Jo's Cafe

This post started out in my head while watching two shows on The Learning Channel the other night. One was called “750 pound Man” and “One Ton Man”. The first program was about John Keitz, who died at age 39 weighing in around 750, bed bound in a nursing home. The second show was about Patrick Deuel, who weighed in around 1200 and was days away from dying before being moved to a special hospital that eventually saved his life.

What struck me throughout both shows was the family members around them. I have to confess, during Mr. Keitz’s story, I was making nasty comments at the television about “food to mouth” disease, and “you did this to yourself bucko.” But by the second show, I started seeing a pattern on both sides. Interspersed in the shows were talks with other people who had fought Morbid Obesity all their lives. Except for one person, the family members of all the others were shown, either interviewed or in the background. In each of these showings of the family, the fact these people were enablers struck me like a ton of bricks; and they too were all overweight.

Now I’m not saying that there is not some genetic gene gone haywire that caused these two men to overeat to the point of self-destruction; but I saw two wives who needed to take off a few pounds themselves, supporting their husbands eating habits. Why did they bring these men food? It’s not like they were going to get up out of their beds and smack them around? Come on now, I can’t see the blame being totally laid at the feet of the these two men.

After Mr. Keitz’s death, his wife spoke of how he was in a better place, “…not having to take those sugar shots anymore.” I almost threw up at that comment. Sugar shots? Yes he was a diabetic, and the whole while you knew this, you continued to bring him doughnuts, potato chips and his favorite, Lifesavers. Any diabetic will tell you that not only are they a no-no, they can be deadly. She provided him with a phone, cooking utensils, and other items, at his bed so he could “make me supper after work.” I’m thinking, “You are just as much to blame dreary.” Call me cold — but that’s how I see it.

If your husband was planning to jump off a cliff and kill himself, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to stop him? Of course you would – if you really loved him. But these wives “helped” their husbands get in the condition they were in. Yes, there are medical conditions that can prevent you from losing weight, but come on, these women were killing their husbands.

Mr. Deuel even made the comment after he was out of the hospital that if he didn’t get what he wanted, he’d “rip you to shreds”. I just laughed at him. What are you going to do big man? Jump up and whack me with a skillet? By the time you got yourself to the kitchen and found it, I’d be out the door and several miles away. (Both homes, btw, were nasty – unclean and stacked with junk; which was really odd too.)

Now they did talk about dopamine levels in food addicts reacting the same as with drug addicts and alcoholics – and that made perfect sense. And having a food addiction has to be the worse to deal with, because you have to eat. You can’t just stop eating like you can drugs or alcohol and never touch it again. You have to eat to live. Mr. Deuel’s doctor said he was suffering from malnutrition because he wasn’t eating the “right foods”, but empty calories. I go back to the enabling wife again. Why didn’t she make him good meals and refuse to give him the junk? Because she loved him?

I don’t call that love.

What is Morbid Obesity?

Though we all use the terms “fat” and “obese” casually in conversation, there is a medical definition of the condition—and yes, obesity is considered a health “condition.”

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a person is considered “obese” when he or she weighs 20 percent or more than his or her ideal body weight. At that point, the person’s weight poses a real health risk. Obesity becomes “morbid” when it significantly increases the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions or serious diseases (also known as co-morbidities). Morbid obesity—sometimes called “clinically severe obesity”—is defined as being 100 lbs. or more over ideal body weight or having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or higher.

According to the NIH Consensus Report, morbid obesity is a serious chronic disease, meaning that its symptoms build slowly over an extended period of time. Today 97 million Americans, more than one-third of the adult population, are overweight or obese. An estimated 5-10 million of those are considered morbidly obese.

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