Let me begin by saying I am not anti-vegan. I think vegans are awesome and vegan cooking can be delicious. It is an eating disorder trigger for me to be vegan/vegetarian, but I know it is healthy and great for some people.
However, I am anti-Oprah and here's why.
Oprah has decided she needs another "inner-makeover" which focuses on losing weight. Yes, you heard it here. Oprah is going on another diet. She admits she has been "filling the void of anxiety with food" for years and is ready to make a change. The fact that she wants to get over her binge eating may sound familiar. This is because after every diet she ever goes on, she starts another one that she hopes will end her binges. Wake up, Oprah! Your insane dieting is actually contributing to your binges.
The catalyst to end her binging-ways includes a plan to "eliminate caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from ((my)) diet for up to 21 days." I cannot think of a better way for a person with serious food issues to induce a major binge. Just reading about her extremely restrictive plan makes me want to eat a whole cake. She is going to blog about her 21-day diet (she calls it a cleanse, but whatever) on this website.
The blog begins with a short promotional paragraph about what her blog will entail. It reads, "Read along as Oprah talks candidly about her 21-day cleanse and what it's like to give up all the foods she loves!" No, thank you. I already know what it's like to give up all the food I love. It blows big time.
Her blog entries make it sound like this is the easiest thing in the world. On Tuesday, she writes, "I had three meals and two snacks today. They were so satisfying that so far I'm doing great...I stopped by my favorite restaurant to meet a business associate, but I was so full and satisfied after Tal's meal, I only ordered sparkling water. (That's a first!) ((those are Oprah's parentheses, not mine)) The smell of garlicky, simmering fillets and steak Dianne were wafting all around me, and I had absolutely no problem resisting." Come on. I think we can all recognize this period as the "diet honeymoon period". During this period you can't stop praising your new diet and think it will really work this time.
Boo, Oprah. Boo.
Why?
24 May 2008
Oprah Is On Another Diet...Shocking
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25 comments:
You know, I have to wonder if maybe after spending so much time on yo-yo diets perhaps what Oprah perceives as bingeing is just plain old eating.
Even if it is legitimately binge eating, I agree she could probably avoid most of it if she stopped dieting. If she didn't stop after a few weeks, she should explore whether it's a serious eating disorder.
Whatever the case, I do wish that Oprah would learn to stop putting herself through this. How sad is it that she's arguably the most powerful media presence in the world and she wastes so much of it on trying to get us to go on her latest (sure to fail) diet with her?
Please, Oprah. Spend that same energy on getting people registered to vote and informed about the issues. Spend that energy on getting people volunteering to help the needy, building their own minds, and reaching for their dreams. Don't tell us yet again that you've found 'the answer' to getting and staying thin. By my count, this is at least the twelfth such 'answer' you've found. It's not going to last, either.
~ synchronicitous! ~ I have just been contemplating the big O.
She also lets the army, or military advertise in her magazine, which, so far, Martha does not.
Anyways....I was just thinking how Ohpsie sends a dual (triple? *haha!* it gets pretty twisty!) message about the body/weight/acceptance deal....what's up with that? And she's always been fairly self indulgent about making her weight a public issue....just my 2cents...
I feel like Oprah would be even more influential if she stopped undermining all of her success with body struggles. It sends such a disempowering message--I'm one of the richest women in the world, I do all this amazing work, but none of that matters because I want to lose weight.
However, I was reading her blog and maybe I'm being deceived by her language, but it seems like a legitimate program. She's cleansing out the addictive foods, and looking at the spiritual integrity of what she eats. That sort of program would trigger me and probably a lot of other compulsive eaters, but if I had someone cooking all the food for me I don't know that it would be difficult. The only thing I don't get from her blog is that she seems to eat a tiny number of calories... like I can't imagine feeling satisfied on so little.
I suppose I'm biased because I am a fan of the vegetarian lifestyle, or simply exploring where our food comes from. So we'll see what emerges from this program. I know Oprah is strongly anti crash diet, so she isn't promoting it as such. But from the outside, it does look like a crash diet.
Oprah can bite me. My endocrinologist as well. She needs to come totally clean about her supposed "thyroid" problem. At least as far as I'm concerned. As if there weren't enough people out there terrified of taking medication. She had to go and spout information that could miseducate a vast number of women.
Not to mention the fact that it immensely downplayed the suffering that many people who are dealing with much more intense forms of thyroid disorders. Even simple hypothyroidism (not auto-immune) that is undiagnosed is hellish. (please excuse my language, but it is)
Plus she played on the stereotype of "I just got a thyroid problem" with the weight gain. Granted, it's a common symptom with hypothyroidism, but it's typically water weight gain caused by swelling. If there is weight gain, then the patient needs treatment with the appropriate medication. Which is something that she never addressed for herself. I don't know if she ever addressed this further, but the last that I ever heard of it, she only stated that she treated her hypothyroidism with rest, relaxation and stress reduction.
I know for a fact that not all people with hypothyroidsim gain weight, or excessive weight. Even when my TSH was near it's highest (180)last AUG the highest my weight ever got was 150. After they discovered my TSH had jumped so high and they adjusted my dose my TSH was still high for months, but I couldn't stop losing weight.
OTOH, I've known at least three people with hyperthyroidism that gained weight because their appetites had increased just as much as their metabolisms. They had very difficult times getting their thyroid disorders diagnosed because they presented atypically.
Anyway, sorry for this being so long. Oprah is out for so many reasons.
"No, thank you. I already know what it's like to give up all the food I love. It blows big time."
Ain't that the truth.
"You know, I have to wonder if maybe after spending so much time on yo-yo diets perhaps what Oprah perceives as bingeing is just plain old eating."
Ding! Ding! Ding! You win a turkey.
"The only thing I don't get from her blog is that she seems to eat a tiny number of calories... like I can't imagine feeling satisfied on so little."
As the OP says, it's that diet honeymoon period. I remember it well. :)
I stopped watching Oprah the second time she lost weight and started up all the new-age weirdness. I have seen, when sick in bed and not having a remote to change the channel, maybe 3 episodes in the meantime. Bleh. She hasn't changed a bit.
Fetchfox, I totally agree with you about Oprah miseducating the public about medication. Not only will she not take medication, but she won't see a therapist. Incest, rape, eating issues, and she won't see a therapist? Now, that's crazy. Oprah is like the new Tom Cruise: anti-therapy, anti-medication.
Oh for pete's sake, there is no such thing as a "cleanse". Your body is designed to cleans itself of waste products every darn day. That is what your liver does. That is what your kidneys do. Going on a low calorie "cleanse" of any kind just makes your body start digesting itself, generating MORE waste products and forcing your system to work harder to clean itself of the new wave of waste you've just produced.
If diets don't work, "cleanses" work even less.
Sigh.
I am so over Oprah and the way people follow her every move like sheep. And as a vegan I am so over this new trend of veganism as a path to weight loss. These body cleanses are silly. The weight doesn't go away forever. How depressing this is.
There are other reasons behind Oprahs 21 day cleanse besides weightloss.
As she says herself in her blog:
"Consciousness...thought it meant not allowing yourself to eat emotionally and filling the void of anxiety with food, as I've struggled with for years. I thought it meant taking your time, making healthy choices and chewing slowly—being conscious of every bite and not scarfing down a meal and then thinking about the next one.
That is one level of consciousness. But what she talks about in her book is a higher level. She speaks of "spiritual integrity." How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?"
I don't think it is for any of us to judge Oprahs reasons. If she inspires you excellent. If this isn't your cup of tea, then it is because you are currently doing what is right for you.
Regardless if Oprah advertises or not, we each have our own ability to choose what is right for us at the time.
Best of luck to all in life.
"Just reading about her extremely restrictive plan makes me want to eat a whole cake."
Right on! I completely agree. Oh Oprah, why do you diet so?
She's actually really frustrating to me. I liked her better before she became a sweetheart of the world, and she was just frumpy, helpful, not-part-of-the-'in'-crowd Oprah. She was more real. I miss that.
And, Caitlin, just so you know, I keep ending up on your blog, and am loving it. So I'm totally adding you to my blogroll over at jigglbits.wordpress.com.
I agree. Boo, Oprah. Booooo.
Looking at her blog, I only saw an indirect reference to the supposed 'weight loss' potential of mindful eating (though this alone was disturbing).
Of course, I'm delighted Oprah is going vegan, even if just for a short time, as hopefully her influence will sway others to do the same, long-term. My only fear is that veganism could potentially become reduced to a 'health thing' (rather than an ethical decision) in this 'experiment'. Given that she explicitly acknowledges that eating animal products is morally and spiritually degrading, why isn't she giving it up permanently?
BTW, I don't see any inherent connection at all between a dietary cleanse (extremely helpful for many people, and often curative of serious health issues) and advocacy of 'dieting' for weight loss. (I do the former often, and the latter NEVER.)
I'm also very happy to hear that Oprah also doesn't use allopathy for her thyroid issues; I hope that she can also help bring awareness to the possibility of drug-free cures.
I'm not a huge Oprah fan but as a human rights activist and a black woman, I respect what she's accomplished.
However, I stopped watching her show years ago because I got tired of her "let's-please-everyone-but-really-
please-no-one" atttitude. I'm tired of being told what to think, what to wear, what to eat. I'm definitely in the minority
as a size 22/24 woman in my family,
and among my friends for refusing
to diet, only occasionally skipping
meals (usually for financial reasons) and for enjoying the
food I eat.
But when you think about it,
it's Oprah. Diet Queen. She's
always going to be like that.
I wish she would just accept
herself but it's not going
to happen.
Oprah is the poster child of disordered eating. Note, not an eating disorder, although I suspect she has some binge eating issues (only her doctor can diagnose this), but she certainly displays a disordered relationship with food and her body weight. The truly appalling thing is that she then passes along her own neurosis to her hordes of (female) viewers.
I am not opposed to cleanses entirely. Sometimes certain foods can hold addictive qualities that can be harmful for our bodies. And sometimes, in the process of learning intuitive eating, we have to abstain from certain foods to determine if our bodies truly want or need them. But in abstaining from so many foods at one time, how would Oprah know which foods she should best avoid in the future? And someone who has emotional eating and binge eating issues probably shouldn't embark on such a stringent cleanse. I second the blog author here.. it sounds like a major binge in the making.
The only thing I don't get from her blog is that she seems to eat a tiny number of calories... like I can't imagine feeling satisfied on so little.
Like Caitlin said, it's the diet honeymoon period. It's really easy to convince yourself you feel satisfied when you're actually not, at the beginning of the diet. But it's not sustainable in the long term.
Hi there! I'm not a fan of Oprah, or watch her show. But as a vegan, I am pleased to see that she is trying this out and basically mainstreaming dietary veganism. It gets rather old when the news media keeps complaining that vegans can't be healthy and that it's so hard to be one, when it isn't. So it's really refreshing to hear a positive attitude about veganism in the media.
I was delighted to hear that you didn't have a vendetta against vegans, either, because it is not supposed to be a starvation/calorie-restricted "diet". I've noticed a lot of soy-analogs were a part of her meals, but soy analogs are not necessary. Some people may be put off of veganism if they assume that soy consumption is necessary.
I am anti-diet.. and I am for fat-acceptance. Oprah may not be a good role model for the fat-acceptance community because of her ties with weight loss and dieting. At the same time, I still think Oprah can have a lot of delicious dishes and treats by giving up animal products, sugar, wheat gluten, and caffeine. You can make or buy vegan versions of your favorite meals, even ice cream, or burritos, pizza, etc. Veganism is not about deprivation. Raw fooders too, make raw food versions of all of their old favorites. And, in a sense, the food products that she is giving up are physiologically addictive while nutrient-poor. 21 days may be long enough to literally break an old habit. The habits can be broken as long as calorie-deprivation is not a part of the program.
UGH! If she's truly hypothyroid she should NOT be eating so much soy! Soy is contraindicated for those of us with hypothyroidism as it can exacerbate the problem.
I don't have a problem with people who choose to be vegans. It's not a lifestyle that's right for me, partly for the reasons you mention - it's an ED trigger for me. That said, for anyone it works for, great.
I don't think you can just make a choice to be vegan because you've been "binge eating" a lot. I went vegetarian for six months in high school because I decided eating meat was gross. I wound up anemic, and despite my best efforts, I missed eating meat.
Today, I buy organic or free range whenever possible. I am very conscientious when it comes to animal welfare, and since I'm not capable of giving up meat for a variety of reasons, I try to only buy when I know the animals were well treated and cared for and not seen as dollar signs. I buy organic dairy and cage free eggs for the same reasons.
But I digress.
With Oprah, her money, ironically, is what makes her chronic dieting so easy and natural. If you can afford a personal chef, it's far easier to try the new, hot diet fad than it is when you have to do all the shopping and prep and cooking yourself. Having a chef and/or personal shopping assistants really takes away a ton of the the responsibility for your own food intake.
It's a bit like being a dog. I used to say, if I were fed like my dogs, losing weight would be easy, meaning, if someone was controlling my snacks, portions and when and what I ate, of course I'd lose weight!
Problem is, we're not dogs and we're not always surrounded by people. So eventually, that control you give up to someone else (be that WW frozen dinners, Jenny Craig or a personal chef) gets to you - and what happens? You freakin' binge, and the vicious cycle starts all over again.
I keep hoping that she will try non-dieting. In vain, apparently. If going vegan was truly a choice for her because of personal beliefs or whatever, that's one thing. But she's only doing it to "cleanse" her system (hello? isn't that what the liver is for?) and lose weight, and I just want to SCREAM!
No matter what else she does, her obsession with her weight and her poor body image will ALWAYS overshadow it, and she has only herself to blame for that, at this point. She could have made such a big difference in the way women view their bodies, but she has to deal with her own issues, first. REALLY deal, not just get skinny. Again.
Can you imagine if she tried to get rid of her blackness like she's trying to lose weight?
"I found a great new skin-lighteneing program that I think you all will ove. Anyone can do this."
*haha!~*
just sayin'.
* ; p
Rachel: Oprah is the poster child of disordered eating. Note, not an eating disorder, although I suspect she has some binge eating issues (only her doctor can diagnose this), but she certainly displays a disordered relationship with food and her body weight. The truly appalling thing is that she then passes along her own neurosis to her hordes of (female) viewers.
Perpetual dieting, yo-yo dieting, whatever you want to call it, is disordered eating. It is also the norm. How many times have I wished that O could use her platform for embracing body love rather than body loathing!
I have autoimmune disease of the thyroid and I was diagnosed with food sensitivities. I had to give up dairy and gluten grains because of these conditions. I had extensive blood work to determine exactly my problem areas and I take medication for the thyroid. I lost a significant amount of weight in the process (though I'm still a big girl), which my doctor found to be unusual. I will be on medication for the rest of my life, and I have to avoid foods that make me sick, for the rest of my life. That's not a diet--that's simply a way of eating.
Maybe Oprah will lose weight; maybe she won't. If she needs to make dietary and lifestyle changes to improve her health, good on her. However, if there are foods that irritate her thyroid condition or that she is sensitive to, she'll have to eliminate them permanently.
Of course,the best way to guarantee weight gain is yo-yo dieting. She knows that, but she does it anyway. That, sadly, is the power of the pressure to be thin.
Ya I thought it sounded honeymoonish too. When you're congratulating yourself for your FAB self control.
I like her magazine and have bought it for awhile, but last month I got frustrated by yet another "OMG I'm old and I want to weigh what I did when I was 18!" article.
This month's edition is supposed to be a "revolution!" in body acceptance. Glancing through it in the store, it didn't look very revolutionary...
http://www2.oprah.com/omagazine/200806/omag_200806_landing.jhtml
What worries me, as far as this vegan "cleanse" goes, is that it will add to the bad press that veganism gets. Because she is only using it as a weight-loss tool, it will, ultimately, fail. If she were to focus on the nutritional aspects of it, or how good it makes her feel, or how good the food is, it would be fine. But since it's all about losing weight, it is simply (yet) another diet for her. And diets fail.
anonymous #3 said: I'm also very happy to hear that Oprah also doesn't use allopathy for her thyroid issues; I hope that she can also help bring awareness to the possibility of drug-free cures.
As a person who is all for "lowest dose possible", especially if that means no meds, I just have to write "BWAH?!" Ok?
Do you realize that people with hypothyroidism that goes without proper/adequate treatment are at risk of myxedema coma and possibly death?
They are also at higher risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, fertility problems (male & female), other autoimmune issues, bowel obstruction, goiter, CHF (congestive heart failure) and depression. If PROPER/ADEQUATE treatment IS NOT administered.
That's not even the full list. Those are just the major things.
Hypothyroidism CAN KILL.
I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.
My TSH was near 180 just last AUG.
It wasn't until MAR. (I think) that I finally got my levels down to .4, the lowest they'd been in three YEARS! The lowest they'd ever been before that was 40. (The reference range per my endo is .3-3)
So now do you see why it's such an important thing to me?
Add to that the fact that from what I've read here (I refuse to go to her website) that her new diet includes a LOT of soy, well that does not bode well for her thyroid.
You'd think that with all of that money she could see a decent doctor or at least get her story straight, do some research or something.
Meanwhile, I'll be merrily swallowing all the pharmaceuticals that help keep this intractable epileptic bipolar with Hashimoto's alive and only half insane! ;->
oh GAWWD..! Oprah spent a whole show yesterday on the fabulousness of losing weight.
::barf-o::
I cannot think of a better way for a person with serious food issues to induce a major binge. Just reading about her extremely restrictive plan makes me want to eat a whole cake.
OMG, me, too.
I just want to put my two cents in and say that I'm a vegan too, and I hate what Oprah's doing - I don't think she's mainstreaming veganism: I think she's making it look silly and faddish, which (ethical - the only kind of) veganism is definitely not.
Oy. I also agree on the binge eating: stop dieting, binge eating usually quiets down. It doesn't always stop, but... yeah. And as for us starvin' folks? Uh, yeah, the dieting talk doesn't do us any good either, and is in fact a major trigger.
I'll be bookmarking this site and checking it out more.
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