by Evan Mehlenbacher
Have you heard the recent news about gaining weight? Researchers claim that obesity is contagious!
Their report states that it matters who your friends are, explaining that people gain weight or slim down according to the girth of neighbor and relatives they associate with closest. “Both obesity and thinness are socially contagious,” says James Fowler, co-author of the study funded by the National Institute on Aging, and recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The report concludes that we tend to adjust to the size of people we are close to. If our best friends are heavier, we start to justify in our own mind going up a couple of sizes. If a person with a strong influence over us loses weight, we might decide to do the same, and slim down.
While trying to figure out what to make of the report, I reasoned the conclusions out from a Christian Science perspective.
Christian Science has taught me to look for an underlying mental cause behind all outward physical effects. I’ve learned that physical effect is actually the consequence of mortal belief. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, wrote, “The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.” To me, this means that a physical body manifests the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals, too. Healthy thoughts have a beneficial effect, and unhealthy beliefs have a sickly effect. So, yes, we need to watch what we think and not allow unhealthy suggestions to settle into consciousness.
But I felt like I needed more spiritual insight than this to master the fear of catching obesity beliefs floating around in public thought.
So I asked myself, “How would I defend myself from the reputed obesity contagion?”
Mary Baker Eddy also wrote, “We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection.” And here I found the answer I was looking for.
The so-called “infectious” belief of obesity does not come from another person, from personal acquaintances, or neighbors. It’s a false belief of mortal mind at large about God’s child that needs to be annihilated and destroyed. As Eddy wrote, mortal mind carries the infection, not people.
Mortal mind is a term used in Christian Science to denote all evil effect that appears real and powerful to the human senses, though it absolutely has no power to our spiritual senses. It is an impersonal influence, like fear or dreams that appear to come from nowhere, even look and feel real for a spell, than disappear. Christian Science shows us how to prevent harm from these mindless wanderings of mortal mind by building a spiritual defense against their sway.
For example, if one is prone to believe he will catch a cold when the weather turns wet and chilly, he is liable to manifest that belief. But if he were to know the spiritual truth about himself, that, he, as a spiritual child of God, can never catch a cold no matter what weather conditions prevail, he will not catch a cold.
The same rule applies to “catching” obesity. The danger is not from friends who have excess weight to lose, but from believing their extra weight can become our extra weight. It’s the belief that needs to be eliminated, not the friends.
In my own prayers since reading this report, I’ve been asserting the spiritual truth about my individuality as a child of God more rigorously. And my neighbor’s, too! I’ve been knowing that God did not make us prone to being overweight. In God’s image, we are healthy and fit, in balance, without excess, and without lack. As spiritual creations, we are not influenced by mortal beliefs at large, by what other people believe, or by subtle hidden unhealthy forces. We are the offspring of Spirit, beautiful, balanced, divinely toned, and possessing dominion and control.
I’ve put these truths into practice while eating out in restaurants in the past. Restaurants often serve huge portions of food, much more than I need to eat. I’ve rebelled against the aggressive suggestion that gluttony is contagious. I’ve declared that just because other people eat the full portions, doesn’t mean I have to. I’ve accepted that divine Mind satisfies my cravings for fulfillment with truth and love-nourishment that blesses and does not harm. I take extra food home for future meals and stopped blaming the restaurants for making me eat too much food, which was never the case. What I ate was my choice.
After praying about this report, I’ve concluded that obesity is not contagious. We don’t catch extra weight from other overweight people. The study merely monitored the effects of mortal belief, but did not study the spiritual facts of being which neutralizes those false beliefs and renders them harmless.
In spiritual reality, there is no harmful contagion. There is only one Mind governing all thoughts and actions of God’s creatures. We can demonstrate this divine control by knowing the spiritual truth about ourselves and our neighbors. God, not our neighbor, determines our state of health.
Spiritually considered, we live in a universe of divine Mind where God governs, not mortal belief. As we rightly identify ourselves as offspring of the divine, we experience the freedom, glory, and splendor of being God’s fit image, and the belief of harmful contagion is deactivated. This rule applies to all forms of contagion, whether of colds, flu, other diseases, or obesity.
We are fit, formed, and shaped in the divine image, which can never be distorted, disturbed, unbalanced, or burdened by too much girth. If God can’t catch something, we, as the divine image, cannot either.
With this spiritual perspective, we can be an influence for fitness wherever we circulate. And that’s a positive benefit we all can enjoy.
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I’m not worried about contagious obesity — I’m already fat! What can Chrsitian Science do for me about that?
Hi Evan, I’ve given this subject some thought, too, and it occurred to me that food, from a spiritual point of view, is just a symbol of good, of God’s care for us. And Mrs. Eddy wrote “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” NEED, not WANT. My weight used to fluctuate a lot, and then I started to notice that people in general (including myself) seemed to eat for a lot of reasons other than actual hunger, and that these reasons seemed to have to do with want, more than need. We eat to be sociable, to calm our nerves, to celebrate, when we’re sad, to accompany the TV, whatever. So I decided to stop eating when I wasn’t actually hungry, at least as much as possible. The result was that I lost weight, and have been at my normal weight now for several years. I didn’t change anything that I ate, by the way, or cut out anything that I enjoy because mortal mind says it’s “fattening.” :o)
To LIssa,
Hey, you are not the only one with a similar protest! Many are struggling with losing weight.
Christian Science can help. I lost weight many years ago by putting CS into practice.
One approach that helped me get my eating habits under control was understanding better that true happiness does not come from food–especially junk food and desserts. “Happines is spiritual, born of Truth and Love.” Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health.
Another concept that helped me was redefining how I thought about myself. Rather than riveting my attention on the physical body and torturing over how to modify it, I paid more attention to my thinking and prayed to hold a more spiritual concept of self in mental view. In particular, that I was God’s image. And God’s image is not overweight, so I couldn’t be overweight either as God’s child. But I needed to see myself this way. My prayer became, “I am God’s image, healthy, fit and under control.” And it made a huge positive difference.
There are many more ways to answer your question. Perhaps, the subject of a future blog!
Anyone else have ideas to share on losing weight with a spiritual approach?
To jazzrascal,
Great point! You advanced spiritually be realizing it’s not extra food that leads to genuine happiness, but spiritual qualities expressed, like discipline, contentment, moderation, gratitude, and spiritual mindedness!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi, it’s me again…this is such an interesting topic!
What occurred to me, Evan, is that even seeing some foods as “bad” and others as “good” is something we need to be aware of. For instance, you mentioned junk food…well, that term gives the impression that it’s bad, and to me, might tend to turn it into a bit of an idol if we’re not careful. The same thing with so-called “healthy” food. As we have seen, mortal mind has changed its mind many times over the centuries as to what is “good” food or “bad” food. This is an obsession with the chemistry of food (which Mrs. Eddy warned us against in Rudimental Divine Science: “As power divine is the healer, why should mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food? Jesus said: ‘Take no thought what ye shall eat.’” This has gone to such an extreme in this day an age that food wrappers in the supermarket read like something from a pharmacy. Food has become both “medicine” and “poison.” We really don’t have to give it that kind of power, or any power, for that matter.
I think that using the spiritual ideas you have shared here, a person would naturally come to embrace a sense of balance, where we neither fear or worship any particular type of food, so we end up not exaggerating, either in terms of type or quantity.
I agree with jazzrascal that when we label certain foods as “junk” and other foods as “healthy,” we’re automatically giving power over our thoughts and lives to a physical entity. That means that without even realizing it, we’ve shifted the balance of power away from Spirit, God. So I refuse to be lured into traps like counting calories or checking out fat content, nutritional value, or additives and preservatives. If people or media ads try to explain food theories to me, I let the information go in one ear and out the other, and silently claim my exemption — and everyone else’s — from these baseless scare tactics (even if they are well-intentioned).
Having had a food addiction for many years that finally left me when I learned in my heart — and not just intellectually — that God loves me as much as She loves Her every other child, I can relate to what Lissa is saying.
Lissa (what a pretty spelling of a pretty name), the only true fact about your body is that God formed you the way She wanted to be, full of grace, power, joy, and generosity, for starters. You are generously built: by and out of Love. You are generously fed: by and with Love. !!!! You are Love’s outcome. As such, your substance is lovely, and cannot be added to or taken away.
Love would never de-form you or allow any contagious world belief or seeming personal failing to do such a rotten thing to you.
She (God) is in the blessing business. You are not cursed or doomed to be abnormal in size, and no one else is either. Moreover, God has not bought you a two-way ticket for a guilt trip. Maybe a one-way ticket — straight out of your thinking!
Lissa, it’s fun and encouraging to contemplate what you’re really constituted of. You can make a list of the multitude of fine spiritual qualities that God, L-O-V-E, made as YOU, Her beloved! I’m positive you’ll come up with at least 100 adjectives to describe your goodness at the drop of a hat. And another 100 at the second drop of the hat!
If you were composed of material properties and governed by a limited mortal mind, then yes, you’d have to admit that any number of things could control you — TV ads for restaurants, friends and family members who maybe have large frames or perhaps eat more than they need to, feeling lonesome, stressing out over relationships or grades or tests …. even that latest lie, obesity contagion.
Remember this: you have been given dominion over al your thoughts and actions. So you have the power to reject the bait that tries to hook you into thinking you’re unhappy, unsatisfied, unwise, unwilling, unworthy. That’s all sooooooo not you! Remember the Bible statement, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”? It’s in James 4:7. Go look up the first half of that verse — I will let it surprise you!
Last comment for now: this isn’t all sweetsy pie-in-the-sky stuff. If I can prove it, you can too. That means it’s a law. The law of Love. And we’re all governed by it.
All good to you, and (already) in you, Lissa!
Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments! They are all really helpful and uplifting! I think that everything I wanted to add has been already added, but wanted to say thanks!
I enjoy the above discussion on the term junk food. I’m with you on not taking thought for what you eat, as Jesus instructed. But I’ve also observed that people do take a lot of thought for what they eat, without thinking about it.
For example, I asked a young boy one day why he drank so much soda pop. He replied,”Because it tastes good!” A very telling statement. He chose pop for the sugar, the sweetness. Someone who drinks a lot of pop might say, “Oh, I don’t pay any attention to what I drink. Take no thought…” But in actual fact, if one is drinking it for the sweetness, they are taking considerable thought for their beverage choices. It’s just so routine, they don’t notice anymore.
A certain amount of sweets is certainly no big deal. But when it becomes mindless and turns into a large habit, the consequences may not be good, for sugar has become a god, and the first commandment is being broken.
So, for me, the statement, “Take no thought for what you eat,” needs some commentary and explanation to make sense. It doesn’t mean mindless consumption of whatever we grab for. It means worshipping the one God, Spirit, in which we find genuine contentment and satisfaction through spiritual mindedness. When God is truly the center of our affections, we find balance, moderation, order, joy and contentment, manifest as fitness and health more and more a part of our experience.
I heard a spirituality.com chat where Rebecca Odegaard said that if you sat in a room and I really liked what she said. I took notes because I’ve had trouble with weight on and off for a long time. One thing she said that touches on this idea of junk food is this:
“We do include wisdom in our spiritual makeup and identity. I think there’s an awful lot of emphasis on the chemistry of food. I would really like to de-emphasize that, because it makes it a power, and God is the only power. So if you really only had available a bag of m&m’s, and you were hungry and there was nothing else to eat, that would not penalize you. You couldn’t be penalized by that. Food is not in and of itself a power. It’s only what we assign to it that makes it seem powerful.
One of the things that’s behind eating disorders is a fear of food—that it’s going to do something to you. It can’t do anything to us or for us without the consent of our own thinking.”
It doesn’t sound like she’s recommending eating junk food, but she makes clear that it can’t do anything to you one way or the other when you really get that God is the only power.
Yes, the real issue, and the most important issue, is not so much what is going into our mouth, but what is happening in our thinking? If our thinking is right with God, our eating habits will be right with God too.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you! What timely advice about a vital topic! I’ve been working on this subject for some months now and this discussion is just what I needed. I found it especially helpful, as I’ve been mentally battling the idea of genetic pre-disposition to obesity-related diseases… So far I’ve been inspired by the Bible verse, “the curse causeless shall not come”. (I don’t remember where I read it, but it reminds me I’m not on auto-pilot for anything unhealthy.)
Yeah, Evan, I’ve got to agree with your astute observation in your #8 comment.
I found that after the food addiction (mentioned above in #6) left, I took a natural shine to a great variety of foods, instead of limiting my interest to so-called “junk” foods. But I didn’t have to force myself to change. It was just an effortless result of spiritual growth.
As all of us have, I’ve learned to expect that behavior moderates, balances out and purifies itself when one puts aside material gods in favor of worshipping Spirit.
Thanks, everyone, for your great insights.
Just stopped to say hello. I like your blog and it came from your heart. Beautiful!