by Cheryl AF Okimoto
The American public has had a love affair with dieting for at least the last thirty years. With hundreds of popular diets, thousands of diet books, and dozens of diet clinics in every major city, you’d think we’d be the skinniest people in the world. But we aren’t. Why not? If we’re so health conscious, why aren’t we healthy? Why are Americans getting fatter every year?
Americans are getting larger because dieting doesn’t work. It assumes that the problem is that we just don’t know what to eat, so if we get that information, we will live by it and be healthier.
Why is it that we can recognize bulimia and anorexia as eating disorders that require professional help, but we don’t put obesity in the same category? It’s kind of like saying hypoglycemia needs to be treated medically, but someone with hyperglycemia just needs to learn to eat right. But really they are opposite sides of the same coin. You either produce too much insulin or not enough. Either way, you’re a diabetic. Maybe we can get perspective on obesity by considering it to be “hypereating,” the other side of “hypoeating,” anorexia and bulimia.
Diets don’t address the true issue of why Americans overeat because they don’t recognize the problem as a disorder, a spiritual problem. You cannot use a physical solution to address a spiritual issue.
Yes, health is first and foremost a spiritual issue. Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 2, NASB. If you have health issues, like being overweight, look first to your soul! The condition of your soul determines your ability to handle crises.
Most Americans are familiar with the concept of “comfort food.” They are the ono foods with all the calories. Foods like chocolate and ice cream make you feel better about yourself when troubles arise. But comfort foods don’t solve any problems. Comfort foods are to obesity as binging and purging is to bulimia. They are both physical answers to spiritual problems.
Telling an overeater to eat less works just as well as telling an anorexic to eat more. It may work for a short time, but it isn’t a permanent solution. If you don’t find real, spiritual solutions to the issues of your life, it’s only a temporary fix.
What really happens when you diet is that your health improves somewhat, so you feel better about life, for a while. But when the problems don’t go away, eventually they will begin to overwhelm you again. If you haven’t learned how to deal with them appropriately, you will go back to what you have learned works, comfort food. So, diets don’t work because they are a physical attempt to solve a spiritual problem.
The Apostle Paul addressed dieting. He didn’t believe that it worked either. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) – in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgences. Colossians 2: 20-23
The true answer to any problem, including eating disorders – anorexia, bulimia, and obesity – lies in the spiritual realm. Seek professional help for your spirit before you seek professional help for your body. When your soul prospers, then you can begin to heal your body too.
Don’t diet. Instead, seek healing for your soul from the Healer.
Copyright 2005 Cheryl AF Okimoto
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