Wednesday, August 02, 2006

75 percent of obese people say they eat healthy

Piggybacking (pun definately intended) on my recent post on over-eating, here is a story that has some stats on what obese people think about their eating habits.

Why am I dealing with this issue as of late? Probably because I find it interesting, but also because I think it points to larger issues in our American culture of 1) laziness and ease, 2) technological changes making people more sedentary and, 3) the hypocrisy of most of us who would quote "the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit" to those who smoke and drink too much, but would never say that to a to a person who regularly overeats and never exercises.

For sure this issue needs to be dealt with kindness and compassion, but needs to be dealt with none the less. To be fair, there are probably the same amount of people out there who are skinny who eat really bad and never excercise and probably will die of heart failure just as fast as an over-weight person. Genetics play a role certainly play a role as well. Fighting to change your "natural" state usually requires an unbelievable amount of discipline, hard work and perseverance over a long period of time. This is no small task. Those to attempt it need to be commended.

Any thoughts as to why we don't hear about this issue more in the church?

2 comments:

Lew said...

There is probably a lot of conviction on the part of many pastors. I was once working at a pastors conference at Moody and surprised at how many pastors were excessively obese. Not to justify them, but I brought it up with my pastors back home who aren't exactly an idea picture of health and they said that it is one of the more sedentary professions

Josh said...

Being a pastor is one of the more sedentary professions? As opposed to what? I don't really think a pastor's job requires any more sitting around than any "office" job.