Today on Oprah Dr. Oz, an author of one of my favorite books, YOU On A Diet, stated that based on research, the entire obesity epidemic came down to taking in an excess of just 100 calories per day. His solution (and homework for the audience) is for you to eliminate soft drinks from your diet.
First off, I want to say that I really like Dr. Oz. I love YOU On A Diet and I think that he gives out some excellent information in his books and on Oprah. With that being said, I disagree with the simplified solution that by cutting out 100 calories a day that this will cure the obesity epidemic.
You see, this solution has nothing to do with emotional eating or food addiction. While I 100% agree with eliminating soft drinks (I rarely drink any and if I do I drink Diet Rite – no sugar, no sodium, but even that I can do without) because they are full of sugar or artificial sweeteners, along with a bunch of other gunk. They increase your cravings for more sweets, and they contain 0 nutrients for the body.
However, if I were to only cut out soft drinks but continue to eat sugar and flour, or even eat mainly healthy foods but not use portion control or exercise my body, then I’d still be overeating, especially on the sugared foods.
Now it could be that Dr. Oz has more tips for Oprah’s audience in the coming weeks (it sounds like he’ll be on more often, giving homework assignments regularly), but even so, I disagree that people are obese because of only 100 extra calories per day. Again, the mental and emotional aspect that drives many people to overeat isn’t being addressed in the solution of cutting back 100 calories a day, and I still believe that the greater percentage of weight and food issues take place in the mind and emotions.
Also, I definitely still believe that food addiction is a real issue (the chemical reactions the human body has to certain ingredients such as sugar and white flour), which just reinforces the fact that weight loss, weight maintenance, and food issues are complex.
There is so much more that goes into creating a healthy lifestyle so that you can lose weight and have a healthy relationship with food, a substance that is meant to be fuel for the body. Sure, you can still enjoy what you eat (I do!), but when you’re eating to make yourself feel better, because of fear, loneliness, anger, love, happiness, depression, or any other reason besides physical hunger, then you’re not going to get far when you attempt to sweep all of those issues under the rug with a diet or calorie counting.
That’s what I think, what about you? Do you agree with Dr. Oz that the obesity epidemic can be cured if every overweight person cuts out 100 calories per day? Or, have you gone through your own weight loss (and gain) issues for so long that you know you’ve got to address those driving forces within you that are motivating you to overeat? Do you think that by simply cutting out 100 calories a day can solve the complex problem of obesity longterm?
I agree with you JoLynn–it’s not just the 100 extra calories. So much of modern day society is based on a sedentary lifestyle. The combination of easy access to all foods, no desire by people to get up and get moving and ignoring the body’s signals to get healthy are contributing to America’s Obesity rate. The problem is that many people are consuming 100s of calories more each day than they need and not increasing their basic expenditure levels.
If we were only dealing with a 100 extra calories, then it would be more of a slightly overweight issue rather than the large numbers of obesity we’re dealing with.
Hi Cindy!
Yeah, I was really surprised to hear this from Dr. Oz. I saw him on Larry King awhile ago too and he briefly mentioned it but I wasn’t paying as close attention as I was today. 🙂 I was probably all sugared up then (LOL, actually I’m not kidding).
You know what else I thought about after I posted this….what about those people in the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic? If they cut only 100 calories a day, it would take them a lifetime to get fit and healthy. But again, we still come back to the emotions, mind, and body…..it’s all a package deal and for those of us (like me) who are emotional eaters, diet & exercise only takes care of part of the problem.
Really you guys I don’t think Dr. Oz really thought that just the 100 calorie cut was going to solve things. I believe he was just thinking about one step at a time and buy cutting 100 calories a day might get some people to take baby steps into a better lifestyle.
Cutting 100 calories per day for most people is a piece of cake- no pun intended.
I’m think there’s many different reasons that there are more obese people nowadays and this solution is overly simplistic. For a lot of people, it’s really important to deal with their emotional or binge eating, or eatertainment (that’s my term for when people eat out of boredom). I think this solution would help relatively few obese people.
That being said, it’s somewhat close to what I have been doing. I don’t count calories but I made an effort to eat better and get more exercise and it’s got me down from size 22 to size 16 in the past three years. My calorie deficit may be around that much. I’m trying to see if losing weight slowly will help me keep it off. So far so good, I’ve had some stalls but I have not gained any back.
Hi everyone, thanks for your comments!
@Renee, yeah, you know I was really surprised about this. I actually taped the Larry King show he did (Joy Behar was the host, on 10/20/07) and he said it then too – that the obesity epidemic comes down to just an extra 100 calories per day….it’s midway through the show. Hey, maybe I should put it on youtube, what do you think? I haven’t done that before, should probably learn how. 🙂
@John, if you do cut out all soft drinks you would accomplish that! 😉
@Melsky, eatertainment, I love that! 🙂 You’re so right, and when we talk about emotional eating, many eat out of happiness and entertainment, not just for negative emotions.
I agree with you that obesity is a complex issue. There just isn’t a quick fix for it. And congratulations on going from a size 22 to a 16, and especially on keeping it off!! I think that’s awesome, keep it up. 🙂
I think it’s a start. Most people can’t tackle the huge changes needed to “fix” everything, but they can deal with two glasses of soda and ten minutes of exercise. Most people jump in with both feet and fail. If you take baby-steps that makes it easier. I suspect that’s what he was trying to get at, or at least that’s how I saw it.
Hi Nancy,
You’re right, getting off the sodas is certainly a start and I agree with baby steps. I just don’t agree that by taking away 100 calories a day that this will solve the obesity crisis, especially when overweight is a complex issue – it’s not as easy as just “diet & exercise”… there needs to be a total lifestyle change including your thoughts, emotions, and healing the reasons you overeat, and if emotional eating and food addiction are involved there’s even more to it. 😉