Earlier this month, AlterNet posted an article that looked at the why the idea of an “obesity epidemic” is flawed: One Big Fat Lie.

The article is really good, so please go there and read the whole thing. But I want to highlight one part (emphasis mine):

There is a slippery slope from dieting to disease, as the 7 million girls and women suffering from eating disorders in this country will attest. Thirty-five percent of those who diet go on to yo-yo diet, dragging their bodies through a cycle of weight gains and losses far more unhealthy than just being overweight; 25 percent of those who diet develop partial or full syndrome eating disorders. Mindfulness advocate Susan Albers writes: “The dieting mindset is akin to taking a knife and cutting the connection that is your body’s only line of communication with your head.” There is little hope for long-term health improvement with this vital line severed.

Cut off from our ability to listen to our authentic hungers, we ride a roller coaster of marketed cravings and emotional upheaval — overeating, then guiltily undereating, then overeating again. But unlike brief and thrilling amusement park adventures, we can’t seem to get off the ride.

This concept of being “cut off from our … authentic hungers” is one you see regularly in anti-dieting literature. And I don’t disagree with the concept. In fact, years ago, I experimented with the approach in Overcoming Overeating and read When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies.

But what I believe is that part of my roller coaster is due to what I eat. And cutting back on sugar and refined carbs, I believe, has been very helpful to me in curbing my overeating. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we learn more about connections between overeating and what we eat.

Hat tip to Fat Chicks Rule for the pointer.