Communal Table
As always, the media is talking about the obesity epidemic. According to this story you are more likely to gain weight if your friends do. This is a continuation on studies in recent years that all eating disorders have a social contagion element. Bulimia can spread like wildfire in dorms. It’s not surprising that our eating issues, and we all have them, are related to our relationships. Food is highly symbolic evoking feelings of love, acceptance, or control. That is why diets that focus on the individual are not very successful. The whole culture, or at least our immediate community, is implicated in the way we eat and how we feel about food.
This brings to mind all those notoriously fattening church pot-lucks or the Sunday morning donuts in the fellowship hall. Maybe this is connected to a theology that doesn’t take our bodies seriously or considers the powerful influence a community can have on its members. It’s easier to attributed it to “personal” sin.