In a Feb. 26 Huffington Post article (part of a post-New Year's Day series on food and health), Concordia College religion professor Michele Lelwica notes that fighting back against cultural pressures to be thin isn't as easy as simply eating more:

To challenge our culture's obsession with thinness is not to endorse a lifestyle that promotes obesity. Rather, my suggestion is simply that, in the long run, cultivating a nonviolent relationship with your body is actually a more viable road to overall health (physical, mental, spiritual) than torturing yourself with restrictive diets and weight-loss fantasies.

In fact, a crucial aspect of pursuing this kinder, more peaceful approach to your body is eating foods that genuinely nourish your body and spirit.

This means that instead of deciding what to eat based primarily on caloric, fat, or carbohydrate content, you try to eat foods that maximize your physical health. It also means eating them in a way that is attuned to how much your body really needs and that enhances your sense of gratitude and pleasure.

Labels: pressures, health, obesity

Posted By: Aspen/CRC