When diet culture walks into church...
How a certain kind of idolatry seems to get a hall pass and why that's not okay.
Sadly, but probably not shockingly, diet culture is wildly rampant in Christian culture - and it’s problematic. And I want to write about it because I think it matters, and I think it’s something that fellow Christians would benefit from pondering. I want to urge Christians to be mindful, critical, and curious about the kind of culture that we’re creating and participating in. I’m here to urge believers to consider how we might be perpetuating unhelpful beliefs and rationalizing them using scripture taken out of context. I want to shed light - and truth - on issues that tend to get overlooked and go unconsidered because they’re so socially sanctioned.
Here’s the tea: diet culture has weaseled its way into our churches and should-be-safe spaces. It’s not uncommon to hear pastors use weight loss metaphors (in the name of “health”, of course) during sermons and it’s incredibly common for conversations among church members - especially in community groups who meet and share meals together - to be about food, diet, and body talk.
“Oh, I’m so “bad” for eating that cookie - sugar is toxic”, “Oh, I’m so full - going to have to run that meal off tomorrow morning”, “Have you heard about intermittent fasting (from influencers on the internet) and how AHhMaZiNg it is for your body?” (*sidenote: it’s not amazing for many people. You fast naturally when you sleep, your body needs food in the morning, and food restriction triggers your body to be in a chronic state of threat perception/stress…which negatively impacts your health).
These are not uncommon things to hear people utter at church functions and in church communities, especially among women. This kind of talk is highly normalized and many of us make (faulty) assumptions that everyone shares these same beliefs: that we should commiserate in our body shame and disdain, that we should always be pursuing weight loss and toned muscles, and that exercise is meant to be punitive and to compensate for eating. And it’s not okay.
Whenever I bring this up, people are quick to rationalize: But God tells us to honor our bodies. God tells us to take care of our bodies. Sure, He does - but I don’t think He means it in the way that most modern Americans often interpret it. Nowhere does God say to worship and idolize thinness - and thinness and weight loss (often in the name of or under the guise of “health”) are two of the most socially accepted and encouraged idols in the church. God *actually* calls us to find our worth and identity in Him - not in our pant size, our appearance, our BMI (which is scientifically false, by the way), our image, and/or the type of groceries we buy.
A colleague of mine, Leslie Schilling (who wrote a really rad book called Feed Your Self that I 10/10 recommend) says, “Our bodies are temples, not because of what we do for them, but because they already hold the divine.” I think Christians need to sit with that for a minute. Mainstream culture says, “Your body is “better” if it looks a certain way or has a certain ”health status”. Jesus never said that. Mainstream culture says, “You are more worthy, more lovable - you are “good” - if you eat and exercise in a specific way.” Jesus never said that.
He literally said not to worship idols. And I have never witnessed certain idols get a hall pass quite like the idols of “wellness”, health, physical appearance, and weight. Are we not called to be in the world but not of it? At what point has a “good thing” become an ultimate thing?
I’m not saying nutrition doesn’t matter. I’m not saying it’s “bad” to value your health. I’m not saying to never move your body or to avoid green vegetables. This is often what people hear, especially people who tend to hold more black-and-white beliefs about food and health. What I am saying is that we (Christians) are often complicit in our own systems, perpetuating harm and disordered beliefs in places that should be safe spaces for all bodies no matter their size and no matter their health status. And I think it’s time for Christians to get honest about the tendency to accept and even promote certain idols in the name of “faith” while demonizing others.
As Christian women, I think we need to start to be mindful of the conversations we are having with other women about food and our bodies. Are they uplifting? Are they affirming the inherent goodness of our bodies because they exist, as they are right now? Are they eating disorder-informed and sensitive? Or do they just parrot pop culture and what we’ve been socially conditioned to believe, that there is a hierarchy of bodies and that some of more worthy than others?
Maybe you’re wondering, why does that matter? It matters because statistically, there are absolutely people in your congregation in eating disorder recovery (1 and 10 people struggle with eating disorders). It matters because body image issues are so rampant that we assume everyone else has them and engage in conversations accordingly (i.e.: engaging in body bashing, body shaming, speaking unkindly to our bodies underneath the assumption that the other women you’re talking to are going to join in because they also hate their body).
And yet the reality is that culture is changing (slowly, I think, but it’s changing). The reality is that there are thousands upon thousands of women (many in eating disorder recovery and many who know folks in recovery) who are actively fighting to change the narratives, who are making peace with their bodies, and who are ditching negative food and body talk for good. The veil has been lifted for many - including myself - who now realize that much of what we’ve been taught about “health” is actually just completely wrong and who no longer want to participate in systems of self-objectification and body shame.
Scripture taken out of context can be used to make us hold contempt for our bodies, criticize them harshly, judge them, and even hate them. Scripture taken out of context can also be used to justify and rationalize disordered eating and eating disorder behaviors.
Diet culture is fundamentally about disconnecting us from the bodies that Jesus calls good, from the body that I think Jesus asks you to respect and be gracious to, even in a culture that grooms your acceptance of your body to be entirely conditional, tied predominately to how it looks. This is hard, hard work - please hear me say that.
I used to be the girl making the harmful food and body comments, and I often wish I could go back in time and undo so much of what I said about my body and what I did to my body in the presence of other women. I was very unwell and consumed by my eating disorder, unable to think about how those comments might be impacting the women in my midst. In my recovery, I was fighting to believe something so counter-cultural (that my body was indeed, inherently good) in a culture that conditioned me to believe that I had to look a certain way to be loved and accepted, in a culture that idolizes thinness no matter the cost.
It took me years (and a lot of therapy) to shift my perspective and to begin to truly embody what Jesus proclaims: my body is good, my body is good, my body is good. In every season, with every change, and no matter what: my body is good.
If you’re a Christian and you’re interested in learning more about how diet culture has shaped your view of food/your body/yourself and also about how you can *unlearn* a lot of what you’ve been taught, I highly recommend the following books:
Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design by Leslie Shilling
Breaking Free From Body Shame: Dare to Reclaim what God Has Named Good by Jess Connolly
Beautiful Freedom: How the Bible Shapes Your View Of Appearance, Food, and Fitness by Stacy Reaoch
**Also - there is so much about all of this that is connected to purity culture and how harmful that is, too. Maybe I’ll write more on that soon.
With love,
Rachel