Christians are the victims of our institutions leading us to sin without us even knowing the sin. Worse, the sin is discounted as having nothing to do with God. This is a pervasive sin destroying Christians and the church. What is this sin? Gluttony! It is being tricked by those focused on money to make us addicted to sugar. Their result is “fat” sick Christians with clouded minds unable to fulfill our gospel purpose. The church has been completely weakened as “beacons on a hill” or the leading force in the world. We are weak compared to those who went before us.
It was common in the middle of the last century for many churches to commit ten percent of their funds and people to hard “going out” gospel missions. Social missions were the exception not the norm, they were the Christian virtue of charity, not gospel presentation. Having lived during that era I personally have known three people who died sharing the gospel, several more seriously injured for the gospel, one permanently, and one who refused to “shut up” and was jailed in Turkey. To qualify for this gospel work required testing by psychologists and strict physical standards and education to determine strength of body, mind and spirit. Even support workers were required to have a minimum Bible school degree. There were no “fat” people or unlearned. The gospel mission today is hindered by Christians too weak through sugar addiction with the disease and mental illness it causes. Satan’s ultimate tool!
Getting and maintaining a healthy weight is a spiritual discipline, not some secular quest. The food industry is not redeemed and lies about their products in order to make money. Doctors, most of whom are not Christians, are captured by the advertising of secular industry. Most preach fat loss through either burning more calories, eating less calories or following a food guide designed by industry.
Calorie restriction is NOT the answer to losing weight nor will any particular “diet,” except a diet with no sugar. Focusing on calories is not a permanent solution because it misses the root cause, sugar addiction. The answer is lowering the level of blood sugar and its spikes, it is not calories consumed it is the foods eaten for those calories. A blood sugar spike causes a dopamine pleasure “hit” in the brain. Dopamine “hits” are what drug addicts chase. “Desperate” calorie dieting almost always ends with a weight rebound because the dopamine addiction is not addressed in calorie counting “diets.”
73% of all foods in the supermarket have added sugar. It includes even plain bread and a lot of so called “healthy” products like yogourt. None with added sugar is healthy. Diary has essential macro nutrients and fats needed but it has sugar added to exploit the addiction. Even vegetables and fruit through industrial genetic modification have added sugar. In the 1950’s there was only one type of apple easily available, Mackintosh. It was only somewhat sweet, tart, and was small. It was only available fresh and crisp in the fall. Early in the 1960’s two other apples became available Cortland which stored better and Delicious apples as Christmas treats. Fiji, Honeycrisp and Gala are industrial apple sugar candy in a fibre, mainly carbohydrate package. (Carbohydrates are sugars, the only difference being the absorption time to rise blood sugar.)
Blood, for a normal weight adult not in a sugar metabolic state, contains about one teaspoon of sugar, about 4 grams of glucose. Eating a normal apple raises the blood sugar to 10 grams. Worse the apple sugar is fructose, one of the worst because the fat produced is stored around the liver, making a fatty liver. So eating modern apples feeds the sugar addiction with the extra sugar stored as fat.
There are over two hundred different names used in the food industry for sugar. Food products falsely state “sugar free” but use a sugar by another name. They affect blood sugar the same way as ordinary sugar. Artificial sweeteners like stevia, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, fructose, maltose, erythritol , sucralose, etc. are all sugars. Food labels also hide sugar by using grape or apple pulp, not being required to list them as sugar because they are “natural.” Non fibre carbohydrates are sugar.
Being fat, not being able to stick to a diet and yoyo-ing weight is the fault of the food industry’s money motivation. Being fat is also the fault of the majority of doctors, who are fat themselves not analyzing the complete failure of the food guidelines, which is increasing obesity through food sugar recommendations. More doctors everyday are waking up to the food guide and calorie diet shams. For us the bad news is breaking the sugar addiction takes months if not years. We have been addicted from birth and are addicting our own children. One glass of fruit juice in the morning for a child has about three times the healthy sugar intake maximum of a whole day. Double the sugar intake by feeding the child a bowl of grain carbohydrate cereal and eventually the child will be fat, lazy, depressed and likely to develop ADHD.
Now the good news, God has given us a way to break the addiction, by prayer and fasting. Jesus says “when you fast,” indicating it was His practice. He assumes fasting as a standard spiritual discipline. Daniel and his friends fasted because they were about to go through a spiritual battle. The early church right up to to about the 8th century did fasts on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Catholic and Orthodox churches still practised this on Wednesdays and Fridays as a spiritual requirement until the 1950’s. Fasting in the short cycle is an aid in blood sugar regulation and sugar cravings. The regular practice of fasting maintains food consciousness and the acknowledgement of our Creator God. Is it co-incidence the 1950’s was the start of the decline of the church and the beginning of society’s weight problem with increases in diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression and anxiety? Gluttony is still considered in the Roman Catholic Church and older Christians as a deadly carnal sin. It is the disrespect of God by abusing His creation.
Most doctors now are not Christians, many overweight themselves. Doctors receive money from drug companies to do studies that endorse drug and food products. Government’s and their agencies like the U.S. FDA do NOT do their own research. The FDA is also paid by the same drug and food companies to approve the studies given to them by those industry paid doctors. The FDA and doctors have a track record of being compromised. The best example is their previous endorsement of tobacco. The idea that fasting is bad and we need three meals a day with snacks is just another attack on Christians to keep them weak. Jesus spent 40 days praying and fasting in the wilderness before the start of His ministry.
In the wilderness, Christ was hungry. Satan’s first temptation of Christ was using food, “turn the stones into bread.” Its no mistake the first temptation was bread, a carbohydrate sugar starch which would raise blood sugar and give a hit of dopamine pleasure to Jesus’ brain. It was the most powerful temptation to the most basic physical human level, low blood sugar hunger. Satan did the same to Eve in the garden, tempting with an apple. The answer by Jesus to the bread temptation, “man does not live by bread alone,” says food in its physical pleasure can be a barrier to communion with God and others.
The length of prayer and fasting to break the sugar addiction takes planning. Fasting 24 hours is needed to start to break the addiction. Over 24 and up to 36 hours gives a weight loss benefit. Once a week fasts break the sugar addiction but it will take many months to be free. Avoiding sugar and the sugar in most grains, roots, and fruit will have enormous health improvements; skin tags disappear, skin clears, dandruff goes away, hair shines, eyes brighten and anti-depressant need disappears. The mind draws spiritually closer to God. Start slow with 24 hour fasts, supper to supper to break the sugar addiction first. Weight will be lost but first get the sugar under control. Don’t get distracted by adding exercise until sugar is conquered first. Drink non-sugary liquids during fasting. Pray silently in short sentences throughout the day.
Become a sword for the gospel.