Pray the pounds away: Religion and weight loss
Thou shalt not take so damned many second helpings
I am indebted to University of Iowa sociology professor Christine B. Whelan for calling attention to the growing number of persons with weight problems who are turning to religion for moral and spiritual support, and the growing number of religions who are drawing on the tenets of their belief to help the excessively heavy to achieve spiritual growth and physical shrinkage.
As she pointed out in a recent USA Today commentary, the only greater motivation than having the Creator of the Universe support your effort is having that Creator take offense at how you are managing the body that was His/Her gift to you. And that is what at least some Christian weight loss programs invoke, an example being the Biblical-based approach of Weigh Down Workshops, which pointedly cites Corinthians 3:17: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”
Weigh Down’s application of faith is one of the sterner ones on the Christian spectrum, of course, with its no-nonsense “Pork out, and you are messing with the Almighty’s real estate” attitude. More common and more mainstream are such larger and less doctrinaire Christian fitness programs as First Place 4 Health, which is represented in over 12,000 churches across the United States.
And, on the other end of the spectrum there are more sympathetic programs on the order of Beautiful, Accountable Babes Exercising Sensibly (BABES), whose basic theme is that God will love you no matter what size you are, but you will most please God by practicing moderation.
God is great, and certainly greater than your waistline
It’s probably not news to anyone that Christianity would preach against obesity — gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, after all — but did you know that Islam is somewhat touchy on the subject as well?
The Koran directs Muslims to stop eating when their stomachs are just two-thirds full, and the prophet Mohammed minced no words in the matter of weight control: “Eat of the good things we have provided for your sustenance, but commit no excess therein, lest my wrath should justly descend on you.”
For those of a more humanistic or agnostic bent, there are also Buddhist weight-loss programs. The Center for Mindful Eating, for instance, serves up a blend of meditation, self-forgiveness and introspection to enable the weight-afflicted to distinguish between true hunger and mere emotional eating triggers. Look not within the refrigerator or cookie jar for fulfillment, but within yourself.
Lovely stuff, milk and honey and manna, but hardly a balanced diet
And speaking of religion and dieting, a number of books have landed on the shelves lately promoting a “Biblical diet” based on the fare consumed in the Old Testament, on the assumption that it was low in fat (largely meatless) and high in fiber (fruits and vegetables).
Alas, this turns out to be one of those areas in which you may not want to take the Scripture too literally.
British theologian Dr. Nathan MacDonald conducted a study of the actual food pyramid of that place and time using biblical texts, archaeological discoveries and even human remains, and concluded that those in the Holy Land basically lived on flat breads and grains, with little meat or fruits and veggies, which made for a diet that was seriously deficient in vitamins and minerals — a lack of iron as evidenced by anemia, for example — and would have put children and pregnant women at particular risk of malnutrition.
The Bible, it seems, contains nourishment primarily for the soul, and not its physical container.
(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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Not true. When Dr. Nathan Mcdonald studied their food pyramid, did he not read Leviticus Chaper 11, starting on verse 3 and on through verse 23.
There is a list of all kinds of animals they could eat and those that were not good for them. Also, fish, vegetables and all manner of things we might not want to eat in this day and age unless we have a very adventurous(misspelled) appetite.
Maybe if I copied what was blest by the Lord, I would be one less obese person receiving your wonderful emails.