Eve Eliot

BIO

A therapist for the past twelve years, during which time she has treatedpatients individually and in groups, Eve is also a consultant for The CaronFoundation, where she is a facilitator in their week-long compulsive eatingtreatment program.

A frequently sought after expert in the field of food addictions, Eve hasappeared on television with Barbara Walters, as well as on radio and local cableshows. She participated in the Choice Opens Our Lives (C.O.O.L.) Projectvisiting schools to do workshops with students on the topic of eating disorders.

An award-winning advertising copywriter in New York City prior to pursuingher current work in clinical psychology, Eve is the co-author of The HealthFamily Cookbook. She pursued additional training in the field ofnutrition, and studied cooking for health at the Kushi Institute in Brookline,Massachusetts.

Eve Eliot received both her undergraduate degree in psychology and hergraduate training in psychology and social work at Queens College, CityUniversity of New York; Adelphi and Stonybrook Universiters. She worked asa research associate in the department of psychology at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.

She has certificates of completion in both addiction counseling andeating-disorder counseling programs, and has been trained to use experientialtechniques, including psycho-drama, to treat trauma survivors. Inaddition, Eve is the cocreator of The Eliot-Caplan Method, a new way of treatingfood addiction, and cofounder of the Menu for Living Weekend Workshops.

Please visit her website at www.menuforliving.com.

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INTERVIEW

August 21, 2001

Sadly, it is getting to the point whereby simply being a teenager you are guaranteed to know someone with an eating disorder. Join Lisa Marx's discussion with Eve Eliot, author of INSATIABLE: The Compelling Story of Four Teens, Food and Its Power, and learn more about the inspiration behind the book (a work of fiction, actually), the media's responsibility in the face of this national crisis, and much more.

Teenreads: After working in the field of psychology for so long, treating patients, what made you want to write a novel?

EE: I had written many books before writing INSATIABLE, though only one had been published (a cookbook for feeding new babies healthfully, published in 1972). I wrote INSATIABLE because I knew there was a need in the publishing field for a book directed at the younger age group about eating and body image problems.

Teenreads: Is INSATIABLE a work of fiction or an attempt to educate readers on eating disorders? Do you think that most teens know about anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders?

EE: While I think most teens do know about anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overeating, I also think a self-help book in story form is a way to teach them more. I call my book a "self-help novel" because, though it is fiction, it is based on very real life. I felt that this format would be more digestible than the usual self-help, text book sort of approach.

Teenreads: How do you think the media affects the occurrence of eating disorders? Should the media be more responsible?

EE: The media is very powerful in the way it shapes our values and standards in all things. The way things and people look is always going to be a strong determinant of what is considered acceptable in a society in which television and movies are so important (after all, these media have also affected the way politicians get elected, and very likely our leaders would be very different people if there were still no newspaper photos or TV). While the media needs to be more "democratic" --- needs to depict a wider range of humanity --- it is not likely that it will be doing so in the near future. This is because it is not the job of the media to be kind, democratic, or sane. The job of the media is to sell products. We are not likely to buy a product in a package that is not what we agree is "attractive." We treat ourselves, too, as products, so our packaging has become way too important. We have given up much in exchange for our prosperous lifestyles (prosperous compared to much of the rest of the world). It is even more complicated than this, but it would take an entire other book to outline the reason I think that we, in America, have created this situation.

Teenreads: Since you started treating patients and involving yourself with eating disorders, how have your opinions on eating disorders changed?

EE: Since I have suffered from all the major eating disorders myself, and since I have been treating people with eating disorders, my views on what is going on have not changed so much as they have deepened. I have become aware, for example, of the physiological forces that drive the compulsive behaviors around food. For example, I have known for a long time that wheat is something to which many people are allergic, and that the nature of a food allergy is that the food is unable to be digested. What I have learned recently is that the presence of undigested particles of wheat gluten in the body trigger the excretion of endorphins. So the person with a wheat sensitivity is going to go into "withdrawal" if they give up wheat even though they are allergic to it, because the presence of it is actually getting them "high." Clients need this vital information so that they can ease up on the self-blame and become more gentle with themselves when they find themselves behaving compulsively.

Teenreads: Are Samantha, Hannah, Jessica, and Phoebe exaggerations of teens with eating disorders? All four seem very intense. Is this a characteristic of people with eating disorders?

EE: I am so glad you asked me the question about Samantha, Jessica, Phoebe, and Hannah, and their intensity. These characters are in no way exaggerations! They are exact replicas, drawn as accurately as possible, of the people I have worked with and known. It is intense to be compulsively driven.

Teenreads: What about teenage guys? Since all four of the main characters in INSATIABLE are female, we as readers don't get to see how eating disorders affect our male counterparts. Are there any major similarities or differences between members of the opposite sex?

EE: One of the things my editors at the publishing company warned me about was not to make the book too long; apparently, one of the first things young people do when they pick up a book, I was told, is flip to the back to see how many pages it is. Therefore, I had to edit out over 100 pages of the book. I had to keep the story focused, and I chose to focus on girls. In my next book, which is the sequel to INSATIABLE (now complete in first draft form, by the way, and titled RAVENOUS) and follows the characters after they graduate from high school, the story will revolve a bit more around the characters of Billy and Scott, who are in the therapy group with the girls. Eating disorders affect males the same way as they do females. This is apparent when we observe men in gyms, checking themselves out in the mirrors the same way girls do, having the same insecurities about body parts (though their concerns might center on different body parts).

Teenreads: Do you think anorexia and bulimia garner more media attention than excessive overeating? Is one more dangerous than the other?

EE: Anorexia and bulimia garner more sensationalized attention than compulsive overeating does, and compulsive overeating is better understood because it is so much more prevalent. An estimated 60% of Americans are considered to weigh more than is considered optimally healthy by insurance company standards, who think they should know. In a society where food is abundant, anorexia is considered freakish, and bulimia is considered quirky and kind of smart, since the person can get away with extreme behavior. Anorexia and bulimia will destroy one's health faster than compulsive overeating, which leads to obesity; but in the end, obesity will lead to heart disease and diabetes, which are two of the three major killers in our country, if people live long enough to develop these conditions.

Teenreads: What advice do you have for somebody who thinks he/she has an eating disorder and wants help? What is the first step?

EE: The first step for anyone suffering from a compulsive behavior who wants help is to talk. Tell at least one other person what is going on. Sometimes there is so much fear around the prospect of letting oneself be known --- so much shame --- that people will not talk. I receive eMails from INSATIABLE readers who share the secrets of their hearts with me and tell me that I am the only person they have told. At least they have told one person.

The second step is to be gentle with oneself, not to blame oneself for the condition. X-Compulsive behaviors are a result of what has been done to the suffering person. The self-destructive behavior, while it appears quite risky to an outside observer, is actually the better of a number of psychological strategies from the point of view of the compulsive person.

The third thing to do is to realize that there are things we know that we don't want to know, and that the compulsive behavior is functioning to keep that thing we do not want to know out of our awareness. Just being clear about this moves the person past the stage of confusion, which only slows down the process of recovery. Confusion is another defense mechanism to stay stuck. Just knowing this helps the natural process of healing lead the person to the next right action to take on their own behalf.

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