Yesterday, we had a bit of excitement in Napa. The local college, where my husband Tom is a professor, experienced an emergency lock down. Students and teachers were not allowed to leave their classrooms from about 2 PM to about 5:30 PM because two armed "bank" robbers chose to hide out in the campus library. The stress of the situation was not helped by the fact that yesterday was the anniversary of the Columbine shootings.
All ended well (robbers captured, no injuries to anyone) and because I was working sans radio or television I was oblivious to my husband's plight until he called to say he'd been authorized to leave the campus. In trying to find some news of the incident prior to my husband's arrival home I happened upon an hour-by-hour blog of the event at the Napa Valley Register (NVR) web site. I read everything so I could ask intelligible questions of my husband's experience.
Because the outcome was known and I had not been worried for hours about a loved one's safety, I was able to read with curiosity and no emotionality. As I reviewed the bloggers' comments I was stunned by one entry which stated, "" Great Job by SWAT...thank God this turned out OK. Not to be rude, but I thought Napa PD had the same fitness standards as Napa FD??? Anyways, great job by the Cops! "
The compliments this writer exalted were sandwiched between a weightist remark! Whenever I read or hear the opening phrase, "Not to be rude ..." I know I'm about to read or hear something rude. This blogger did not disappoint. Here was a situation where other bloggers were asking if readers knew how they could get information on the whereabouts of their children--many wondering about the plight of the little ones at the campus child care center--and this writer chooses to make a rude comment about a police officer's physical appearance. Sad evidence that it is difficult to get away from negative appearance related remarks, no matter the situation.
This morning at breakfast, Tom handed me an AP article reprinted in the NVR titled, "When unhealthy foods hijack overeaters' brains." I often skip this sort of reading as I can predict precisely what will be said. This article, too, did not disappoint. The news about the release of dopamine in the brain when sugar and fat are consumed is not new...the research study quoted seemed to validate much of what I've read in the past: rats love fat and sugar, especially sugar...so do people.
The parts of the article I found revealing were two quotes. One made by Dr. Nora Volkow, chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The article stated that "Volkow is a confessed chocoholic who salivates just walking past her laboratory's vending machine." Then Volkow acknowledgerd, "You have to fight it and fight it." The second statement was made by Dr. David Kessler, the head of the published study and former Food & Drug Administration Chief who advised, "Retrain [your] brain to think, "I'll hate myself if I eat that."
More sad evidence of the signs of our times. If the best advice learned researchers can offer is to "fight and fight" our food cravings or worse yet, force our brains to hate its host if it "succumbs" to its food cravings, we have a lot of educating to do.
My unasked for advice to the NVR blogger and to Drs. Volkow and Kessler is to read Anita Johnston's book, Eating in the Light of the Moon, any book by Carolyn Costin and top those off with a reading of Big Fat Lies by Glenn Gaesser and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. My heart breaks for these people who are trapped by their own misconceptions and misinformation into lives that to me seem less than joyous.
If we feel compelled to make insulting remarks about physicality during an event where lives are thought to be at stake and we're fighting (versus learning from) our cravings then life becomes narrowed and cramped ... joyless. Am I saying that "addiction" isn't real? No. I am saying that when it comes to food, especially food cravings which have nothing to do with hunger or fullness, then we've entered the realm of metaphor--a line taken straight from Dr. Anita Johnston's mouth. If we learn how to crack the code--to discover what the food we crave is trying to tell us (often about feelings or emotions we're attempting NOT to feel)--then we can bring to consciousness the "why" of our behaviors and learn the skills needed to deal with them. Which opens us to a life that has great width and depth...no cramped boxes for us!
Blessings until next time,
Doris
And by the way ... breast milk tastes like melted vanilla ice cream ... of course we love fat and sugar!!
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