It was only a matter of time before the cult of weight loss in America met born-again Christianity.
Rick Warren, pastor at one of the country's most famous megachurches and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, has just taken on a new role: diet guru. But his signature plan has an ancient pedigree. Inspired by the first chapter of Daniel, where the prophet proves the virtues of a simple vegetarian diet over the king's fatty feasts, the Daniel Plan focuses on plant foods and regular exercise. The guidelines are available for free on the Plan's website. But if meeting them is an obligation to God, the cost of falling off the wagon is potentially very high indeed.
The moralization of obesity is all too familiar these days. As America has gotten heavier, blame has become something of a national sport. Yet the ancient roots of Warren's Plan are a reminder that the association between health and morality is nothing new. The idea that health is a marker of virtue and self-control was widespread throughout the ancient Mediterranean among not just Jews, but also Greeks and Romans.
Flipping through the memoirs of Socrates' less famous student, Xenophon, we're told that the ancient philosopher "never neglected the care of his body" and had nothing but blame for those that did (in one episode he chastises a young initiate for avoiding the gym). In the first centuries CE, Plutarch, among the most influential of ancient moralists, declared that anyone who relies on doctors after the age of sixty is ridiculous. Any man worthy of being called free should know his body well enough that late in life. Plutarch advises his readers to visit sick friends not to offer sympathy but to learn from their mistakes. If disease broadcasts a personal failure, then getting sick is frankly embarrassing.
The attitudes of Socrates and Plutarch are the product of societies where disease was seen almost entirely in terms of "lifestyle" choices. We know a lot more today about the science of microbes and viruses. But with chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer posing a greater threat to world health than infectious diseases for the first time in human history, we're facing some old quandaries. And one of the biggest is this one: How much can we blame people for getting sick?
It's easy to agree with Plutarch here: a lot. By now the havoc wreaked on the body by a lifetime of Big Macs and super-sized Cokes is obvious enough. Paula Deen, who recently announced she has adult-onset diabetes, is widely seen as paying the price for her high-fat Southern cooking. No one is forcing people to eat fast food or fried chicken.
But for a society in the midst of an obesity epidemic, self-righteousness is its own disease. The language of fault is a symptom of our collective refusal to grasp the bigger picture. The ancients might have something more to teach us here beyond the benefits of olive oil.
For one thing, our ancient authors are clear-eyed about the relationship between health and wealth. The author of a handbook on diet that was later attributed to Hippocrates imagines two audiences for his advice: people who lack the money and the time to take care of themselves on a regular basis; and people who can afford to devote themselves to their health. When Plato assigned different doctors to the free man and the slave, he was talking about two models of care. The slave's doctor barks orders like a dictator before rushing off to his next patient. By contrast, the doctors of rich elites take the time to explain to their patients what's wrong with their bodies. And not everyone was sitting around reading Plutarch. Health, the ancients knew, is a product of leisure, education and quality care.
It's true that what used to be seen as diseases of affluence have become rampant among the poor as cheap calories have flooded the market. But the basic insight that income and class determine who has time and money to take care of themselves is valid. It's no secret that access to fresh, healthy foods depends on your zip code and your tax bracket. Mississippi is not only the poorest state in the union but also the most obese. Childhood stressors, including poverty and family tensions, have recently been named risk factors for adult obesity.
But the factors that complicate the moralization of obesity aren't only about class. The truth is that it's increasingly hard for anyone to claim full responsibility for their health. Ancient philosophers saw the appetite as a mysterious, unruly force. They developed "techniques of the soul" to supplement the recommendations of doctors.
We now know even more than the ancients about our complex relationship to food. An article just published in Nature argues for classing refined sugar as a drug or toxin that, like alcohol, should be government-regulated. We're gaining a better understanding of the genetic factors that contribute to diseases like Type-2 diabetes. Excess weight, we're learning, changes the very chemistry of our bodies, casting doubt on the moral of shows like The Biggest Loser that willpower trumps all. Each day brings new evidence that debunks the ancient myth that a person's weight is just an index of their moral worth. It's up to us now to update our thinking accordingly if we want to tackle the public health crisis we're facing.
Our horizon is broader than the ancients' in another way, too. Athens may have been the birthplace of democracy. But the cities of the ancient world were hardly egalitarian, excluding women, slaves and immigrants from citizenship. The gap between rich and poor was vast. It was precisely these divides that made the pursuit of health in antiquity an elite preoccupation. Rick Warren is on the right track in creating communities that provide their members not just with tips on healthy eating but also with emotional support. But when looking for slogans, he might try a new twist on a Biblical passage: you don't have to fit through the eye of a needle to get into heaven.
Brooke Holmes is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Princeton University working on health and ethics in antiquity and a participant in The Op-Ed Project's Public Voices Fellowship at Princeton.
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The reporter is incorrect, despite her academic credentials. Among the Greeks and Romans, HEDONISM and GLUTTONY were their revered values. They even had "vomitoria" so they could throw up after a meal and stuff themselves some more. Their whole lifestyle was oriented around the physical body, not the spiritual.
Jews, on the other hand, ate (and still eat) in order to serve God (not the many pagan gods), and in the way that God commanded them in the Torah.
Although eating vegetarian may be more healthful, God gave permission for Jews to eat meat after Noah and the flood.
A vomitorium is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre, through which big crowds can exit rapidly at the end of a performance.The Latin word vomitorium, plural vomitoria, derives from the verb vomeo, vomere, vomitum, "to spew forth." In ancient Roman architecture, vomitoria were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadiums, as they do in modern sports stadiums and large theaters.
Come' an PO.. can we leave the neo anti Christian stuff for one post? Anyone else think that was a bit slanted? Religion and diet go back as far as you can read.
As for the vegeterian diet, while it might be better for us now, the eating of meat gave us enough protien to enable us to spend less time hunting and more time developing out brains to make us what we are today.
Oh, I forgot, the church actualy USED TO DO THAT not too long ago--remember meat-free Fridays, when if you had meat that day, you better keep it quiet?
Reality is, it IS better to eat healthier, and move more, and be more aware of what we put in our bodies. Some of the junk we pour down our throats we would not dream putting in our cars, lest it harms the engine...
But eating healthy that's not related to religion. Just to common sense.
I would not want to go back to LIVING in ancient times--no running water, no electricity, no antibiotics, astronomical infant mortality and death at childbirth..., and generally far shorter life-span. But that does not mean that there aren't some good things to adopt from times passed--more activity, more vegetables, more olive oil, cheese, fresh bread, and olives.
http://theawfultruthblog.tumblr.com/post/13854083037
But it would be foolish to ignore the epidemic proportions of obesity and diabetes facing our nation.
Only a fool would believe that we as a nation suddenly embarked upon a path of gluttony leading
us to this situation.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this topic and discussing it with others. I live in the rural midwest
and have seen obesity become the norm in my state over the past 4 decades.
The causes?? Some of them that come to mind are :
* lower food costs
* less physical jobs
* more time in front of tv/computer
* fast foods
* convenience food
* mothers in the work force ( nobody cooking)
* higher consumption of meat/dairy
* more reliance on cars for short trips
* more fear than neighborhoods are unsafe
* more stress
* more hours at work
* less participation in community events
If I were President, I would ask the Surgeon General to study and put forth an Apollo type program
to address this problem head on.
When I was a kid, I didn't just roam into the kitchen to raid the pantry. I had to--literally--ask permission to look in the refrigerator, then ask if a certain item was ok to eat. That included any beverage other than water.
The mom was "keeper of the food." One didn't eat what she didn't say we should eat.
We ate what was put in front of us. If we didn't finish dinner, we didn't get dessert which usually followed dinner after a few hours. Desert didn't include seconds.
My family rarely went to restaurants. I have good memories of the (very) few times we ate out.
We had the whole Sunday roast thing, where the meat was used as left-overs into infinity and beyond.
We went outside to play until dark, when we were able to watch TV. I wasn't allowed to watch TV at will.
My mom didn't work until she became basically a single parent and had to. After that, it kind of went to heck. I noticed snack foods about the same time.
I was never overweight until my 20's when I had my first child. I didn't lose the weight permanently until I returned to my old way of living--grapes instead of snack food, veggies mainly and meat as condiment.
No snacking. If you wanted a cookie you had to ask permission. And it was only one. If you wanted a snack after school you had to ask and you got want Mom deemed acceptable; apple, carrot, celery.
There was no dessert for lunch, only dinner.
Dining out was rare. That included fast food. A trip to Jack in the Box was as rare and special as a trip to Anthony's fish Grotto.
Lunch was a sandwich and fruit. No chips or cookies. No soda. You got milk or water.
Sunday dinners were served at lunch right after church. On Sunday it was called supper.
When we got home from school we were allowed to play until dinner, which was promptly at five when my Dad got home. Everyone ate together and everyone ate what was served. After dinner everyone did homework. We could watch TV at 8 pm until bed but it was only what my parents' watched. So I watched Jackie Gleason or Gilligan's Island or Carol Burnett and if I complained, I could go to my room and read.
My Mom didn't work until we were all in high school. Only then did I start to see the occasional convenience food.
I started to gain weight when I started to rely solely on convenience food due to work and masters degree study. Also gained due to medication. Masters is finished and meds are changed so I'm working at losing the weight.
Sounds like a Republican vision for our future: so conservative it throws us back into the ancient world.