Ethics and the Christian

Food and Eating

I know this is very thin ice• But “ethics” is concerned with not only the

choices people make, but WHY they make them

• And anything the Bible might say about food is virtually swept away by our American obsession with food

• And I admit that I have a “really big porch” this morning, for a “really small house.”

We Americans• Have a “love-hate” relationship with food• We have an unhealthy obsession with being healthy• According to the Centers for Disease Control– More than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S.

adults are obese. – Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke,

type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.

– The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight

This obsession is fairly recent• In 1977 the U.S. Senate released a report

entitled, Dietary Goals for the United States• It was the result of the work of a committee

formed in 1968 to eliminate malnutrition, and address the sudden rise (post WW2)in diet related diseases

• It made 2 recommendations:– Eat less red meat– Eat less dairy

• The meat and dairy industries went ballistic

• The wording was changed to “choose meats, poultry, and fish that will reduce saturated fat intake.”

• This controversy led to a new way of discussing food: it became a collection of nutrients.

• “Henceforth, government dietary guidelines would shun plain talk about whole foods, each of which has its trade association on Capitol Hill, but would instead arrive dressed in scientific euphemism and speaking of nutrients, entities that few Americans (including, as we would find out, American nutrition scientists) really understood but that, with the notable exception of sucrose, lack powerful lobbies in Washington.”

• Pollan, Michael (2008-01-01). In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (pp. 24-25). Penguin

Group US. Kindle Edition.

This has brought us our “nutritionist” world

• Since nutrients, as compared with foods, are invisible and therefore slightly mysterious, it falls to the scientists (and to the journalists through whom the scientists reach the public) to explain the hidden reality of foods to us. In form this is a quasireligious idea, suggesting the visible world is not the one that really matters, which implies the need for a priesthood. For to enter a world where your dietary salvation depends on unseen nutrients, you need plenty of expert help.

• Indeed, nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food by implying that with a judicious application of food science, fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing. This of course is the story of margarine , the first important synthetic food to slip into our diet.

• This brings us to one of the most troubling features of nutritionism, though it is a feature certainly not troubling to all. When the emphasis is on quantifying the nutrients contained in foods (or, to be precise, the recognized nutrients in foods), any qualitative distinction between whole foods and processed foods is apt to disappear. “[ If] foods are understood only in terms of the various quantities of nutrients they contain,” Gyorgy Scrinis wrote, then “even processed foods may be considered to be ‘healthier’ for you than whole foods if they contain the appropriate quantities of some nutrients.”– Pollan, Michael (2008-01-01). In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (p. 32). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

• Nutritionism had become the official ideology of the Food and Drug Administration; for all practical purposes the government had redefined foods as nothing more than the sum of their recognized nutrients. Adulteration had been repositioned as food science.

• Thirty years later, we have good reason to believe that putting the nutritionists in charge of the menu and the kitchen has not only ruined an untold number of meals, but also has done little for our health, except very possibly to make it worse. These are strong words, I know. Here are a couple more: What the Soviet Union was to the ideology of Marxism, the Low-Fat Campaign is to the ideology of nutritionism— its supreme test and, as now is coming clear, its most abject failure.

I’ve dealt with this because

• These are the kinds of things that Christians tend to fight about

• Some people are very concerned about the adulteration of food

• And others are totally dismissive of both “health food,” and “health nuts.”

Is it a SIN to eat the “western diet?”• Rightfully so, people can choose how “healthy”

they wish to eat.• I have “religious” food obligations before other

believers, but not necessarily “source” obligations. – 1Cor. 10:28 But if any man say unto you, This is

offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof:

– Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Rom 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

And “source” issues really matter to some people

• Some insist upon organic (95% free of synthetic additives)

• Some insist upon “locally sourced” organic (which would mean little fresh fruit most of the year for we Nebraskans)

But all believers are obligated• To recognize that their food comes from God, and

to be thankful to Him for that. – 1Ti_4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing

to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:• To be in proper control of the AMOUNT of food I

eat– Proverbs 23.1-3– Proverbs 25.16– Matthew 11.19– 1Co 9:25

• To put spiritual things ahead of food– Matthew 9.15

In summary• Biblically, gluttony is a problem that obesity is

not. – Pro 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and

he that watereth shall be watered also himself. • It’s true that our bodies are temples. – But they are NOT the deity– A person may choose to eat/not eat certain types

of foods, but it’s not a religious mandate• No one can out-wit the curse through diet