Irene Rubaum-Keller

For those of us who use food as a drug, there are a variety of feelings that will lead us to the food. Any feeling that makes us uncomfortable has the potential to lead us to eat, even when we are not hungry, just to take the edge off the...

Love Struck is a series of seven one-act plays, written by Dale Griffiths Stamos, directed by Maggie Grant and produced by Three Roses Players and Venice Sky Productions. It's currently playing at the Beverly Hills Playhouse through May 27th.

The production starts out with Amanda Split, starring Ryan Cross,...

I thought this story was an April Fool's joke, except it was way past April 1. It's no joke. Women, namely brides before their weddings, are using a feeding tube for 10 days to lose weight. Yes, that's right, the kind of feeding tube they give patients who...

Hi, I'm Irene and I'm a foodaholic. By that, I mean that I have trouble controlling myself around certain foods. Those foods are the high-fat/high-salt/high-sugar foods, also referred to as highly palatable foods. I used to think I was just weak-willed, meant to be fat, had no self-control or self-discipline...

If you eat when you're bored, you are not alone. Eating for fun, for pleasure, for something to do, to procrastinate doing something you really don't want to do, to reward yourself for a job well done, are all reasons many people eat. None of them have to do with...

Claire Chafee's comedy, Why We Have a Body has just opened at The Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica. Chafee's play originally opened in San Francisco in 1993 and enjoyed a long run. It is especially timely now with the current political climate bringing gay marriage and women's...

This is my ongoing series on people who have lost weight successfully and are keeping it off. The fascinating thing about this is that even though all the people I have worked with over the years, have interviewed for my book Foodaholic: The Seven Stages to Permanent Weight...

What do we mean when we say we're a "foodaholic"? It's confusing because, of course, we're all addicted to food since we need to eat to live. Essentially, we are all food addicts.

When we talk about being a true "foodaholic," or food addict, what we are really saying...

When you lose weight, your size is not the only thing that changes. There are many other things that change as well. When I lost weight the first time, I was in college. I had a good male friend, Jimbo, who I would hang out with all the time. He...

I found Marc Bouwer's fashion by chance one day when I was surfing the internet and was blown away by how beautiful the clothes were. I had never seen an online fashion show before and thought it was a brilliant way to present a new couture collection. I could clearly...

I have a new plan for resolutions this year. Instead of looking at what is not working and how I can change for next year, I've decided to look at what went right in 2011 and build on that.

I have a problem with New Year's resolutions. My first...

Did you know that you could be a connoisseur of great food and drink and be thin? In fact, "foodies" tend to be able to enjoy all aspects of food without overdoing it. A "foodie" is a gourmet. Someone who loves great food and learns about where it came from,...

What would happen if global warming continued to the point where resistance to deadly solar radiation determined class and beauty? This is the future we encounter in Victoria Foyt's captivating new novel, (Save The Pearls Part One) Revealing Eden (Sand Dollar Press, Inc.).

In this world, the darkest skinned people...

It's that time of year again. The older I get, the more it feels like it just was Halloween a few months ago. This is the time of year when our weight can begin to creep up. As we approach the holiday season, Halloween can be the make or break...

My husband is one of those naturally thin people. He has been thin his entire life and has never had a problem with food. As someone who has been up and down the scales and until 20 years ago when I lost 50 pounds and learned how to keep it...

You have probably heard the advice to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Most of us have but do you really know what that means? I work in the field of obesity and weight control and I wasn't sure myself. Does it mean three veggies and two...

In his new book, "2030," Albert Brooks conjures what our country will be like in 19 years. In Albert's 2030, cancer has been cured and so has obesity. Since my field is weight control and eating disorders, I found this particularly fascinating. We live longer and take a pill and...

Ah, the scale. It can be the judge, the jury, the ruler of the day. The number on the scale can: make you happy, surprise you, shock you, terrify you, anger you and/or frustrate you. This inanimate object -- if we let it -- can have great power over us....

"Although your metabolism influences your body's basic energy needs, it's your food and beverage intake and your physical activity that ultimately determine how much you weigh."
-The Mayo Clinic

One aspect that influences the speed at which your body burns calories is how much muscle tissue...

A.R. Gurney's hit play Sylvia has just opened at the Edgemar Center Theater in Santa Monica. It was first produced in New York in 1995 and starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Sylvia, Blythe Danner as Kate and Charles Kimbrough as Greg. It was a hit then and I predict this...