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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Childhood rape linked to weight gain

Childhood rape linked to weight gain : "Research by the University of Queensland has found that female victims of childhood sexual abuse are 85% more likely to be overweight by the age of 21."

You only have to watch The Biggest Loser to know that all those rolls of fat are hiding some pretty severe trauma and some very painful self esteem issues. The programme often does a lot to repair this kind of damage because they get the contestants into a different mind set. The effects may not last but there is hope once they have confronted their pain that they may find a way out. Psychological support is important. Some contestants don't continue because they are dealing with awful past events and realise it's not what they want to confront on TV. To have a study like this only serves to underline how critically important it is to discover why people seek solace in food, why they become food addicts and why they continue to punish themselves for things which are largely out of their control. Research is as important as nutrition since we need to isolate the mechanisms which create the food dependancy. We have some real hope then of helping over weight people.

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