Donald B.
Ardell – April 10, 2011
I have had
several requests to assess from a REAL wellness perspective a recent study
suggesting that religion might be a risk factor for obesity. How valuable is a
finding that something "might be" this or that? I can identify
unlimited things that “might be” do this or that, and I wouldn’t have to kill a
single laboratory mouse to list all kinds of such possibilities. However,
because the subject is religion, the latest "maybe yes, maybe no"
study finding got a lot of what I think is unwarranted attention.
Many
writers have expressed disdain for religion – among a few of my favorites
are Robert Green Ingersoll, H.L. Mencken, Friedrich Nietzsche, Madeline Murray
O'Hair, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. However, not many
religious skeptics have done so from a limited health and wellness perspective.
This, I like to imagine, is my specialty! Therefore, I’m pleased to offer a
REAL wellness perspective on the question, "Can religion make you
fat?"
However,
before providing this perspective, let me summarize the study that looked at
the link between religion and obesity, conducted at Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine. The research involved tracking 2,400 men and women
over a period of 18 years. (Details on the religion and fat study are available
in an article entitled, "Can Religion Make You Fat?" in "The
Week," March 25, 2011.)
http://theweek.com/article/index/213602/can-religion-make-you-fat study in
question. Highlights include the following:
* The
faithful seem to equate gluttony as being next to godliness. Praise the lard
and pass the ice cream. Potluck gatherings and post-worship coffee and donut
gatherings seem not to be helpful to the "bottom" line.
* Church
attendance is a sedentary way to spend a good part of Sunday morning - bike
rides, runs or walks on nature trails would be more physically and possibly
more "spiritually" uplifting.
* Young
churchgoers are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age than those
who reject religion.
Why are
churchgoers more likely to be fatter than the average infidel, like me? The
authors offer a rather lame explanation, almost preposterous in nature and hard
to take seriously. Yet, here it is: "Being religious is associated with
doing good works and those who do good works reward themselves by
overeating."
Can you
believe that? It's almost as entertaining as Newt Gingrich’s explaining marital
infidelities as caused by his overwork in turn driven by his intense
patriotism!
Wait -
hold your hat: It gets even more ridiculous. "It's because of
marriage," explained another scholar associated with the study. Kenneth F.
Ferraro of Purdue University told CNN: "Weight gain is common after
marriage."
That's
odd. Don't infidels also marry? Why are heretics not fat in middle age? Surely
some are, but the headline about the study did not read, "Can religious
skepticism keep you trim?"
Not
surprisingly, there is NO evidence that religion CAUSES weight gain. Alas, one
has to read below the sensationalized headlines before this fact is finally
acknowledged.
So, to end
the incredible suspense, my answer to the question, "Can religion make you
fat" is "no more than any other sedentary activity based on blind
faith in ludicrous superstitions." The dogma won't make you fat - it will
only reinforce whatever tendencies you already have toward being judgmental, irrational,
mean, prejudiced and credulous.
Donald B.
Ardell is the Well Infidel. He
favors evidence over faith, reason over revelation and meaning and purpose over
spirituality. His enthusiasm for
reason, exuberance and liberty are reflected in his books (14), newsletter (570
editions of a weekly report) and lectures across North America and a dozen
other countries. Write Don at awr.realwellness@gmail.com