Read Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--And My Own Online
Authors: Mika Brzezinski
Like Susie Essman, I am finding my power in my work, not my body image. Kate White and Christie Hefner helped me adjust my picture of what beautiful and healthy should look like. Gayle King reminded me that it’s okay to live it up once in a while.—
Mika
I’m not sure my parents will be comfortable with some of what I’ve revealed about my ongoing struggle, but I hope they understand that the issues I’ve talked about here were of my own making. Mom and Dad are amazing parents, and did so much to expose me to the many ideas, options, and goals that a rich life can hold, including fantastic food. I always feel the urge to apologize to them for being such a difficult child, but
maybe it’s enough for them to know that Carlie and Emilie are getting back at me in spades. I suppose this is just the cycle of life shared between a parent and a child.
Diane and I are the products of an unhealthy generation. We began struggling with food early in our lives as the obesity crisis was emerging in America. The food industry accelerated its marketing, and no one of import stopped to consider the consequences. I didn’t recognize how I had been trapped until Diane and I began this book. Talk about denial: I thought all this research and writing would help Diane get
her
life back on track. But she made me realize that I had a lot more work to do on myself in order to be able to help anyone else.
I finally took an unflinching look at myself and started a different kind of journey. I expect that I’ll still fall back into unhealthy eating choices in the future, but I am more self-aware and less self-righteous when the topic turns to eating. I won’t let my world be framed by food any longer. My obsession ends today.
Diane and I have come a lot further than we ever thought possible. Telling your friend she’s overweight, and then paying for the tools she needs to lose weight, is at the very least a bit unconventional, and it can certainly threaten a relationship. But as Diane says, “That’s vintage Mika.”
As I’ve revealed in
Knowing Your Value
and
All Things at Once
, I rarely take the path most people follow, and things usually work out best for me that way, and sometimes for the people I care most about, too. Diane has lost 75 pounds, and she’s seen a ripple effect in her life. Her husband, Tom, has trimmed down, too, and so have some of their friends. Even their dog has lost weight.
I am in awe of how Diane stepped
way
out of her comfort zone to write this book. I remember telling her that we would have to bare all to our readers, and I saw her eyes almost bug out of her head. Diane is used to putting a good face on everything she presents to the public, especially on
Positively Connecticut
, the show she has produced and hosted for more than twenty years. Neither one of us was sure her weight-loss journey was going to be such a positive experience.
But somehow, Diane made it into one. Owning up to the enormity of her issues with eating, and how they had damaged her life and her career, had to have been a gut-wrenching experience. I saw tears well up in her eyes during some of our interviews about weight and prejudice, and I heard comments that made me cringe, too. There were times when I thought she must hate me for putting her through all this.
But the risk was worth it, and we’ve bonded more intensely than ever. I urge everyone reading this to take the same kind of risk. Talk to your friends and the people you love—have the conversation about being obese. Confront them about their health and their weight, and then offer your support. Believe me, it wasn’t easy for Diane and me, but it has been well worth it.
Talk to your friends and the people you love—have the conversation about being obese. Confront them about their health and their weight, and then offer your support.—
Mika
I’m not going to shut up now. This book may be coming to a close, but our conversation together is just beginning. I’ll continue to speak out about the obesity crisis in our country,
but when you hear me talking about healthy eating on TV, know that I’m not the skinny know-it-all who knows nothing about food obsessions. Know that I am struggling, too.
As for Carlie and Emilie, they’re beautiful just as they are. That’s all they need to know. It took me way too long to understand that about myself, but thanks to my family and friends, better and more beautiful days lie ahead. With all my heart I wish the same for you.
1
. Allison A. Hedley et al., “Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among US Children, Adolescents, and Adults, 1999–2002,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
, June 2004. See also Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html
.
2
. “Too Fat to Fight” and “Still Too Fat to Fight,” reports issued by Mission Readiness in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
1
. Alexandra W. Griffin, “Women and Weight-Based Employment Discrimination,”
Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender
, Summer 2007.
2
. John Cawley, “The Impact of Obesity on Wages,”
Journal of Human Resources
, Spring 2004.
3
. Shaun Dreisbach, “Weight Stereotyping: The Secret Way People Are Judging You Based on Your Body,”
Glamour
, June 2012.
4
.
Lots to Lose: How America’s Health and Obesity Crisis Threatens Our Economic Future
, Bipartisan Policy Center’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative, June 2012.
5
. James P. Moriarty, et. al., “The Effects of Incremental Costs of Smoking and Obesity on Health Care Costs among Adults: A Seven Year Longitudinal Study,”
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
, March 2012.
6
. Eric Finkelstein et al., “The Costs of Obesity in the Workplace,”
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
, 2010.
7
.
Understanding Childhood Obesity
, 2011 Statistical Sourcebook, American Heart Association.
8
. Rebecca M. Puhl et al., “Weight Based Victimization: Bullying Experiences of Weight Loss Treatment-Seeking Youth,”
Pediatrics
, January 2013.
9
. Keynote address by Sam Kass, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Weight of the Nation Conference, May 7, 2012.
1
. “Still Too Fat to Fight,” Mission: Readiness, 2012.
2
. Frank Bruni, “. . . And Love Handles for All,”
New York Times
, April 16, 2012.
3
. “Rudd Center Releases Unprecedented Report on Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth,”
Rudd Center Health Digest
, November 2010.
4
. Ibid.
5
. David M Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser, and Jesse M, Shapiro, “Why Have Americans Become More Obese?” Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Paper No. 1994, January 2003.
6
. A. N. Gearhardt et al., “An Examination of the Food Addiction Construct in Obese Patients with Binge Eating Disorder,”
International Journal of Eating Disorders
45, 2012: 657–63; A. N. Gearhardt et al., “The Addiction Potential of Hyperpalatable Foods,
Current Drug Abuse Reviews
4, 2011: 140–45.
1
. “Low Carb or Low Fat Diet? The Harvard Health Letter Investigates the Debate,”
Harvard Health Publications
, July 2004.
2
. “Study Compares Year-long Effectiveness of Four Weight-loss Plans,”
Research Spotlight
, National Institutes of Health, March 2007.
1
. More “Fit Facts” about eating and workout plans can be found at
http://www.acefitness.org/fitness-fact/13/Weight-Management/
.
2
.
Healthy People 2020
, US Dept of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention; Health Promotion, November 2010, download at
www.healthypeople.gov
.
3
. “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,” US Dept of Health and Human Services, download at
www.health.gov
.
4
. Yonas Geda et al., “Aerobic Exercise May Reduce the Risk of Dementia,”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
, September 2011.
5
. M. Rosenkilde et al., “Body Fat Loss and Compensatory Mechanisms in Response to Different Doses of Aerobic Exercise—A Randomized Controlled Trial in Overweight Sedentary Males,”
American Journal of Physiology
, September 2012.
6
. J. Lennert Veerman et al., “Television Viewing Time and Reduced Life Expectancy: A Life Table Analysis,”
British Journal of Sports Medicine
, August 2011.
7
. “Cutting Daily Sitting Time to Under 3 Hours Might Extend Life by 2 Years; Watching TV for Less Than 2 Hours a Day Might Add Extra 1.4 Years,” Pennington BioMedical Research Center press release, July 10, 2012.
1
. Tara Parker-Pope, “Are Most People in Denial about their Weight?,”
New York Times
, April 18, 2012.
2
. Mara Vitolins et al., “Medical Schools Fall Short on Teaching Students about Obesity,”
Teaching and Learning in Medicine
, July 2012.
3
. David L. Katz, “Putting Physical Activity Where It Fits in the School Day: Preliminary Results of the ABC (Activity Bursts in the Classroom) for Fitness Program,”
Preventing Chronic Disease
, July 2010.
4
. “Seven Most Business Friendly Cities,” CNN Money, June 11, 2012.
5
. “Ten Fat Law Suits (including 2 threatened ones) Have Been Successful—While One is Still Pending,”
http://banzhaf.net/suefat.html
.
1
. Deborah Kotz, “Limits on sugary drinks backed by research,”
Boston Globe
, September 21, 2012.
2
. Ibid.
3
. Amber J. Hammons et al., “Shared Family Meals Seem to Operate as a Protective Factor for Overweight, Unhealthy Eating, and Disordered Eating,”
Pediatrics
, May 2011. “The Importance of Family Dinners VII,” National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, June 2012.
ABC for Fitness,
190
Action on Smoking and Health,
199
Addiction to foods,
7–8
,
27
,
92–100
,
106
,
115
All Things at Once
(Brzezinski),
226
American Council on Exercise,
168
Aniston, Jennifer,
183
Annual Congressional Dinner of the Washington Press Foundation,
21
Appearance/thinness and US culture,
2
,
10–11
,
14
,
117
,
126
,
141
,
142
,
182–183
,
206
,
216
Atkins, Robert C.,
71–72
Avatars and exercise,
173
Ayds (Candy Diet),
68
Banzhaf, John,
199–201
Bariatric surgery
costs,
78
description/side effects,
76–78
Barkley, Charles,
164–166
Barnicle, Mike,
15
Barreca, Gina,
140
Bertinelli, Valerie,
65
Bittman, Mark,
198
Body Heat
(film),
141
Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater
(Bruni),
113
Bratman, Steve,
119
Brinkley, Christie,
183
Bruni, Frank
eating disorders story,
113–116
healthy foods/eating,
156
on obesity crisis,
86–87
Brzezinski, Mika
brothers (Mark and Ian),
22
,
23
,
26
CBS firing,
138
childhood family walks,
218–219
comparing herself to family members,
26
,
121
daughter’s (Carlie) birth,
12
,
55–56
,
58–60
daughters (Emilie and Carlie),
4
,
59
,
209
,
210
,
211
,
219
,
222–224
,
226
,
228
early career,
30–33
exercise and,
26
,
28–29
,
39
,
168–170
father (Zbigniew),
22
,
23
,
24
,
26
,
60
,
225–226
friendship with Diane,
12–13
,
32–33
,
55–60
,
139