Purely on obesity here:
In Discover of September of this year (2002), there is an article about eating that is very interesting. It starts by describing a mutation which results in something called "Prader-Willi syndrome" which results in ravenous eating without ever feeling satiated. "Untreated, most people with the syndrome become obese by their teenage years and are dead by adulthood, killed by heart disease, diabetes, or other conditions. Some have died from gorging until their stomachs actually burst."
Later the article continues,
"Eating may seem basic, but the whole process, from feeling hungry to finally pushing away from the table, is controlled by elaborate and largely mysterious circuitry between brain and gut. Scientists have identified more than 250 genes and at least 40 neuro-chemicals that regulate metabolism and appetite, but it's clear than in humans, social cues are at least as powerful as biological signals. The study of metabolism and appetite, one appetite researcher wrote, is like "a few small islands of scientific understanding surrounded by a vast sea of uncertain phenomena."
Tests show that eating the foods one likes releases dopamine in the same regions of the brain that heroin does.
So how does one start to prefer foods? In infancy and childhood! Personally, I have added 'favorite foods' to those my mother used to cook, but I still make her tuna casserole, meatloaf, fruit jello, and a number of other dishes. I still look for at least two vegetables and meat with dinner. Unlike her I make soups out of leftovers, love curried foods and sweet meats, and prefer tea over coffee. But what happened is what was added to her meals, not subtracted.
Well, I always hated her 'ham on rice...'
But what I am trying to say is when we see a fat adult, maybe we are looking at a person who has been fighting an uphill battle -- for a variety of reasons -- for so long they are exhausted with the time and attention the fight takes and are simply desiring to turn their attention to other matters.
In this kind of a case, encouraging an overweight person to have an active role in church activities might be part of a process that helps them lose some of that weight!
Folks, our biggest problem -- all of us -- is the attention we pay to ourselves. Anything we can do to encourage others to help with something outside themselves, and anything we can do to look beyond our own selves to something we can do, is EXACTLY what Jesus meant by loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
When 'the role is called up yonder', the question won't be "how many calories did you consume each day?" but "did you do what I asked you to do with your life?"
If someone who is overweight wants to serve in church and we deny that person the opportunity to do so because we find the weight offensive and bad for some kind of public image, then we have sinned against the Lord by not loving and caring for that person and we have sinned doubly because we have thereby stood in between that person and the Lord in terms of what that person may have been called to do.
It's funny how dependent we are on sight, isn't it? A person who stutters but looks nice is quite acceptable. A person who is fat but a marvelous communicator is shunned. Fat is ugly. Don't offend the eyes and all is well.
This is the same foundation as abortion, folks. If you don't see it, it's OK to kill it. When it's born and you can see it you fight like anything to save its life.
We are a strange bunch.
[ August 07, 2002, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: Helen ]
In Discover of September of this year (2002), there is an article about eating that is very interesting. It starts by describing a mutation which results in something called "Prader-Willi syndrome" which results in ravenous eating without ever feeling satiated. "Untreated, most people with the syndrome become obese by their teenage years and are dead by adulthood, killed by heart disease, diabetes, or other conditions. Some have died from gorging until their stomachs actually burst."
Later the article continues,
"Eating may seem basic, but the whole process, from feeling hungry to finally pushing away from the table, is controlled by elaborate and largely mysterious circuitry between brain and gut. Scientists have identified more than 250 genes and at least 40 neuro-chemicals that regulate metabolism and appetite, but it's clear than in humans, social cues are at least as powerful as biological signals. The study of metabolism and appetite, one appetite researcher wrote, is like "a few small islands of scientific understanding surrounded by a vast sea of uncertain phenomena."
Tests show that eating the foods one likes releases dopamine in the same regions of the brain that heroin does.
So how does one start to prefer foods? In infancy and childhood! Personally, I have added 'favorite foods' to those my mother used to cook, but I still make her tuna casserole, meatloaf, fruit jello, and a number of other dishes. I still look for at least two vegetables and meat with dinner. Unlike her I make soups out of leftovers, love curried foods and sweet meats, and prefer tea over coffee. But what happened is what was added to her meals, not subtracted.
Well, I always hated her 'ham on rice...'
But what I am trying to say is when we see a fat adult, maybe we are looking at a person who has been fighting an uphill battle -- for a variety of reasons -- for so long they are exhausted with the time and attention the fight takes and are simply desiring to turn their attention to other matters.
In this kind of a case, encouraging an overweight person to have an active role in church activities might be part of a process that helps them lose some of that weight!
Folks, our biggest problem -- all of us -- is the attention we pay to ourselves. Anything we can do to encourage others to help with something outside themselves, and anything we can do to look beyond our own selves to something we can do, is EXACTLY what Jesus meant by loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
When 'the role is called up yonder', the question won't be "how many calories did you consume each day?" but "did you do what I asked you to do with your life?"
If someone who is overweight wants to serve in church and we deny that person the opportunity to do so because we find the weight offensive and bad for some kind of public image, then we have sinned against the Lord by not loving and caring for that person and we have sinned doubly because we have thereby stood in between that person and the Lord in terms of what that person may have been called to do.
It's funny how dependent we are on sight, isn't it? A person who stutters but looks nice is quite acceptable. A person who is fat but a marvelous communicator is shunned. Fat is ugly. Don't offend the eyes and all is well.
This is the same foundation as abortion, folks. If you don't see it, it's OK to kill it. When it's born and you can see it you fight like anything to save its life.
We are a strange bunch.
[ August 07, 2002, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: Helen ]
