You’ve probably heard the old adage, “You are what you eat.” Nutritionists, doctors and dieticians may argue this position, but there’s so much more to consider.
Metaphysicians realize that what you put into your mouth is the outcome of what happens in your thinking. To remedy troubles in the eating department, troubles need to be resolved first in the “thinking” department.
Moral and spiritual choices affect food choices.
For instance, when our children were in elementary school my wife and I were aghast to learn that teachers rewarded their students with candy. We had an unwritten rule in our home that candy consumption was kept to a minimum. There are so many symptoms of suffering that come along with the belief that one needs a piece of candy in their mouth all the time, that we decided simply to stay away from the practice altogether. And we were succeeding very nicely. Our children had no special desire for candy.
Then we noticed them coming home with pieces of hard candy, plus my wife finds candy wrappers in their clothes when doing laundry.
We ask them, “Where did this candy come from?”
They replied, “Oh, our teacher gives that to us when we do a good job.” We were astounded. When we went to school, we were taught to do a good job because that was the right thing to do, because it was the moral way to live and behave. But for some reason, these teachers believed they had to bribe a student with sugar to do well, as if they wouldn’t want to already the way God made them.
Anyway, we stop being aghast. That’s a different blog. We let go of any resentment, knowing that it wasn’t our job to manage the teacher’s methods. They had their reasons for doing what they did, and we valued their work as educators of our children. We could still love them, and did.
But we also decided that we didn’t have to accept the bad influence and poor moral choices being made around our children as inevitably affecting their behavior. That we could speak directly to them about why we kept candy consumption to a minimum and also why it was important to do good work because that was the morally right thing to do, and not because one hoped to get a reward of candy.
For the most part, they understood our position. We did not tell them they could not eat any of the candy they received. We wanted them to think for themselves and make their own choices. We mentioned that we’d like to see them pass up the candy and be happy without it, but we didn’t lay down a hard and fast rule.
Afterward, we noticed candy would come home, but sit around, eventually grow stale and old, and then be thrown out. This was a good sign! I’m sure they ate some, but the habit of receive and eat without thinking was stopped.
Moral choices affect food choices. When we strive to live a moral life, we make better decisions, healthier decisions, and the effect is better on our health and well being.
Health is not a function of what we put into our mouth. It’s the outcome of living and thinking in harmony with God, with divine Principle, and living for spiritual reasons and purposes.
I laugh when I tell this next story….
I’ve lectured hundreds of times over the last 15 years, all around the country. Every lecture is a success, I figure. Sometimes, though, lecture outcomes are particularly outstanding where someone is cured of a terminal disease or several people have major spiritual breakthroughs during my talk, and tell me afterward….
One evening, after returning to my hotel room around 10 p.m. after a lecture I had given, and feeling especially exhilarated about its success, the tempter said in my thought, “You did so well, you deserve a reward. You should order a hot chocolate sundae!” And I did. I had never done anything like this before.
At 10:15 p.m., far after dinner time, I sit down to this bowl of ice cream and oozing hot fudge, with a cherry on top, and start to eat. But the bites were not enjoyable. In fact, it all felt rather repulsive.
“What was I doing?” I protested. I sat up straight in my chair and pondered some more. “This is ridiculous. It’s 10:15 at night. You had a fine dinner. You are not hungry. It’s time to go to bed. You had a super lecture tonight. The reward for doing a great job is not a hot chocolate sundae. The reward is all the spiritual good and healing that came out of the event and stays with you forever. Eating this sundae is a fraud and deception. You don’t need it, you don’t want it, and you should quit eating it.”
Just to check my reasoning, I ate a few more bites, and yep, it was still repulsive. I had been bamboozled by the tempter to order the thing in the first place, and it was time to check its harmful influence. I put it aside, and left to prepare for bed.
My actions were the outcome of my moral and spiritual choices. At first, I made a poor moral choice, believing that dessert was an appropriate reward for doing a good job as a speaker. The logic was stupid and inane. The reward for doing any good work is the good outcome of the work. Increased sugar consumption dosed with heavy flavoring is hardly an equal compensation for the joys and freedoms that come from demonstrating competence, ability, capacity and inspirational activity. It’s a fraud on oneself to believe so.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Jesus taught.
When we think of food in strictly material terms, as so many calories, carbohydrates, and chemicals we lose sight of what real food is. Real food is spiritual. It’s not atoms configured in a multitude of ways called carrots, ham, apples and yogurt. Real food is spiritual thoughts coming from God. Its morality and spirituality lived, expressed and demonstrated.
When our thinking is right with God, making sound moral and spiritual choices, what we put into our mouth will not be harmful. It will be guided by sensible decision-making, uplifting motives and spiritual purpose.
And then we begin to fathom what Jesus meant when he said, “Take no thought for what you eat.” In other words, it’s not what you eat that is the overriding concern. It’s what you think. And when you think right, guided by God and moral and spiritual directives, what you eat will be of no harmful consequence.
We are not what we eat. We are what God made us to be in the divine image and likeness. And the beauty, health and fitness of the divine likeness most readily comes out for all to see when our thought is guided morally and spiritually.
Can you think of your own examples of how moral decisions affect eating choices? Some of the comments already include a few instances…
In Britain there are several generations of people still affected by rationing from the 2nd WW. They will insist on themselves and others eating everything on their plate.
I was brought up that way and started to bring my children up similarly. I eventually managed to put it in some perspective through prayer.
Now a few years later, my husband is working for a supermarket. At the end of the day there is “bin stock”, food which has not been sold and has to be binned. There is the opportunity for staff to buy some of it and depending on how hungry my husband is at the end of the shift and availability, he will bring more or less home. Then I often find I have to bin it! We certainly don’t eat it all and the boys (now teenagers) can’t eat it all.
I feel we have a good attitude to food in the house, mainly driven by me and this I felt contributed to my weight being fairly under control. Over the past year my weight has crept up and now I am a stone heavier than my previous heaviest and I cannot seem to think the right thought about it spiritually. Colleagues, friends, my husband “kindly” tell me it is my age 🙁
Somedays I cope other days I am in a dark place with it. My clothes aren’t fitting and I don’t want to buy more and bigger, even if it is a passing mortal thought. I know that it cannot “take lodgement in my thought like wandering pollen”
The laugh about all this is, when our circumstances changed and my husband had to take this supermarket job, I was doing so much metaphysical work for the family, my weight was at its most stable ever and I was so grateful, assuming it was a healing ha!
Evan, thank you for starting your blog page and making your thoughts available to us. I find them very shareable with non and CS friends alike. BENEDICERE Shelagh
THANKS for this blog, dear Evan — it is so helpful and causing me to examine my thoughts. After reading all of this, I have to ask myself: Am I immoral because I am fat? Are those who are fit moral? What does it mean to be moral? I’m always trying to make good choices when it comes to food, and before I sit down to eat a meal, I try to know that I’m in control, but once I start eating, all control leaves me. I “wake up” at the end of the meal and realize that I have eaten too much. Why is resolution to do better so difficult to follow through with?
Hi Evan,
This is an interesting and helpful post, and it’s got me thinking. I get what you are saying about not looking to food as a reward and the connection to moral thinking in that regard, but can/should that idea be applied to everyday eating as well? I mean, even if I don’t ever eat sweets as a reward, I still have to eat, right? When I plan menus or go to the grocery store or order a meal at a restaurant, is it better or worse to think about what is considered nutritious and what is not? It seems hard to me to make meal decisions and still “take no thought” for what I (and my family) will be eating and drinking. What am I missing in all this?
I’m going to blog more about these very issues you bring up. But one point, yet to be discussed, is often eating decisions are driven by love of food, for instance, a love of salt on snacks, or sugar in the form of sugar laden food, soda pop, a sweet taste, etc. I find that when one’s focus in life is to be spiritually minded and serving God, the temptation to serve food cravings is much less. It’s a tradeoff. The more we love God, the things of Spirit, the less we love material food. Many bad eating habits are driven by a love of food, even if its a mindless love of food, and that’s not spiritually healthy.
As far as control is concerned, when we mindlessly eat, and then eat too much, we’re mentally absorbed in consumption of that food. We’ve temporarily forgotten about God. Essentially, we’re worshipping the food and become it’s slave. The antidote is to truly love God more. Put a desire to serve God first in life, rather than a desire to serve appetite for food. More to come…
It is very interesting that this series of blogs is being discussed just after restaurant menus in California (maybe other places?) are now required to disclose calorie counts, and other nutritional information, regarding each item. Just on a material level, this revelation is quite daunting. One almost doesn’t even want to order. “Water only will be fine, thank you”, I’m tempted to say!
And speaking of candy at school, three years ago, our school district disallowed heavily sweetened treats to be served at classroom parties. They have established a “wellness” program, and it’s funny how some of the room moms first responded. At first, they didn’t know what to serve! Now it’s quite normal to bring in finger fruits (grapes, strawberries, cut-up apples, etc.). The kids love them. On our baseball team last year, one of the coaches brought in candy to feed to the boys during games to get them “hyper”, and in some instances, got a better game out of them. But then many parents complained, and then fruit was served and similar positive results were found. Candy wasn’t the end all after all.
I hope it is ok to share this, Evan. I appreciate your comments, but can point out other articles/testimonies that have helped me as far as overeating/weightloss:
An article in the December 28, 1992 Sentinel by Annette Kreutziger-Herr entitled “Making progress: Getting the Nourishment we Need” which talks about what real progress and learning are. To paraphrase: She says that over and over she saw that in the Bible elevating thought is compared metaphorically to eating. References to ‘eating up the little book’, the tree of life, the Beatitudes in which Jesus said blessed are they who do hunger & thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. She equates righteousness with desirable food! Of course there is much more to this article which really helps me to understand what real nourishment is.
Then from the January 5, 1929 CS Sentinel is a testimony from Mrs. Estelle Stanhope–she had a wonderful healing of obesity which took about a year–she states that she did not give up any food, but neither did she ‘stuff’ herself–she didn’t feed the appetite. She didn’t feel that any food should be feared. She considered obesity to be a disease like any other to be healed.
Like anonymous I have to ask: Are fat people immoral? That seems to me to be ‘judging according to appearances’. I have a neighbor who is quite thin; I never see him without a beer and a cigarette in his hands! He and his friends spend the weekends drinking and I hear a steady ‘clinking’ of beer bottles thrown in the garbage can!
Seems to me that a hot fudge sundae isn’t of itself immoral, nor is the one who eats it.
I think it is so important to make sure when we make our food choices that we are supporting good motives. We have to start thinking about whether or not our choices are expressing God like qualities. It is not about the actual food, it is about how that food was produced, and what spiritual qualities our food represents.
As I mentioned before, I like to support farmers with good motives, farmers that respect the earth and love their animals and love farming. It feel so right to support people who’s lifestyle is in harmony with the earth. What blesses one blesses all. This means that on these farms the workers are well treated, the animals are raised humanely, the earth is respected (no pesticides or other chemicals sprayed ) etc.
When I am making my food choices I start by asking myself what are my choices supporting, what God like values am I (and the people who produced my food) expressing. It becomes so simple to make choices as to what to eat when we start from this spiritual basis.
I feel so connected with God when I sit down to the table to eat my meal. I have immense gratitude for the farmers, the earth and the QUALITIES that were expressed throughout the whole process when my food was being produced. I am in awe at the pure harmony, the incredible symphony of LIFE that is expressed when we respect all life. From the earth worm, to the chicken, to the farmers. Knowing that I have done my part to support a harmonious, balanced collaboration of Gods ideas feels so very good.
Eating is more about connecting to the greater good in the universe and continually supporting the spiritual qualities being expressed as food is being produced.
While purchasing my food, my thought is full of gratitude for the farmers who respect the earth enough to work in harmony with it. I sit down to the table already full, already satisfied because I know my choices reflect my spiritual values.
Again, as I posted a few days ago, ask yourself, would you cry or smile when you saw your food produced. When we can smile, knowing by what means our food came to our plate, choosing what to eat becomes so much easier, and it becomes a joy to do the shopping each week, knowing we are supporting, and expressing God like qualities with each choice we make.
Monique
I tend to agree with “anonymous” who started blogging with this statement, “I hope it is ok to share this, Evan.”
I appreciate and value the intent of this blog but feel it’s going in a dangerous direction, that of assigning power to food as able to cause an imbalanced body size. Food does not have power, but THOUGHT about food does, as Evan pointed out. What about people who are abnormally sized who do not overeat? It is an assumption –especially in this country – that obesity is directly related to food/overeating in every case. Overweight people are discriminated against and looked at with disdain and disgust; thought of as lazy and having no self-control. Not so. This kind of unrighteous judgment is far more damaging than 1,000 hot fudge sundaes could ever be.
There is no ONE cause or answer to ANY physical problem. Every physical problem has a mental cause but that mental cause is not always the same. Obesity is not always a dependency on or misuse of food. The assumption that it is, is dangerous. It leaves out of the equation mental causes such as heredity, poor self-esteem, fear of lack, and beliefs of a slow metabolism or other physical causes.
Much “weight” is given to certain types of foods. However, the particular food and its ability to help or hurt changes with popular thought – with the amount of thought, publicity, advertising, discussion and FEAR that is taught and accepted – not rejected. We need to ask, Can sugar (for instance) really cause obesity or hyperactivity? Does it really have that power? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that all power belongs to God, good? Why then do we assign power to food? Just sayin…!
I appreciate your alertness to the danger of children being rewarded with candy on a steady basis, Evan. Rewarding children with candy should never be a steady diet…any more than rewarding children with a certificate of award every time they do something good. Good behavior should, as you’ve pointed out, be expected and its own reward. When our daughter was in grade school she would bring home a special award every couple of days for some “outstanding” thing she did. Before long, they meant nothing to her and she questioned the value of them. However, I think we have to be careful not to make candy a “forbidden fruit.” I have no problem with candy being a treat or even a reward OCCASIONALLY. When I was a child there was always a filled candy dish on the coffee table. Candy was readily available. To this day I do not have a sweet tooth – rather, just the opposite. I could live the rest of my life without sweets.
Good and important discussion, thanks Evan, and thanks everyone who has taken the time to contribute – you’re all sweeties!!
I keep trying to think of all the references to eating in the Bible. Wednesday evening I read about the Pharisees asking Jesus about his disciples eating with unwashed hands. Jesus replied that it wasn’t what went into the stomach, but what came out of the heart that defiled a man. There is so much fear about food today, so much classification of foods as good or bad, so many claims made about it all. Growing up, we didn’t look at food as ‘entertainment’ or a drug– my Mom was an excellent cook, we ate only at mealtimes, desserts were rare as were snacks, and our very plain diet was enough to keep our large family going. I certainly took little thought about food in those days!
Certainly we should turn to God instead of food or anything else to solve our problems and keep a sense of health and well-being. Neither a sundae nor a salad can do anymore for one than belief permits–our real daily bread is our study and prayer that lets us feel God’s presence. Starting out the day with that nourishment, stopping for snacks as needed, do we really have to analyze our material food and be fearful? As someone who just was diagnosed with high cholesterol recently told me “If it tastes good, I can’t have–that’s how I tell what is good for me and what isn’t!”
Evan, your comments about this topic also reminded me of the following passage:
“Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can. Consult thy everyday life; take its answer as to thy aims, motives, fondest
27 purposes, and this oracle of years will put to flight all care
for the world’s soft flattery or its frown. Patience and resignation are the pillars of peace that, like the sun beneath
30 the horizon, cheer the heart susceptible of light with promised joy. Be faithful at the temple gate of conscience, wakefully guard it;”
(MBE-Prose Works)
Thanks for the great sharing!
~TH
The food comments are interesting. I for one have been drawing parallels between this discussion and thoughts on other health topics. While we openly discuss “food” we wouldn’t discuss and probably shouldn’t the ‘disease of the day’. Still much of what has been stated applies so well to our handling of other issues. Which leads to food for thought 🙂
Hi Evan, Great blog! I notice that the subject of “drink” is not really addressed, either in this posting or others. I did a search on “alcohol” and nothing came up. Is moderation and pure motive possible with beer and wine?
To above,
You asked about drinking…
I feel drinks with alcohol are a whole different subject than the current one of food. With alcohol, one is talking about much more than liquid consumed, but mind-altering substance, in belief, that has all kinds of effects not normally associated with everyday food. In answer to your question, I’d say a moderate drinker is better than being a heavy drinker! But personally, I stay away from the stuff altogether because if one is willing to consciously turn control of his mind over to a can of beer, even if in moderation, he is liable to turn conscious control of his mind over to something else in life that could have far worse effects–like to a suggestion of lack or disease, or whatever else mortal mind wants to throw out…
Dear Evan! While I admire what you do, after reading this I feel even worse for not having the necessary self-control concerning snacks and sweets. Doesn’t it mean that if I cant control my appetite, I am an immoral person? I have tried but failed to live up to so high a standard …With me, this always leads to even more self-condemnation. So what’s the way out? Nick
Hi Nick,
I’m guessing you’re a very moral person! With your despair over feeling out of control in regard to eating snacks, let’s not consent to that illusion! You certainly do have control. God gave you dominion, authority and power to make intelligent, competent decisions. When I struggled with the same, I had to come to terms with the question, “Where am I looking for pleasure? To food or to God–increased spiritual mindedness?” When I was honest with myself, I realized I was looking to food for enjoyment, and of course, I was never satisfied, because I kept going back wanting more. The seeming pleasure that came from eating unnecessary sweets was illusion. I was defrauding myself. There was no real pleasure there. Once I saw that better, it was easier to pass up on desserts and pray instead for more peace within about who I was spiritually, and how God was bringing joy into my life spiritually.
Hope that helps…