The healing carrot
Last night I was sitting with my friends in the coffee shop like we always do on Sunday evenings. The remains of the potluck dinner stacked up in front of us, the slice of pie off to the side to take home for later.
In the course of conversation my friend mentioned something about how restrictive diets are also restrictive to community. I’ve said similar things over the years (mostly just to Brad), about how it looks like the enemy is keeping people complacent and alone through their healing journeys.
I’m no stranger to this world. As a family we eat dairy free because Brad cannot tolerate it. I have spent years trying to eliminate things and “eat better” so that I can solve weird and mysterious symptoms that have crept in with age.
But I’ve noticed that there are people, women especially, who seem trapped in this healing cycle. They are so desperate to feel better that they eliminate all but a few kinds of food for the sake of health. In that process they might temporarily feel better, but eventually the symptoms come back and the elimination process starts over.
It is very isolating to be in Christian community when you cannot eat any of the foods at the potlucks or the women’s dinners or the men’s breakfasts’.
I’ve been trying to eat cleaner foods for nearly 20 years now. I know that our food system is messed up. I know that red dye and high fructose corn syrup are man made disasters. Monsanto has no cares about what their products do to our bodies via the foods we ingest. I spent years being afraid and controlling when it came to my family’s consumption of bad ingredients. The process of letting go of these fears has been healing in itself.
Every time I get on social media I’m bombarded with another post promising that eating this superfood, eliminating something, or trying some supplement will solve all of my problems and make me feel 20 years younger. I remind myself regularly they are nothing more than clickbait. The only way I will find healing is to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In worrying less about our food, I’ve started to feel better. I still make the majority of our meals from scratch with wholesome ingredients. I do my best not to worry when my little kids consume only sugar at a potluck or the bigger boys go buy a pop at the Circle K with their friends. I have no qualms about buying bread or convenience items when we need it, even when it’s laced with a million ingredients. That soft wheat bread tastes especially good slathered with PB&J right before bed.
Stress is the enemy. Being so worried about ingredients that we hover over our children’s plates at potlucks and eat only 10 things will cause more mental and physical damage than ingesting the occasional red 40 will.
It’s important to eat well, but my question still continues to be: is the enemy dangling “healing” as a carrot for all of us to chase after?
4 Comments
Sarah
When I was little, my parents decided we were going to eat healthy. . . . hyper-healthy. Good things definitely came out of that: my mom makes her own flour and bread, and I’m more aware of superfoods and harmful ingredients. But there was definitely that tension, almost a war, between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ eating. It’s one thing to feel embarrassed when a friend offers you gum, because you have to go ask your mom if you can have it. It’s one thing to feel left out of the camp ice cream party because your dad said to avoid sugar. You get over that. What’s so much harder to get over is that craving for forbidden foods, especially if you grew up like this.
So, as soon as I got a job and got to an age where I could decide what I ate, I went sugar-crazy. It was not good. I felt weight gain, I noticed personality changes and mental issues, I was terribly short of breath all the time, and I was addicted to sugar. It took me two years to learn to control it and to develop a craving for a balanced diet, and I still struggle with it. Even worse, I’ve developed a health anxiety over it.
Seeing it put like this, ‘health’ being dangled at us by the enemy, really puts it into perspective. Oh, I’m certainly not going to stop limiting my sugar intake, but I’ve been trying not to stress over it as much. This was a well-put, eloquent article.
Melissa
I had a friend like that in school. She wasn’t allowed to eat any sugar and then binged on mountain dew at slumber parties at my house. I think learning moderation will likely be the most helpful way to think about eating in the long run. Thanks so much for reading and commenting, Sarah. I’m glad it was helpful.
Grace MacPherson
This is so true! My family has had a range of diets over the years (due to severe food allergies for some members of the family), and while there’s an extent to which I feel better eating paleo/whole foods/keto/organic/etc., it can also be very isolating. It’s helped me to think of health not as the end goal, but as the means by which I can be a better daughter, sister, and friend. And if saying no to a certain food is hurting those relationships, then I’m being too strict (with the exception of actual diagnosed food allergies or health conditions, obviously). Not that we shouldn’t be aware of what we’re putting into our bodies… but food is a gift from God, not something to be worshipped in and of itself!
Melissa
I love the way you think about it, as a way to love those around you. Reminds me of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:13: Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.