Why Are Religious People More Likely To Be Overweight?

Great Debates
1

Here’s the cite-

“The faithful are fatter than ever—at least in this country—according to Kenneth Ferraro, a sociologist at the University of Purdue. His analysis of data from two national surveys, published in the Review of Religious Research last March, shows that religious people tend to be more corpulent than their nonreligious counterparts.”

“In fact, the Purdue study shows that, even when such factors as ethnicity, education, income, and socioeconomic status are adjusted for, religious people in America still show a greater tendency toward obesity than their secularized counterparts.”

So what is the connection between being overweight and being religious? Could it be that they need ‘God’ and excessive amounts of food because they are emotionally weak people??

If you are inclined to answer that the connection is ‘lack of education’, please explain why less educated people are more likely to be religious.

Thanks.

2

Well, it is called “Mass”, isn’t it?:wink:

3

Do you have a cite that obesity is caused by emotional weakness? That observation certainly runs contra to most accepted evidence.

QtM, MD

4

I have a WAG. I am both obese and religious, so please allow me to conjecture. My childhood sucked. I learned to use food as a comfort. Even though my life doesn’t suck any more, food is the way I’ve learned to deal with stress. I’m happy, but not stress-free (who is?), so I keep eating, and keep being obese. Now, I will conjecture that people with unhappy circumstances either are driven away from the idea of a God (“if there is a God, and He loves me, why does my life suck?”) or driven toward God (“I can’t handle this alone. I need help from a power greater than myself. I’ll turn to God”). For me, the second choice was true. So, if someone like myself is addicted to food for comfort, and turns to God for assistance with life’s troubles, you get religious fat folks.

5

I’d buy norinew’s argument, but have a couple of other theories (some parts of which have admittedly been mined from my posterior regions):

a) Religious people are more likely to believe that God has a Divine Plan in place. They figure that the time and circumstances of their deaths are already pre-determined, regardless of anything THEY might do, and so don’t really concern themselves with maintaining a “healthy” lifestyle in an effort to live longer, the way some people do. (Note: I’m not saying that overweight = UNhealthy–I’m just saying that if you believe that the date of your death is already written in the book, and can’t be changed no matter what you do, hell, how long would you spend on a Stairmaster? How hard would you really try to avoid the Twinkies?)

b) A good number of religions frown on such vices on drinking, smoking, gambling, pre-marital sex, etc., so eating’s the only good vice left.

c) Religious traditions often involve food. From Church suppers to Christmas dinner to Communion, religious practice often involves food in some way (even if it’s fasting, there’s usually some Mardi Gras-esque form of “release” to even things out). Eating is often a form of fellowship, moreso than, say, kite-flying or toenail painting.

Just a few ideas. I could be full of shit.

6

Well, the article referred to in the OP does suggest two possible causative factors"

*"First, while Christians generally hold the line against alcoholism, smoking, and sexual promiscuity, they have tacitly agreed to strike gluttony from the list of the Deadly Seven. Indeed, the study showed “no evidence of religion constraining body weight in America.” Fat is rarely railed against from the pulpit. (I could add that it’s also harder to hide than other bad habits. Overeaters cannot really be anonymous.)

Second, Ferraro suggests that religion’s current “emphasis upon tolerating human weakness” leads to larger members. At present, the primary theological theme in both liberal and conservative churches is unconditional love, being accepted just as we are."*

But the really interesting bit of the article is this:

"For while religious people are demonstrably fatter, obesity seems to have fewer ill effects on active church members than on either their secular counterparts or the nominally religious. Of course, earlier studies have already shown that, in most cases, actively practicing one’s religion is the most consistent predictor of overall well-being in our culture. Such an effect has generally been attributed to healthier living among the faithful—less smoking and alcohol consumption, abstention from drugs and casual sex. But the Purdue study shows that religious overeaters somehow escape the ill effects of their bad habit—specifically, depression and a diminished sense of well-being."

What are we to make of this?

7

I would think that those who are actively involved in their churches don’t suffer from depression and a diminished sense of well-being because of the reasons previously pointed out-- a sense of community with a group of people willing to overlook their obesity. If you spend a whole lot of time with a bunch of folks who don’t care how big you are and accept you into the fold, why would you feel depressed or unworthy?

8

Well, I can think of two BIG factors that aren’t mentioned here – age and geography. Middle-aged to elderly people are more likely to be overweight than younger folks, and while I don’t know exactly what the statistics are, I wouldn’t be surprised if they also tended to be more religious. Or religious people could be concentrated in parts of the country where the car culture is especially prevalent and less likely to live in cities where people do a lot of walking. (Again, I don’t know for sure that this is the case, but anecdotal evidence suggests it’s a strong possibility.)

I think we need a lot more information to draw any conclusions.

9

(NOTE: My experience is with fundamentalist Baptist churchgoers)

For a lot of groups, a dinner or “banquet” as they’re more commonly termed, is the only acceptable social gathering. They can’t go out to the movies, can’t go dancing, and can’t have a pool party, and can’t meet at the local pub for a few brews. Some of these groups, the more strict ones, that is, frown on almost every form of secular entertainment. Eating is their only passtime.

When it comes to excersie, remember that a lot of groups insist that women wear dresses. It’s difficult to jog in a dress, or do anything very active. Swimming is out of the question if the two different sexes might see one another.

10

Well, if you read the article, it seems that it isn’t so much that “religious people” are more likely to be overwieght, it is more like “southern people are more likely to be overweight…and more people are religious in the South”.

Hmm, odd that the first thing that a er does is see something bad coming out of being religious- rather than seeing the other conclusion drawn- that religious people are less likely to suffer from depression. Tell you what- start a thread with the same article, but with the question “why are religious people less likley to be depressed”- and see who comes out of the woodwork to disprove that study.

11

From the article, I didn’t see a breakdown by denomination. That might also be interesting.

12

it could be that they picked the wrong religion and the god of the right religion (whatever it may be) is punishing them for worshipping a false god (which i suppose is worse than worshipping no god at all). It would be interesting to know if this is just an american phenomenon or a worldwide one. Maybe there is one religious group (buddhist perhaps) which is less overweight (taking into account regional diets) than all the others.

13

I would be interested in a denominational breakdown too.

I can agree with the reasoning that for many denominations, eating is the only vice left. As a member of such a sect, I think it entirely possible that people who might otherwise self-medicate/comfort with drink/drugs/promiscuous sex/other substances use food instead. Then there are the social aspects–if you can’t go out drinking or to the pool hall, there’s always the ice cream parlor. And churches tend to have big get-togethers where caloric food is involved (my local congregation not so much, but I’ve heard stories of funeral potatoes, and of the spreads the Baptists put on!).

I like chocolate, and dip my own candy every winter. I probably have a fairly high tolerance for chocolate. But I know women at church who leave me in the dirt when it comes to ability to absorb chocolaty substances. They are all slim, though.

OTOH, my own congregation (in N.Ca) seems to be pretty average, weight-wise. The overweight members, by and large, are the ones who have medical problems causing the weight.

I think there are probably several other factors, one being the Southern culture, which historically tends toward rich food anyway. And if the researchers, as noted, were counting religious TV as an indicator of devotion (as opposed to, say, volunteer labor?), I bet that would skew results. I am unconvinced that hours of religious TV exposure = piety.

Why do churches tend to avoid the subject of gluttony these days? Well, an accusation of gluttony from the evidence of obesity is, as we know, often mistaken. There are many underlying reasons for obesity, and many overweight people are more than tired of being told they should just eat less when that doesn’t help. Perhaps preachers are wary of this–they seem to be less judgmental of chronic alcoholism, as well–it’s no longer considered direct evidence of mortal sin. Or maybe some of them enjoy their BBQ a lot too. I would be quite happy to see more emphasis on plain healthy eating and good exercise in the churches, but I can only speak for my own experience, and most of my personal acquaintance are already interested and in good shape.

14

Religious less likely to be depressed-- ignorance is bliss

Religious more likely to be fat-- if you don’t have the common sense to stop basing your life on fairy tales, can we really expect you to know enough to stop overeating???

15

which people trying to lose weight are not helped by eating less?

why isn’t a sin? it’s certainly voluntary to drink booze… no one makes you put the bottle to your lips. just as no one forces you to shovel food in your face.

Gluttony is still a sin, right?
just pray to jesus— he’ll take the weight off :rolleyes:

16

Couldn’t it be as simple as there are a lot of obese people in America and there are a lot of religious people in America, and so there is a large area of overlap?

17

[rolls eyes]

I suppose reason won’t work on this one, but it’s worth a shot.

While I’m a deist, my belief and faith in God, whatever He is and however He should be worshipped, is deep and permeates my very core. I used to be an atheist, as I suppose you are, and I used to be as inflammatory and well, ignorant as you are. I know the sillinesses of blind faith and ‘praise thuh Laaaaawd-ism’ as well as you do, but I have learned that you don’t badmouth an entire paradigm of belief on account of a few wackos.

I’m refraining. You should, too.

Your ignorant generalization of all who believe in a god or a multiplicity of gods just how tattered your beliefs are. Please, do crack open a few religious texts and read up on these ‘fairy tales’. They’re no more silly than anything else you may believe in. Develop your own system of beliefs, a system secure enough that you have no need to attack those that believe otherwise, and don’t come back until that’s done.

[sits back, panting]

18

why are inflammatory comments always per se “ignorant” nowadays?

19

I did a search from google and found many pages mentioning Dr. Ferraro’s study.

I found nothing about the method used to take a random sample, the standard deviation or the margin of error.

I’m from Missouri. I won’t bite on the conclusions until I see the facts.

20

I dislike the term “religious”…I am not religious, I have a “faith.”

I just wrote out this big long stupid post explaining the difference, but then KobiiCat hit a button and deleted it, and I realized that no one cares and I probably wasn’t explaining it very well ANYWAY.

[sub]I KNOW it sounds ridiculous, but this cat of mine sits on my lap whilst I am on the computer, and everyonceinawhile she ventures onto the keyboard and hits a key. ALWAYS the WRONG key, or maybe in this case the RIGHT key. She may not KNOW it, but she likes to DELETE things. :slight_smile: )[/sub]

So anyway, I guess, for your purposes, I am religious.

But I am not fat. Neither are most of the people I attend church with. Oh, not all are THIN, but most are average in terms of weight. (Me too). And a lot of them are downright SKINNY.

And some, of course, are fat.

I’d say, personally, that in MY church, we probably mimic the general population in terms of who is fat, thin or average.

Just my personal observation, which may not be of any use whatsoever.