Presentations for Hire About Emotional and Binge Eating

The following is a list of presentations we offer on emotional and binge eating disorders.

Please click on each to find out more information:

• When Is It An Eating Disorder?
• A WEIGH OUT: Conquering Emotional Eating: An End To Diets and Out-of Control Eating
• Body Image/Self-Image: Why The Scale Dictates our Mood
• The Rats Go For the Fruit Loops… And Other Things We’re Learning About Binge-Eating from Animal Models

Speaker’s fee varies based on length of presentation and size of audience.

When Is It An Eating Disorder?

Presenter: Ellen Shuman

This is an important program for parents, individuals or health care providers who want to learn more about…

• Risk Factors
• Signs and Symptoms
• Emotional Eating Patterns
• Treatment of the Whole Range of Problems
• Associated with Emotional Eating and/or Food Restriction

This presentation will cover issues associated with obsessive dieting, emotional overeating, binge eating, bulimia and anorexia.

Ellen Shuman is the Director of The Acoria Center, an out-patient Eating Disorders Treatment Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Shuman is a former broadcast journalist. Her list of broadcast awards includes a Peabody Award and several other National Awards for her news reporting on the subject of eating disorders. She speaks openly about her own history with a Binge Eating Disorder. Ms. Shuman has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She co-founded the Acoria Center in 1993.

A WEIGH OUT…An End To Diets and Out-of Control Eating

Presenter: Ellen Shuman

Everyone knows Diets Don’t Work! Finally, someone explains why diets are destined to fail.

This presentation focuses on understanding and breaking the self-defeating cycle of diets and out-of-control eating. Participants will learn about “Energy Imbalances” vs. “Emotional Eating” and will determine if either is at the route of their body dissatisfaction. They’ll also learn about the latest research into the connections between food, mood and brain chemistry. And we’ll explore how these connections play a role in chronic overeating.

We know diets don’t work!Now it’s time to learn what to do instead.

Ellen Shuman is the Director of The Acoria Center, an out-patient Eating Disorders Treatment Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Shuman is a former broadcast journalist. Her list of broadcast awards includes a Peabody Award and several other National Awards for her news reporting on the subject of eating disorders. She speaks openly about her own history with a Binge Eating Disorder. Ms. Shuman has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She co-founded the Acoria Center in 1993.

Body Image/Self-Image: Why The Scale Dictates Our Mood

Presenter: Ellen Shuman

Does what you weigh impact how you feel about your self all day long?

Do you dislike parts of your body? When you are invited to do something with others, do you ever find yourself thinking about your size… or the size of the people with whom you’ll be socializing?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are certainly in good company. In 1995, a study found that when women spent just 3 minutes looking at models in a fashion magazine, 70% reported feeling depressed, guilty and shamed.

This presentation explores the interwoven and overlapping development of Body Image and Self Image… and offers positive interventions to women who are tired of letting a negative body image effect every single aspect of their life!

Ellen Shuman is the Director of The Acoria Center, an out-patient Eating Disorders Treatment Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Shuman is a former broadcast journalist. Her list of broadcast awards includes a Peabody Award and several other National Awards for her news reporting on the subject of eating disorders. She speaks openly about her own history with a Binge Eating Disorder. Ms. Shuman has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She co-founded the Acoria Center in 1993.

The Rats Go For the Fruit Loops…And Other Things We’re Learning About Binge Eating from Animal Models

Presenter: Mary M. Boggiano, Ph.D.

Binge eating is a central feature of eating disorders including bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Binge eating is also present in obesity, anorexia nervosa, and depressive disorders. Despite the detrimental physical and psychological effects of binge eating, and its prevalence, the neurobiology of binge eating is not clear.

My research is guided by the hypothesis that the etiology of binge eating involves changes in brain chemistry that normally control food intake. These changes are the brain’s adaptive responses to behavioral challenges to normal food intake and body weight such as dieting, chaotic fasting and refeeding patterns, and easy access to highly palatable food. Environmental stress and incentives act on the individual to engage in these behaviors. Therefore, in order to identify the exact behavioral, environmental, and neurochemical interactions underlying binge-eating, my research has focused on developing animal models that incorporate factors relevant to human binge-eating.

Results from these studies have implicated a major impact of restricting calories and of fasting and refeeding, especially on highly palatable food, on the tonic control of food intake by opioids, peptide YY, serotonin, acetylcholine, and melanocortin peptides in hypothalamic and limbic nuclei. Altered activity of these neurotransmitters and peptides appear to be driving the abnormal patterns of overeating seen in these animals that persists despite their return to normal body weight, lack of further food restriction, and aversive consequences to keep the animal from eating. Beyond food intake, changes in these neurochemicals may help explain the depressive, addictive, obsessive, and recidivistic nature of binge-eating as well as help formulate more effective behavioral and pharmacological strategies to treat and prevent eating and related disorders.

Dr. Mary M. Hagan has published several scientific papers on the behavioral pharma-cology and neurochemistry of eating disorders. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Obesity Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Hagan obtained her Ph.D. in Psychobiochemistry at the University of Texas at El Paso.