The "Obesity Pandemic"

[Laurie]

You read in the popular press about an Epidemic or, at the very least, a Pandemic
of Obesity. And secular society has to make provisions for this problem with
physical accomodations such as wider airplane seats, longer seat belts in cars,
more robust furniture, etc.

I thought we might discuss some Spiritual ideas about this situation. For example:

1) Often people who overeat dramatically have a belief in a limited amount of good.
They were brought up being told "eat all your food because there are children
starving in Africa." So they ate everything they were given and continue to
eat everything with the belief that there is not enough good to go around to
Africa.

2) Often people who are obese are "couch potatoes" watching far too much violent
television, etc. Are "couch potatoes" allowing too many violent, immoral ideas
into their thinking.

3) Often people who are obese feel they have a shortage of time in which to prepare
healthy meals, etc.

[levity]

Thanks for raising this topic, Laurie. I love the idea of addressing societal, cultural, and worldwide issues/problems through prayer. In my own life, I’ve seen how turning to God—during big or small challenges—always offers a fresh, more spiritual perspective and gives me the ideas I need to move forward productively. This, in turn, has given me hope that praying for our communities and our world can and does make a difference.

One thing I have found in my prayers for myself and the world, though, is that I make the most progress and find healing when I start with God instead of with the problem. As someone who loves newspapers and news magazines, it’s really easy for me to get caught up in the whys and hows of all of the conflicts, pandemics, problems, etc. This isn’t to say that the issues underlying these problems don’t need to be addressed; I think they absolutely do. But for me at least, starting with those issues sometimes makes me feel stuck in the muck. Hopeless and helpless. By contrast, when I start with God, really try to understand more about God, to see more of God’s presence, goodness, control, government, to see more of God’s love and care for His creation, not only do I feel like my prayers are more inspired, I also feel like they’re more specific. I feel like God shows me what really needs to be prayed about and how to address it.

With that in mind, two ideas that have been specifically helpful to me on the subject of obesity:

First, balance. I feel like material existence constantly presents us with a view that’s out of whack, that’s in excess in one direction or the other. Either there’s too much of something (think: obesity, floods, electrical storms, pollution, congestion) or too little (think: poverty, recession, drought, war (with lack of resources, land, power, etc. as root causes)). In other words, I feel like one of the things I’ve seen through my prayers on this subject is that obesity isn't the problem per se, but rather the whole belief of material existence, with its highs and lows, excesses and lack. The counterfact to that, of course, is the truth of God’s creation—the nature of Spirit and its expression. Since Spirit is in perfect balance, expressing order, harmony, abundance, regularity, constancy, etc. then Spirit’s creation (including each of us) must possess and express those qualities, too. As part of my prayers, I’ve found it helpful to look for those qualities in every facet of my life. And as I have, I've seen that what isn’t good or God-like must (and does) cease to exist.

The second idea that's been helpful to me is love. I really feel like love is the answer to everything. Not human love, but loving more divinely. Seeing everyone we meet more the way God, Love, does. Love cuts through all the junk in a way that nothing else can. At least, it seems that way to me. When I love, I believe that God is doing enough for His creation. That He’s caring for it too much to let it get out of balance. That He’s helping us to see ourselves the way He made us. That He loves us into feeling satisfied and complete and whole. And that God helps us to look outside ourselves--to focus more on what He is doing, and what He's impelling us to do (i.e. love more!)

Thanks for reminding me that I want to be an active participant in loving the world.

[Courtenay]

Hi Laurie, Levity and everyone,

There's just been a wonderful new issue of the Christian Science Sentinel magazine on this very topic (March 10 edition, available in Reading Rooms)! I'm sure it'll be a great help to anyone dealing with this situation.

Best wishes,
Courtenay (Reading Room attendant ;))

[Laurie]

Somewhere else on this discussion forum (and I don't remember where, or it might be an article at spirituality.com) somebody was describing the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. It is has always baffled me how this physically happened. I mean, as they were handing out pieces of bread, were more loaves of bread manifesting themselves in the basket?

But the writer proposed a possibility that I had never thought of before. Perhaps each of the 5000 who were fed were actually physically satisfied with less material food. Maybe they went away "filled" with only eating a small piece of bread!

I am not trying to degrade or belittle the story of the loaves and the fishes. But this other possible reasoning (if true) could really help in solving the Obesity pandemic.

[Russ]

"Obesity pandemic"...yikes folks. As one who, in the human world, is morbidly obese, this topic is very close to me. For years, I did all the human things, tried to eat better, used products such as slimfast, etc., attempted to be a gym member, etc. For the past ten years or so, my family tried to reach me, and I wasn't listening. I am a class taught, lifelong Christian Scientist, and I was looking for the human answer. I even tried to figure out "why" I was overeating, and thought I had found the answer. Recently, God finally was able to get through (i.e. I began listening to Him), and tada along came the March 10, 2008 CS Sentinel. Made just for me, I read through it, and still am reading it again. Healing my thought is the ONLY way I am going to get past this, and I fully intend to just do the same thing.

[Courtenay]

Hi Russ,

Good on you! (as we say in Australia ;))

[Laurie]

Russ, welcome to this discussion. I was afraid this thread was going to die. To be honest, although the medical profession would not say I am obese, I am definitely overweight. I would love to discuss different ideas on solving this problem.

One thing I do, and it is not really Absolute Christian Science, but it does help me. I put the audio Bible Lesson on my cell phone(or you can put it on your mp3 player or Ipod), plug it in my ears and go for walk. Maybe somebody might argue that I am trying to treat matter with matter by going for a walk but I find that the two together really inspire me.

[lindyhop]

I have been thinking a lot about this topic because I want to shed the weight of care in my own life that I think has manifested iteself in extra pounds. I have been reading the New Testament straight through over the past few weeks as a kind of Easter project. In reading your forum today, I have been thinking about the story of the loaves and fishes in it, as well as the Israelites' experience of being fed by the manna in the desert in the Old Testament. I have been thinking about the spiritual nature of the sustenance that God provided to his children in both cases, and about how those Bible stories illustrate that today, also, I should be able to be satisfied with spiritual sustenance, which should be sufficient for my needs.

[Starlight Rider]

A few thoughts:
1. I think the "obesity epidemic" (as if it were somehow contagious) is overblown in the media. I don't see any more fat people now than I did 40 years ago.

2. I don't care what a person's shape is. I only care about what's in their heart. This is usually reflected in their smile, not a bathroom scale.

3. I've known Christian Scientists who would be considered overweight or even obese, and they've lived well into their 80s, which seems to support point #2.

[pattyp]

Three years ago (or so), a Sentinel that focused on “Overcoming Obesity” really woke me up. As a practicing Christian Scientist, I was surprised to learn that the medical profession considers obesity a disease! Until then, I’d been quite content with the overweight issue I’d had ever since I was a kid. But this Sentinel really got to me. How could I claim to be a healer when I my body was advertising a disease right in plain sight where everyone could see it.

After I read the Sentinel through from cover to cover, my first reaction was that it had taken an unusually materialistic approach to healing. So I just put it aside and – supposedly – out of my thought. But in a couple of days, I picked it up again. Some of the ideas had been quietly at work in my consciousness breaking up long-held errors of “self-will, self-justification, and self-love” which, according to Science and Health, “wars against spirituality...” (p. 242)

Well, that was it! Appropriately chastened, my “hearty” appetite suddenly became normal. Constant visits to the fridge naturally gave way to three meals a day. Over the next year, my weight and size became normal and have remained so without resort to special exercise. This, after 70 years of “no holds barred” eating at will.

At a family gathering recently, someone handed me a picture from my big days and said, “This is you, Aunt Pat.” I was so accustomed to the “new” me, I disagreed until I looked at the photo closely. Only then did I realize it was me, a 'me' I hadn’t seen (gratefully) for a very long time.

This was an exceedingly humbling experience for me, because I was not even TRYING to be healed. I didn’t think I NEEDED to be healed. But I was wrong, and God handed me this wonderful healing on a silver platter. Bless Him/Her!

[Laurie]

At a family gathering recently, someone handed me a picture from my big days and said, “This is you, Aunt Pat.” I was so accustomed to the “new” me, I disagreed until I looked at the photo closely. Only then did I realize it was me, a 'me' I hadn’t seen (gratefully) for a very long time.


Well done! :D

Often medical profession frightens us into eating more than we need to. The mantra "three healthy meals a day" really is not a necessity. If one meal satisfies you (as often is the case in parts of Africa and Asia), you can still be perfectly healthy.

It is sad to say that even many religions try to control people's eating habits by saying WHAT they should eat, and WHEN they should eat (or not eat) and WHO they should eat with (or not with), and WHERE they should eat (or not eat), etc.

Mrs Eddy said quite clearly "eat what is set before you" Of course, this still isn't an excuse for stuffing yourself if you are visiting friends who serve a lot of food. ;)

[newunfoldment]

The word OBESITY comes from Latin-obesitas, meaning "excessive".

In Science and Health we read, page 388:12-16
" Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction, — that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. "

Our sufficiency is of God, because "Mind outlines, but is not outlined." [S&H 591:20]

God has designed and created man complete, perfect, and proprotionate.The Bible promise reads, in Eccl 3:14 "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him."

[lindyhop]

Well I would like to thank pattyp and newunfoldment for their recent postings that are very encouraging to me in my personal search to lay off weight and find spiritual nourishment.

In the time since I joined this thread, which was also the day I started praying about this spiritually instead of continuing with the endless series of diet and exercise fads that I had been experimenting with for years, I have noticed that I don't seem to feel hunger or think about food much, and whenever I do, I have been replacing that thought by focusing on how I am filled by Spirit, not by food. It's great to feel released from a struggle to impose willpower on the situation, or to resist what seemed to be unhealthy cravings, and my whole feeling about myself is becoming healthier every day.

In the New Testament, Paul had a lot to say about eating whatever God provides and not giving specific foods a lot of power, in his reactions to his visions that repudiated Judaic food prohibitions and definitions of unclean-ness, which led to his mission to the gentiles and his role in assisting them with their founding of churches, for example.

The more I pray about this nourishment situation, the less I feel any attraction to specific foods that I used to periodically crave, especially chocolate and pizza, and I also notice that I am naturally (without forcing or willpower) finding myself to be attracted to the healthier of the food options that are available to me, and to also be more attracted to swimming for the lunch hour rather than eating during it.

For the past 6 weeks, I've been in central Africa, at a location where there are fewer food choices available to me than there will be once I am back in the US and I hope my progress will continue after I get back to the US in a few days.

[newunfoldment]

Thanks Lindyhop, for your very encouraging result.

I experienced and witnessed Love's beauty, on two different occasions, when I worked with:
1...The loveliness of Love is all around me
[Hymn 64:2], right where the mask of flabbiness / weight is screaming at me.

2 He shall cover me with His feathers /substance
[PS 91:4]...which are beautiful and weightless.

[Laurie]

For the past 6 weeks, I've been in central Africa, at a location where there are fewer food choices available to me than there will be once I am back in the US and I hope my progress will continue after I get back to the US in a few days.

Kewl. Where have you been?:)

[lindyhop]

I was in Rwanda. At the moment I'm in Nairobi airport.