Eating: the evil and the good

As with many actions in God's Word, eating is one that God meant for our good, and so often me make it evil. Whether a person overeats, undereats, or just unhealthily eats, they are all sinful ways of handling the food God gave us for good.

In Genesis 2:16, God says that man can freely eat from any tree in the garden except the tree in the center of the garden. At that point there was no sin in the world, so Adam and Eve could eat as much as they wanted of the allowable trees. They had the freedom at that point to do what so many of us wish we could freely do now. But now, we have a problem. Satan came to Eve in the garden and tempted her with the one tree from which she could not eat. When she saw it looked eatable, good, and even looked like it would make her wise, she ate it and gave some to Adam. At that point humankind could no longer freely eat, because Adam and Eve stepped over God's boundary and ate of this tree. Before this time, all there was was fruit and vegetables because there was as of yet no death. When man sinned, God had man kill animals for sacrifice and food. From that point, there are several cases in the Bible where man sinned in his desire for food. We know that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:34). In the book of Judges, we see Sampson giving in to his flesh and eating honey out of the carcass of a lion even though it was disobedience for him to touch anything dead. God described Canaan as a land flowing with milk and honey, so he had no problem with honey in general. In Sampson's case it was where the honey was stored. In the Proverbs it's how much honey we eat. In Proverbs 25:16, it says that if you've found honey eat as much as you need so that you don't vomit it up. In Proverbs 25:27, God uses a comparison with honey when he says, "It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory." So we can see in these cases that it was not the fruit, the stew, or the honey, that were sinful. It was the attitudes and the hearts of man that were. So many times as humans(myself included), prohibit ourselves from eating certain foods that God created for us to eat simply because we don't have the discipline to limit our intake of them. God did not say to not eat any honey if you can't stop eating it. He simply warned about eating too much honey. Honey could probably stand for any number of foods that we put into our body, but I especially think of sugar since it is a type of sugar. Even back in Bible times they knew the danger of taking in too much sugar. And there is danger in taking in too much of many foods.

The reason I am writing about this, in part, is because of my own struggle with food. My whole life I have had a hard time with self-control when it comes to food. Thankfully the Lord has kept me from becoming obese, but it's only by his grace that I have not. My problem through life has always been overeating rather than undereating. One day I'll feel convicted concerning my overeating of especially sweets, and I'll decide to give them up. But because God never intended for us to give up certain food completely from our diet, the body craves those foods, and I usually end up giving in to them. The most success I have had in weight loss was when I limited my carbohydrate intake, not completely cut it out. It's really more difficult to limit food intake because of our sinful nature to desire more, just as Eve did. I never thought anyone would ever accuse me of having an eating disorder because I obviously wasn't anorexic. I ate plenty. And since I wasn't obese, most would not think I overate. I will admit that in college I got into the habit of eating sweets with the knowledge that my body didn't like it and would get rid of it. That was sin against my body and the Lord, but so is obsessing over food. Perhaps it started as a young child when I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Because of this, I often had to eat regularly. As I got older, however, I began to outgrow it, and my blood sugar was normal. I often still obsessed about eating regularly though. Most of the time this happened when I was afraid that I was going someplace where there would not be food served when I was used to eating, so the first sin involved here was fear. One day, a few months ago, I was in a situation like this. It was in this situation where I showed my obsession about eating, and someone in the situation accused me of having an eating disorder. This really took me aback, and I was very angry. But as I considered it in my mind, I realized that I was obsessing over food. I won't call it an eating disorder because I believe that is not calling it what it is - sin. At that point I changed my mind. Actually the Lord helped me change my mind, and I no longer was obsessed with eating on time. To this day, the Lord has helped me in this area. Once in a while it creeps back, but overall, he has helped me overcome this. Food is still a struggle for me. I especially struggle with self-control when there are sweets around. There is probably nothing wrong with a small dessert once in a while, but for me it's difficult to limit it. So what should I do? I probably should ask the Lord for strength to overcome temptation in this area just as in any other area of sin in my life.

Now there are many different ways to obsess about food. One can obsess as I did about not getting enough, but one can also obsess about eating too much. This is also a sin. Yes, if one continues in this long enough in their mind they will think they always eat too much, and some would call this an eating disorder, and I would for medical purposes, but I would also call it a sin.

Now after talking about all the negative aspects of food, lets look at the good side that God created. The best times nutritionally for me have been when I limited my intake of carbohydrates, and when I stopped eating when I was full. It's a difficult thing to do especially since in each of us is an evil nature where our flesh is fighting for it's desires. It may sound wierd, but I learned a trick that worked very well a few years ago. When I was eating, as soon as I sighed I knew I was full, and no matter what was left on my plate I would stop eating. It was difficult, but it very quickly helped me to lose weight. I was also limiting the unnecessary carbohydrates from my diet.

There is a practical side to every piece of advice. For myself, I recently had a baby, and I often have to eat my food very quickly. The sigh method doesn't really work for me, but what would work for me is limiting my intake of sweets. So that is my goal to help me lose those prebaby pounds that I sinfully put on through my obsession with food before I was pregnant. I feel hypocritical, in a way, as I right this because I'm so bad at resisting sweets, but perhaps maybe you can all pray that I will be disciplined in this area.

Just remember, the food God created is good, but we no longer have the freedom they had in the garden. We must now ask God for self-control to partake of them in a godly manner.