by Lina Goldberg
In 1963, the first so-called "Gold Sheet" was distributed among O.A. members. It was a food plan that recommended a diet for its members that included no refined carbohydrates; it was named after the color of paper on which it was printed. Initially it was distributed informally and was not officially recognized by Overeaters Anonymous. The next year the same plan with slight variations was distributed on green paper and was thus referred to as the "Green Sheet."
In May of 1966, the group as a whole, at their national conference,
approved a pamphlet entitled, To the Newcomer. The pamphlet stated in
part,
Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous means abstinence from compulsive overeating.
An eating plan is the method by which we abstain. The following is our
suggested method of abstinence from compulsive overeating:
(1) Three moderate meals a day with nothing in-between; and
(2) Avoidance of all individual binge foods.
Overeaters Anonymous does not endorse any particular eating plan.
This was Overeaters Anonymous first officially sanctioned food plan,
although many members lobbied the legislative body of O.A. to approve
more stringent diet plans, like the ones found on the Gold and Green Sheets.
In the late 1960s, the Gold and Green Sheets were superseded by a new
plan on the cheapest color to print on at the time, grey. The Grey Sheet
became one of the most popular and controversial of all food plans distributed
in Overeaters Anonymous. The plan called for complete abstinence from
man-made sugars and starches and from any foods with more than a 10-percent
carbohydrate content. (Appendix B)
In April of 1972, the founder of Overeaters Anonymous, Rozanne S., had gained back so much of the weight that she had lost in the program that she was fired from her position of O.A. National Secretary for not being a "physical example of recovery." The next month, O.A.'s National Conference approved three "disciplined" plans of eating-far stricter food plans than the previous three-meals-per-day plan. The first plan was the beloved "Grey Sheet," the no-refined-sugars, low-carbohydrates plan. It was once again printed on grey paper. Although each of the low-carbohydrate plans had slight variations, they were all variants of the original Gold Sheet published in 1963. The 1972 National Conference also approved a low-carbohydrates maintenance plan, as well as a second plan based on the four food groups helped developed by Marilyn Moore, a licensed nutritionist in East Los Angeles, California.
In 1977, Overeaters Anonymous dismissed all of the plans that had been distributed years earlier and released in their stead a blue sheet called "Suggested Abstinence Guide for Losing Weight." The Blue Sheet, as it came to be called, officially replaced the Grey Sheet, but many in the group were not happy with this change. With each successive change in food plan, Overeaters Anonymous lost members to splinter groups. Even today, almost 30 years after the Grey Sheet was replaced, a number of groups still exist that are now non-affiliated with O.A. and base themselves on the Grey Sheet. One is called "Food Addicts Anonymous" and requires that its members abstain from eating sugar, flour and wheat. (21) Another group, called GreySheeters Anonymous, has meetings in locals as far-reaching as London and Tel Aviv and religiously follows the O.A. Grey Sheet from 1972. (22)
By 1978, O.A. was starting to realize that the constant changes in food plans and lack of flexibility were costing it members. In 1979 the group released a book called The Dignity of Choice that was intended to bring the splinter groups back to the fold by including eight different food plans. The book did not succeed in its mission, however, and was discontinued. In 1986, not only did Overeaters Anonymous stop printing the book; the leadership requested that all groups return their unsold copies to the group's headquarters. Around this time, O.A.'s attorney also began sending cease and desist notices to groups that were distributing non-approved food plans using quotations from O.A. literature or printing the text of the 12 steps. These notices were sent primarily in reference to the "Grey Sheet."
At the same time that Overeaters Anonymous stopped using The Dignity of Choice, it decided as a body that to endorse any specific food plan would go against the aims of the group and that O.A. should instead focus on the 12 steps of recovery. This was seen as a great step towards ending the controversies that had so bitterly divided the O.A. membership. In 1997 O.A. clarified its point when it released this statement:
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Citation info: Goldberg, Lina. "Between the Sheets: The History of Overeaters Anonymous and its Food Plans" linagoldberg.com Dec. 03 linagoldberg.com/oa