I can’t speak for Christians, but there are quite a lot of overweight Jews, myself among them. The “Jewish Mother” stereotype, in fact, encourages thin children to “just eat a little more, because you’re all skin and bones”, and praises the chubby child for being so “healthy”.
Food is the central aspect of most, if not all religious festivals and holidays, Yom Kippur included. (There is supposed to be a huge feast the day before, to get enough calories to get you through the fast, then a “break the fast” meal the following night, after the holiday.) Each holiday has its own characteristic food, and each holiday involves a huge meal. Even the laws of kashrut encourage a near-constant consciousness of food.
Maybe eating “health food” is considered “liberal”–analagous to caring about the environment–while religious folks stick to a “traditional” meat-and-potatoes diet.
Could it be that unusual amounts of exercise and concern for body image are both seen as “wordly”? If you’re very very devout, maybe your energy is directed towards spiritual health rather than physical health (or body image). I know this hypothesis isn’t supported by my own observations (the Pentacostals I’ve encountered are not adverse to excessive amounts of jewerly, make-up, and stylish outfits), but it doesn’t mean it’s not a valid one.
It also could be that those with a lot of faith don’t give a whole lot of credibility to doctors and science in general, and believe that God will save them from whatever health ailments they encounter.
The number of calories burned at a typical church-league softball game are not sufficient to offset the number of calories consumed at the typical “dinner on the grounds.”
I have never really thought about your observation but it does seem to be true ( now that I think about it). I have often wondered though, why most of the welfare folks on the talk shows who are using public assistance including food stamps, are grossly overweight. This seems to beg the question:
Does being overweight make one more likely to be on the public dole
OR
Does the food stamp program need to limit buying Sara Lee products by the tubbies.
*"His findings apply to all major religions in the United States, though American Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists on average weigh less than American Christians.
States with a high rate of religious affiliation—Mississippi, Michigan, and Indiana—have heftier citizens than such strongholds of secularity as Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Colorado. And among denominations, Southern Baptists are the real heavyweights."*
Poor people are more likely to be heavy because the cheap foods tend to be fattening and starchy. Look at ramen, mac and cheese, instant potatoes, the things that are considered the backbone of a college student or young single person’s diet. Since education levels are a determinant of one’s economic status as well as a determinant of religiosity, it seems reasonable to conclude that people who tend to be more religious are less likely to be able to afford non-crap food or know that what they are eating is not good for them in the first place. The belief that the only important life is the afterlife probably plays a part as well (maybe they want to get there faster).
On the other hand, I’m fat and I’ve been an atheist since I was 13 years old. All the religious people I know are thin. Food choices play a part, activity levels play a part, genetics play a part, how much each affects an individual is difficult to tell.
I would agree that class plays a large part in weight, in that the diet of the lower classes is significantly higher in fat and calories than the diet of the upper classes. Junk food is cheaper to produce, plus high-calorie foods are traditionally welfare staples- cheese, “extra” meats (fattier, less popular cuts), starchy tubers that keep longer than fresh veggies. Also, it’s easier to cook, if all the adults in the house are working.
As for class and religion, I expect it has something to do with education, but members of the lower classes have a tendancy to be more religious.
When you start eating less, your body automatically slows down energy consuption (aka thermogenics). Unless you do something to keep the metabolism up and/or increase the metabolism rate, simply cutting some percentage of calories doesn’t help much.
I don’t know when the last time you looked in the pews of the local church, but to my experience they are as likely to be filled by doctors, professors, and scientists as people of any other profession.
Well, I can’t speak for every denomination, but in my old Methodist church, the communal dinners alone had to be a significant contributing factor. I mean, we aren’t talking salad and grilled chicken here–it was roast meats, gravy, fried potatoes, pies, etc. etc. in almost inhuman quantities. I used to kid my parents that our church should have provided a wheelbarrow to get our stuffed parishoners from the church doors to their cars.
On top of that, though, I have to agree with the age assessment. Churchgoers in the US are older on average than the US population as a whole, and older people are more likely to be less active and thus overweight. On further analysis, I don’t think this finding is a surprise at all.
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