Alice Gerth explores how Christian healthcare professionals can better approach the obesity epidemic
Obesity is not a new phenomenon, but it is increasingly on the secular agenda.
Struggles with ‘body weight’ can stretch to either extreme – from restrictive ‘clean’ eating to morbid obesity. Yet it seems our culture is more judgmental of people who are overweight than underweight. Each of us should look to ourselves before we comment on friends or patients, removing the plank from our own eyes in order to see clearly to remove the speck of dust from others’ (Matthew 7.4). As Christians it is easy to become self-righteous in our response, to describe obesity as a sin – a consequence of looking for satisfaction in food and an absence of self-control.
