Chocolate for fat people?! | Diet Series In My ife

Since I�ve last posted, I�ve had a troubling, food related conflict. Can I dump on you, dear readers? Can I model what I suggest you should do�to express yourselves and reach out for support?

Colleague conflict

I love good chocolate. So it follows that at holiday time I�d want to share the joy as holiday gifts to some providers that refer to my practice. (Remember, this dietitian has a cupcake as the mainpage image on her website. What harm in that, I thought?

Yet in sharing my intentions with a nutritionist colleague, I heard a very different perspective. Namely, that many office employees are trying to lose weight�so chocolates are the last thing they need. Those who are obese hardly need the box of chocolate sitting around the office. And since many are so anti-sugar these days, giving chocolates is simply a bad idea.

Once I moved from my totally speechless state (a rarity with me), I tried to be open-minded. Is it diet sabotage to give a box of chocolates to be eaten in an office with many employees�i.e. with little opportunity to squirrel them away, in the season of New Year�s weight loss goals? Was I sending the wrong message as a promoter of health, that chocolate�ok, they weren�t even exclusively heart-healthy 70% cacao-dark chocolates but simply great tasting Belgian chocolates�are an acceptable snack?

Further, can those of high BMIs be given chocolate (or cakes/cookies/highly-palatable foods)? Are they entitled to enjoy the pleasure of great tasting desserts? Should anyone, regardless of their size or percent body fat be given chocolates as gifts? I mean, should we even be allowed to eat foods we truly enjoy?

Must we live an ascetic life of food deprivation and denial�whether for short-term weight change or for life? Is that a healthy lifestyle? Are we doomed to live secret lives�the model kale-salad-protein-smoothie-ingester in public and guilt-laden, binge eater by night or by car ride?

Still on the fence?

Perhaps Jamie�s Christmas surprise will do the trick. This patient�s sorrow and shame was revisited in my office post holiday, as she described her Christmas disappointment. Her three siblings dug into their chocolate-filled stockings, while she rummaged through hers. Only hers was filled not with her favorite candies but with plastic items. No chocolate indulgence for this overweight young woman. A helpful, healthy holiday message? I don�t think so. A supportive gesture? Hardly.