Weight Control and Poverty Self Hypnosis Can Overcome the Damages Done to Dietary Habits by Poverty and Lower Socio-Economic Class by Charles E. Henderson, Ph.D.

"Fat cats" do not come only from the upper strata of society. In Western civilization poor people are more likely to be overweight than are the affluent. Moving out of poverty does not end the problem, but hypnosis and suggestion can.

Severe poverty of course leads not to overweight but to starvation and the emaciation that precedes it. But poverty in most of the more developed nations—ones, at least, where there is likely to be an interest in weight control—tends to be of the less severe type. This kind of poverty often leads to overweight because nutritious, healthful foods that are low in calories tend to be among the most expensive food groups. There are of course other factors involved, too. Culture and educational level are often the primary factors. Culture among the poor almost everywhere tends to award higher social status to the girthiest individuals. Those who have enough financial resources to get fat are considered to be among the chosen. Educational level is a problem among lower socio-economic groups. In today's world, you have to know quite a lot in order to avoid purely fattening foods. One reason is that they are unfortunately often the best tasting and most satisfying to untrained or undisciplined palates. I can't tell you how often I have dealt with people who find it hard to believe that eight to 12 cans of soda pop a day are enough to make anyone fat. "But pop is something you drink," they say. "Hell, I just piss it out . . .it's food that makes you fat!" Uh huh. Don't confuse ignorance with low education. We are all ignorant—in a state of not knowing—about many things. But a person with at least the equivalent of an American high school education is supposed to have learned how to learn things. He presumably knows how to do a little research, as it were, and figure out things on his own. One who does not have the tools provided by education is almost completely dependent upon what he or she is told by others about every facet of life. That is no way to get control, and maintain control, of one's weight. There is a shocking amount of illiteracy in the so-called developed world. It does not have to be that way, it just is. My family was very poor when I was young but my mother was teaching my sister and me to read long before the schools did. Hardly anyone is so poor these days that he or she cannot get close to books and reading instruction. Yet the illiteracy rate in America, though not accurately measured, is at least around 25 percent of the adult population. (I was shocked when I learned that the pictures of the contents on canned goods in the grocery stores are for people who cannot read the labels!) It has been my observation that there is a very high inverse relationship between weight control and the ability to read. Just being able to read is not enough, of course. One has to actually be a reader. So people with weight problems will continue to have those problems if they cannot, or will not, read. The next obvious point, of course, has to do with what you read. Try this on for size: I recently talked to a woman in her fifties who is literate, has raised a family, and has a decent job. She was astounded to learn from me that her typical lunch was not a nutritious as she thought it was. Every day she took as her lunch several slices of bologna (meat protein), potato chips (vegetable carbohydrate) and a can of diet cola. If this does not sound bad to you, you need to read "The Zone" or practically any reputable book on diet and nutrition. But even for those who know about nutritional values it is sometimes hard to get past the old cultural values and tastebuds trained in childhood on fried foods and sugar. That is where self hypnosis and suggestion come in. Learn how to use those skills and you can overcome just about any past. Back to "Reasons Why People are Overweight."

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	Copyright ©1998, 2001 Charles E. Henderson, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Last revised Wed, 19 Dec 2001, 11:30:16 GMT

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