Emerald, "but is it? Now that I've learned about the good aspects of smoking that I never heard about before, I am inclined to believe that anti-food propaganda is similarly based on false facts."

"Basically, it's good common sense that if you like doing something it is doing you some good -- it's making you happy!" says Emerald. "And isn't this what a healthy old age is all about?"

"I hate vegetables, you'll never catch me eating them no matter how good they supposedly are for us," says Emerald. "Knowing this, I wonder why I gave up smoking when they told me to? Why did I believe them about smoking and not about vegetables?"

"Maybe I'm not the wimp I've been thinking I am," laughs Emerald. "Maybe I'm made of the same stuff after all as Jeanne Louise Calment – the lady who died at 122 and was a smoker – and I have what it takes to tell them to get stuffed when they dare to tell me what I should and should not do."

"I base my belief on the following research:

The top 10 reciprocal causal factors relating to obesity death surprisingly do not include obesity. As a matter of interest, obesity only occurs as a reciprocal factor in Heart Disease and Alcoholic Liver Disease deaths.

The top 10 reciprocal causal factors in obesity death, in order of highest incidence, are :
78.22%
Foreign Born,
74.02%
Living alone,
73.58%
Divorce,
72.63%
Pork,
72.20%
Soft drinks,
71.60%
Coffee,
69.69%
Land,
62.54%
Cannabis,
61.56%
Social Security and
61.05%
Working Moms.

In total, statistics of 30 countries were examined for the incidence of death by obesity and 33 causal factors were taken into consideration (personal consumption, family and social issues, environmental issues and population).

The reciprocal causal factors were determined as follows. Firstly, the 15 countries with the highest incidence of death by obesity were examined to establish causes and their values. Secondly, the 15 countries with the highest incidences of these causal factors were examined to establish values in relation to obesity death. Finally, these two values were added together to obtain an average.

If causes alone were taken as established facts then something like Carbon Dioxide rating 60.14% would come into play, but as countries with the highest incidence of Carbon Dioxide did not have a corresponding high incidence of obesity death its reciprocal causal factor was very low and as such Carbon Dioxide did not make the top 10.

In order of highest incidence, the top 15 countries representing 97.99% of the total obesity deaths are :
Austria,
Denmark,
NZ,
US,
Germany,
Spain,
Mexico,
Australia,
Canada,
Luxembourg,
Norway,
Sweden,
Finland,
Netherlands and
Hungary.

So, being obese is not a huge factor in obesity death but it definitely plays a part in the above countries which have a high proportion of Foreign Born, Living Alone and Divorced people who consume a high proportion of Pork, Soft drinks and Coffee.

Less important contributing factors include a high proportion of Land (sq km per 1000 people), Cannabis use, Social Security expenditure (% of GDP) and Working Moms with children under 6."

"Overall, it looks like death was caused by alienation and loneliness exacerbated by obesity," says Emerald, "but you can't put that on a death certificate can you?"

"And, undoubtedly, death was hastened by a whole bunch of diet and exercise obsessed Fat Nazis putting unnecessary stress on these unfortunate obese people who might otherwise have died of Heart Disease or something else."

Read more stories by Emerald related to longevity:

how to live to 122

a smoker lives to 122!

doggy friends

everything in moderation