Hobson's choice in the treatment of fatness

"Treating obesity it"s like learning
another language". FEFL

Introduction

Obesity could be defined as the triumph of
an instinct over the power of reason.

This very tragic admission, takes us to the
reason that inspired the epigraph of this essay, which is
dedicated to a subject as important as it is neglected: The
obesity pandemic of the XX and XXI centuries.

But, who is this Hobson whose name is
mentioned in the title?

You can have it in any color, for as
long as it"s black…

According to the legend, the so-called
Hobson"s Option had its origin on the celebrity of a
Thomas Hobson (ca. 1544-1631) who lived in Cambridge England, and
who maintained a very popular stable for the hire of
horses.

Hobson required that all clients were
required to take the animal closest to the door of the barn or
none.

He did so to ensure that both, the animal
and the prospective rider, had to accept the whims of
fate.

In other words that it was an option with
no alternatives — an option with no options — take what"s
offered or take nothing.

This is the same conundrum that Henry Ford
presented when he offered his Model T with the possibility of
choosing any color, for as long as it was black.

For those who are
fat, there are no options either

In the understanding and treatment of
corpulence there are so many factors in collusion that force the
unfortunate victims to accept as solutions whatever the "experts"
offer them, which often amounts to zero.

In that consists — for those who long to
be svelte — Hobson"s Option, or an option without
options.

Thomas Hobson

Analyzing the
problem

In this article we intend to conduct a
brief analysis of obesity as an illness and to advance
recommendations towards its treatment, utilizing a model that is
sensible, scientific, humanist and honest — something that very
few can offer.

In order to begin our dissertation, we will
ask the most obvious question:

Why is obesity such an
important and vital subject to us?

Let"s see:

• The statistics are depressing. In the
  USA, 1,100 million of adults are fat, and every day more are
  added to this figure.

Simultaneously, the numbers of obese
children, once a rarity, continue to swell en alarming
proportions.

And it"s not only in the US, in other
countries the situation is identical and continues to advance
inexorably.

• As a diagnostic entity, fatness
  persists as the most misunderstood and most exploited of all
  human miseries.

• In the US alone, people wasted 33
  billion dollars in 2010 to combat the scourge. The fight to
  eradicate it is being lost.

In all countries, ours included, many
people, in desperation, risk their lives in the operating room
attempting to remedy it, while many continue to get fat after the
operations.

It"s a situation as desperate as it is
depressing, since it is a well established fact that fatness is
of no benefit to any one, because being overweight runs against
our nature.

• As a problem, obesity is advancing
  rapidly in its position as a unique health problem
  worldwide.

Cigarette smoking still is considered the
chief cause of death in America, with the second being
obesity.

The latter is expected to outpace smoking
at the end of this decade.

Beauty is in the eyes of the
beholder

As a health problem, its importance is well
established, and as such, ways to solve it remain elusive, since
the solutions rest in the hands of people that are ignorant of
the complexities involved.

It"s axiomatic, that no one has ever come
up with the silver bullet that will stop its
progression.

Add to the above the calculated
indifference of the governments of almost all nations to solve
this problem, plus the fact that their most learned spokesmen in
the sciences lack suggestions in order to accomplish any
constructive goals and, now, we can understand why the situation
approaches critical proportions.

We are not saying that obesity affects only
a few underprivileged souls, but, that it reaches across all
socioeconomic and demographic levels.

Fatness is a living hell that we all
equally share.

Psychologically fat people suffer
tremendously, even when they deny it.

They suffer, because, as part of their
cure, the methods that we have available subject them to suffer
from hunger, something that we all know it"s most
painful.

So painful is this feeling of hunger, that
it can be said that few can withstand it for long, even if they
wish vehemently to escape the prison of their blubber.

Everybody is beautiful in his own
way…

Hunger itself is maladaptive, because our
species is programmed to avoid it in all its forms.

And all the cures for obesity thus far
proposed — from diets to surgeries — are based in the
endurance of hunger.

Contrary to what some "experts" try to beat
into our heads, this hunger is not psychological hunger. However
its effects are translated in manifestations both physical and
emotional.

Countless investigations –– which
are ignored by the majority of those who propose to treat this
condition — indicate that all the methods of treatment existing
today disposal are ineffective to treat this
affliction.

But, let"s ask
ourselves: Is fatness an illness?

If by illness one understands any condition
with established and recognizable causes, with a defined clinical
evolution and with laboratory tests that confirm its existence
— then obesity is not an illness in the strict sense of the
word.

We prefer to define obesity as a group of
psychosomatic responses to the excessive accumulation of fat in
the body.

OB/ob

These responses are the result of
multifaceted factors, that make it refractory to treatment, that
lead to its becoming chronic, and that cause many of the
associated complications, that often endanger the lives of the
victims.

Fatness is not the simple disequilibrium
between what"s eaten and exercise. No, the evidence is clear,
that this proposition known as the "fiduciary model" is
erroneous, even if it"s well accepted by most of the poorly
informed today.

Fatness is an individual response to a
variety of factors of ill understood complexity.

In other well supported theses I have
described in detail, and have identified the many masks that this
monster dons in order to fool all of us.

As few have done, I have studied fatness
from all its angles and in all its aspects:

I have analyzed it from the adaptive point
of view, to the theological, ethic, economical, cultural,
humanistic, geopolitical and more.

I have studied and analyzed fatness for the
public and for some representatives of official agencies in many
countries of the world.

I seriously doubt that anyone else can
boast more articles covering this subject than me.

Recently, former president Clinton, in a
publicity gesture of sympathy towards the fat kids of the US,
offered to dedicate part of his life to eradicate this problem
among children.

So has, Michele Obama done the same,
following political suit.

Food is a many splendor
thing…

So far, some three years later, nothing has
come out as a result of their futile efforts.

To this time, fatness remains the Hobson"s
Option, which it is: The horse nearest to the door, which is the
option to perish.

Propaedeutics for the
treatment of fatness for those who wish to eradicate
it

To treat fatness one has to accept that
diets or exercises are alternatives that have proven to be
lacking in value.

One has to admit that no one has yet come
up with a proven method that has demonstrated its
efficacy.

Atkins, at the time of this writing, was
under protection of bankruptcy laws, and the other popular
methods, besides being directed by amateurs or by confused
professionals remain ineffective because lack of scientific
foundations to conduct the treatment.

Fatness is resistive to treatment, cannot
be disguised, and, since is ostensible; everybody tries to find a
method — preferable a magic and expedient one — that would
eliminate it effortlessly.

Paradoxically these rapid methods so far,
have resulted in cementing it indelibly in the victims" bodies,
because these methods are more often than not restrictive diets
with their dire lack of permanent results.

These diets are what the experts most often
recommend.

The moral approach would be one that
conducts the treatment of this condition individually, obtaining
an exhaustive analysis of the person involved and developing a
program tailor-made to her needs, in order to proceed
parsimoniously to a final resolution.

But, as it"s the case with psychotherapy,
the mega-dollars are never obtained neither with individual
processes nor with individualized attention to a few.

For that reason we remain stuck in search
of a solution that may never arrive.

Now, the next
question is: Who is capacitated to treat this
problem?

Only capacitated to treat it is one who has
studied the problem exhaustively for many years, from every point
of view and one who has been successful in doing it.

Someone who understands obesity for what
actually is:

A psychosomatic affliction, with genetic
and degenerative underpinnings, associated with many
environmental factors in the micro cosmos where the patient
lives.

That someone actually is not commonly
found.

But for whatever is worth: That someone
remains as the Hobson"s Option.

Bibliography

• Larocca, F: (1984) The Psychiatric
  Clinic of North America issue on Eating Disorders W. B.
  Saunders & Co.

• Larocca, F. E. F: (2007) El Sistema
  Fiduciario en monografías.com

• Dwyer, J and Larocca, F. E. F: (1974)
  When a Child is too fat. Patient Care
  VIII-6- 158-76

• Cassell, D, and Larocca, F. E. F:
  (1994) The Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating
  Disorders. Facts On File

• Larocca, F. E. F: (1991) A Public
  Primer on Eating and Mood Disorders Midwestern
  Medical

• Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Eating
  Disorders: Effective Care and Treatment Ishiyaku
  Euroamerica

• Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Eating
  Disorders: The Facts in New Directions for Mental
  Health Services # 31 Jossey-Bass

• Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Una
  Introducción a las Disorexias en
  Médico Interamericano 5:12 27-30

• Larocca, F. E. F: (2007) Los
  Trastornos Malignos del Comer en Psikis.com y en
  monografías.com

• Microsoft Encarta 2007
  (CD/DVD) List of recommended reading

Autor:

Dr. Félix E. F.
Larocca