Fair warning: I know that Thursday is Thanksgiving, so this post will probably be a killjoy.
The Word of Wisdom was written in Joseph Smith’s day and primarily concerned the major health problems of the day: alcoholism and and tobacco. These were industries of “conspiring men in the last days.” But obesity is turning out to be a bigger problem today than pre-Prohibition alcoholism, and smoking rates have dropped by 50% between 1965 and 2006. Mike S at Wheat and Tares has said that
- Obesity costs the United States alone $190 BILLION extra in medical costs, or 21% of all medical spending. This raises the premiums on EVERYONE to pay for the obese. We’ve shown that “second-hand smoke” has costs. So does obesity. Incidentally, this amount is also enough to solve the “uninsured” problem. We could give EVERYONE insurance in the country for $190 billion.
- The health care costs of obesity are higher than those of tobacco.
Last year I lots 50 pounds on the HCG diet. Basically, I went on 500 calories/day for 6 weeks, upped it to 1500 calories for 6 weeks, and then repeated the process. The diet makes a big deal about eating no sugar, which is really hard because most foods have sugar, including things you wouldn’t think of: ketchup, salad dressing, peanut butter, so the diet is quite restrictive. A recent video told us that 600,000 food items in the grocery stories America (80%) have added sugar. Why is that?
There are 2 main reasons. Sugar is added to bread, for example, to help it last longer on the shelves. It’s good for business to throw away less stale bread. Secondly, nearly all of the “fat-free” foods are loaded with sugar. The problem with sugar is that it turns straight to fat as soon as we eat it, so the fat-free foods are actually making us fatter. Why do they add sugar to fat-free foods? Because food with the fat removed takes terrible.
Sugar is even in baby formula. We have obese infants now. The obesity epidemic over the last 30 years coincides precisely with the introduction of high fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute in nearly all foods. It’s cheaper than regular sugar, and sugar has the same addictive qualities of cocaine. Yet the sugar lobby has successfully prevented putting a % recommended daily allowance on packages. It is likely that many foods would be greatly in excess of 200% of recommended daily allowances.
Of course, sugar isn’t the only problem in our diet. Farmers feed cows and chickens corn to fatten them up faster, and they don’t want them exercising. Meat with lots of fat tastes better. Fatter cows and chickens make farmers more money.
So, this Thanksgiving, I’m thinking about starting back on HCG (because I’ve already gained back 45 of my 50 pounds.) While the Word of Wisdom has served us well, is it time to update the Word of Wisdom to deal the current crop of conspiring men making us fat?
Wheat & Tares 
I don’t think that the Word of Wisdom should be updated, because the general principles are there. I taught the Primary lesson yesterday about Daniel and the Kindg’s Food, which was really a Word of Wisdom lesson. And we talked about addiction, including the internet.
If you already know that you are sensitive to sugar, I highly recommend the South Beach Diet cookbooks. There are a lot of diet plans that recommend reducing sugar, but few have so many practical ideas that actually work and make tasty meals that you can live on forever. For those who have families that expect baked treats, Marlene Kochs’ EAT WHAT YOU LOVE series is also excellent on creating dishes with sugar substitutes, but everything tastes too sweet to my tongue.
I agree that it is crazy how much sugar is hidden in things. And I can’t believe how much the low-sugar ketchup costs. I really need to learn to make my own. I am still trying to perfect a lower-sugar baked bean recipe.
The problem with the HCG diet is that a lot of us will either (1) not be able to function at a high level of physical activity on that caloric intake (I’m a bicycle commuter, 60 miles a week)or (2) our bodies will lose muscle mass rather than fat (especially women who have to fight to keep muscle after age 35).
A dietician pointed out that one of my problems was my yo-yo dieting left my body confused and when it goes into starvation mode it will not let go of the fat as protection. I told her that I had never engaged in that kind of dieting, and she reminded me of my pregnancies and how sick I was and how I did go on a near-starvation diet not really of my own free will.
In the US, one of the great places to go shopping for low-sugar options is Walmart. They carry low-fat margarine that works well for baking at half the price of my mainstream grocer, have sugar-free salad dressings and low sugar ketchup, and an excellent house-brand brown sugar/splenda mix. This is because their director of healthy foods and sustainability was BYU grad Andrea Thomas, who reported that a lady at church shared her struggles with diabetes and how expensive healthier foods were, and Sister Thomas felt a mission to make those foods available at a lower cost. She spoke at a BYU forum earlier this year, well worth listening to. (And for those who care about such things, she is the mom of three children; her husband was at home fulltime so she could be an executive VP for a major corporation.)
“is it time to update the Word of Wisdom”. For those that haven’t noticed, our scriptures are updated all the time: Our “Standard Works” should include the Scriptures, the Church magazines, and General Conferences and anywhere we find the teachings of the Prophets. Afterall, the OT, NT, BoM, PGP, etc are the Teachings of the Prophets. Have they talked about sugar? Good question.
I think we technically have already updated the word of wisdom as the WOW says its a recommendation not a commandment, and it doesn’t ban all alcohol only hard liquor but we’ve updated it in our temple recommend requirements to include all alcohol. But I doubt any official rewriting of the WOW will ever happen. Especially since the WOW also says we should eat all the grains and excessive grains are another reason for the obesity epidemic in my personal opinion.
As for sugar I feel like people say in the church “all things in moderation” frequently but few manage to practice it when it comes to sugar. Probably because they don’t realize how much sugar is in their diet in foods that aren’t “sweets” and as you point out there is no recommended daily value. If you personally are trying to cut back on your sugar again, I would actually recommend the 21 Day Sugar Detox program/lifestyle. I am on day 15 and I feel awesome and its been much easier to cut sugar and fattening carbohydrates out of my diet. I actually plan on continuing relatively permanently following these guidelines because they are so livable. The cookbooks that come with the program are awesome as well. It is much more sustainable than trying to only eat 500 calories a day and I’ve already lost 8 lbs.
Every diet that is successful limits sugar intake. There is no Twinkie Diet to lose weight.
Check out this website that compares sugar in foods to a Krispy Kreme donut. There is as much sugar in Fat Free Dressing as 4 KK donuts. A Jar of Prego Spaghetti sauce is like eating a KK donut. A bowl of Fruit Loops is like a KK donut. A can of Coke is 2.5 KK donuts. A cup of Dole mixed fruit is like 1.5 KK donuts. (Yes I said FRUIT!) A cup of Yoplait yogurt is 2.5 KK donuts. “No sugar added” Naked Fruit juice has as much sugar as 3 KK donuts. See http://www.takepart.com/photos/shocking-sugar-stats/naked-pomegranate-blueberry-juice
You can’t avoid sugar.
Could make for more interesting temple recommend interviews. Each Bishop’s office would come equipped with a bathroom scale in the corner for checking the weight of each member.
If members think certain interviews with male ecclesiastical leaders are awkward now, just wait until that same leader comes at you with calipers to check your body fat levels.
Mormon Heretic I disagree that you can’t avoid sugar. You can avoid sugar by not eating all the processed foods you just listed. Eat whole foods you make yourself and you can very easily avoid sugar (excluding the naturally occurring sugar in vegetables and the limited fruit you eat).
Just a few things:
1) Diet has to be a total life transformation…not something you go on now and then. You talk about gaining a lot of the weight you lost because you “went off the HCG diet”. But really, let’s think: why aren’t you living HCG 24/7/365 if it’s so good for you?
2) Part of this stuff is simply not sustainable given our current culture — or at the very least, is only conceivably sustainable for people with a lot of time and/or money on their hands. Delina is entirely correct that you can avoid a lot of stuff (take your pick, sugar, any sort of fat, whatever) by not eating processed food. But then, you do have to eat whole foods that you make yourself. Realistically…think about how often you make stuff from scratch? Would you want to do it every day, all the time, forever?
There are movements that are really getting back into things like that. Movements like “New domesticity”, “slow food”, etc. But the problem is that these things work because they are folksy, quasi-rustic *hobbies*. It’s fun and great for a millennial to decide they want to bake their own bread, because we know that we don’t have to do that. OTOH, our recent ancestors were quite grateful for sliced bread, processed products, because it meant a *respite* from the kitchen.
The obesity epidemic shows that most people eat processed food, generally because it lasts longer and doesn’t spoils as quickly as whole foods. Most people who only eat whole foods are vegetarian, and I doubt that has the appeal of a krispy kreme donut.
Yes you can eat only whole foods, but don’t go to a restaurant, and only shop in the produce section of the grocery store, and don’t be surprised that the food spoils before you have time to eat it.
Our lives are laid out for the weekly (automotive) trip to the large grocery store to stock up the fridge. I noted on my mission, in southern Italy, how much more relatively fresh food I ate simply by doing the shopping for meals every day. We were out on foot, every neighborhood had a convenient selection of small shops – bread, meat, cheeses, greens, etc. all could be picked up on the way home from the morning’s door knocking. I suppose the car- or bike-bound missionaries in my area could do that, but not only would it be less convenient, the food is less accessible. It tends to come in larger packages if you want to shop frugally. We have, if you’ll excuse the pun, “boxed ourselves in” here in the US.
We also subsidize corn production to a shameful rate, and a lot of it goes to inefficient fuels like ethanol and harmful foods like HFCS (which would be lots more expensive than sugar if the government would stop subsidizing millionaire domestic corn growers and stop prohibitive tariffs on foreign cane sugar producers).
I’m trying to, in some half-baked form, teach my body to burn fat instead of sugar, and I find that to do this, I have to eat more fat and protein and less sugar. It’s pretty easy to reduce carbs and increase protein, but we’ve done such a job of driving out Demon Fat from the American diet that you have to go out of your way to find the stuff and add it to your lean meats and legumes.
Every time I see a big bag of candy labeled “A Naturally Fat-Free Food!” I cringe. I suppose it doesn’t have radioactive waste in it, either, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you. “Contains No Razor Blades!” Fantastic.
No, we don’t need an updated Word of Wisdom. We don’t want to continually change the Lord’s instructions to fit the trending notions of a social elite. However, anyone is free to discern his or her own path within the construct that has already been built.
Having once RESEMBLED that remark (> 300 lbs and under 6′) I can well attest of the physical and emotional havoc that having what the LATE Chris Farley (as ‘Tommy Boy’) called “a little bit of a weight problem” can wreak in ones life. Yet invoking the WoW strikes me as wrong-headed and showing an utter misunderstanding of what’s it’s for.
As hoffbegone pointed out, it’s “updated”, or at least checked for need of same, on a continual basis by the standing GA’s. If they feel the inspiration to add or subtract to the proscribed list, or modify D&C 89, they’re more than able to do so. Anything we attempt to add, regardless of the goodness of our intentions, constitutes “Ark-Steadying”, and if the issue is “health”, it was none too healthy for Uzzah to steady the Ark (II Samuel 6:1-7).
But if I’m going to resort to Scripture-chasing regarding WoW, dietary, and related health issues, methinks we need look no further than D&C 58:26. ESPECIALLY in the nature of what we shovel down our respective gullets, or related CHOICES we make in our respective lifestyles (diet, exercise, stress management, activities, etc.), the purpose of this life is to learn how to manage ourselves, especially our very bodies. Of necessity, we’re going to make mistakes, and it’d be a real Jerk Heavenly Father to be jumping on our cases for every misstep. If anything, the punishment is typically self-inflicted, and once you’ve put so many miles on the odometer, you start appreciating how your own choices make a difference, bad or good.
I’d say paying attention to consumption of processed foods and the refined sugar content of same (you’d be shocked how much sugar is added to, for example, the typical can of peas and/or corn!), and availing oneself of fresh and/or locally-grown produce and animal products is a good start. That’s one advantage of a highly-developed distribution and marketing economy is that it’s greatly extended the range of “fresh”. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with growing your own (Tee Hee!). Good exercise and personal satisfaction are added benefits to freshness, and we HAVE been thus counselled!
To sum it up, if WoW observance imbues a sense of personal responsibility for health management, that’s a good thing. It only becomes “bad”, IMO, when we employ our own interpretations of same as a cudgel to bash the worthniness of fellow members.
As somebody who has been naturally skinny my entire life I cant relate. I can eat whatever I want and never gain a pound. In fact, boot camp was rather difficult and frustrating because I was skinny but only put on a few pounds of muscle and never actually got bigger, I just got incredibly toned. (And still took the ribbing and never got any respect, even though I had a first class pft score.) I even took weight gainer protein shakes for a long time and never gained anything.
My daughter is off the charts tall and about the 10th percentile for weight, so she will be the same way. She had to have so many tests as a kid because they were worried she wasn’t getting enough nutrients. I finally came to one of her appointments and the doctor looked at me and said, “based on the probable genetics I think we can stop doing tests.”
So thats my long way of saying I don’t give a crap haha. I’m sorry to everybody else that has to worry about their weight. But since I’ve been mocked and called a toothpick my entire life- even after being a decorated U.S. Marine, I think we’re even. 😉 Sugar or no sugar, whatever. I’ll go raid my daughter’s Halloween stash!
Semper Fi, Morgan – I hated guys like you! 🙂 I was like that until I was 17. Then, well, let’s just say my post-Parris Island weight is a distant memory. 😉
Andrew S, yes, it is possible. I make my own freezer meals, with brown rice and whole-wheat pasta and without the level of salt and sugars and fats that are in commercial frozen dinners.
Things like bean soups are frozen in 1-cup containers that can either be grabbed for single lunch or used in larger quantities for a supper.
I don’t claim to *cook* from scratch every night, but we eat cooked-from-scratch meals most nights.
I do understand about the time challenges of our busy lives nowadays. I learned a lot of those techniques and perfected some freezer recipes while I was “not working” as a parent at home (actually working my ass off and learning home managment skills). I also found that teaching our children to cook was a lengthy process that not every family has time for…in the beginning they took over an hour to make a simple soup that now takes them only minutes, and their spouses are grateful that they can cook.
MH I guess I am a little confused. If conspiring men are making us fat by adding sugar/fat to everything we eat, how would we update the word of wisdom to exclude these foods without saying “don’t eat processed foods”? Will there be an exact allowed amount of sugar and fat we are allowed to have per serving of a food? How do you imagine that the word of wisdom would account for this problem?
The WofW isn’t primarily about health – it’s about obedience. I agree with all the comments on obesity (and thanks for the ref back to the post – I hadn’t read it for a few years).
As another example about the “obedience” as opposed to the “health” aspects of the WofW – caffeine. More than 90% of adults in the world consume caffeine daily in one form or another. Personally, I drink caffeine. I have mild ADHD, and the stimulant effect in caffeine helps keep my mind under control – and importantly, I don’t take any other medications for it.
Given that a majority of the world uses caffeine (Mormons included), if we were primarily concerned about health, our goal should be to support the most healthy way to consume it. The vast majority of the world has made that decision – coffee and tea. The longest living societies in the world drink copious amounts of tea. There are a number of studies pointing to the clear-cut health benefits of coffee consumption – regarding Alzheimers, prostate health, CV health, etc. Not only is caffeine / coffee / tea in moderation NOT unhealthy, they actually have very real and proven benefits.
HOWEVER, because of our “code of health”, I can’t drink my caffeine in coffee nor tea. Instead, I drink soda. Or energy drinks. It’s sad. It’s pathetic. It’s terrible for my health. But yet I can keep my temple recommend – and that’s the ONLY reason I don’t just drink coffee. I would quit soda tomorrow if I could. I would be healthier. I would do better. I could still avoid prescription ADHD medicine.
Yet our “law of health” ironically keeps me unhealthy.
#16 – you keep your TR b/c you’re OBEDIENT. Your bishop and SP aren’t the “Food Nannies”. Thank goodness. Every once in awhile you just wanna chow down. Except my revised G/I tract won’t let me, but that’s the price I’ve paid to get mine weight down to a reasonable level and keep it there. My beloved Snips, however, like Morgan D above (I do appreciate the Jarheads but we bubbleheads didn’t normally have to put up with them on a ‘Boomer’), can eat more than two lumberjacks and a longshoreman, and she remains at 96 lbs. soaking wet. In fact, she recently suffered a severe bout of flu and due to getting dehydrated (it was so bad she actually collapsed at work and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance) was down to 83 lbs. The doctors wouldn’t let her out until she reached 90 lbs. Being underweight (and yes, she’s suffered from anorexia since her teenaged years, it along with bulimia seems endemic amongst gymnasts and former gymnasts) isn’t anything to crow about either. I’ll defer to the sisters about eating disorders and the WoW since it seems to afflict them far more than the brethren. But I agree wholeheartedly that we can’t just glad-hand ourselves for abstinence from the “forbidden” list as revealed as PART of the WoW, and eat ourselves into poor health and an early grave.
For all we know maybe when we each cash in our chips we’ll meet up with Peaches…(fans of “Rocko’s Modern Life” know what I’m talking about) and if we’ve been a “Glue-Ton”, we’re doomed…DOOOMED!
http://rockosmodernlife.wikia.com/wiki/To_Heck_and_Back
We don't need to update the Word of Wisdom. We have a navel mark to remind us of constant nourishment, and if the nourishment is to be constant, then there is no room for non-nourishment. What we do need is a better understanding and practice of the Word of Wisdom. Or, so says me (and therefore to be taken with a grain of salt).
Despite our current mindset and practice, the Word of Wisdom is not a marker of obedience. From its own text, it is for our temporal salvation and opens the door to revelation.
I can speak from some little experience in the matter of health/healing, weight loss, and the Word of Wisdom. Following this principle places you in a better way to receive the Spirit. The Spirit, through sanctification, heals our afflictions, including obesity and weight problems. Learning to maintain the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost will improve our health. Nearly 100 pounds fell away in just months, with the vast majority of that in the first three months. Without exercise. And, for me, the weight loss aspect of the healing was of little regard when laid aside the other healing He freely poured out (physical brain damage the doctors said would be with me for the rest of my life). Really, the Lord is eager to heal us. He always is.
(Besides, it’s a better experience and less expensive than HCG).
After reading Michael Pollen books I decided that the instruction in the WoW that corn is not for the belly meant high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, corn flour etc. which are in 99% of foods that come in packages.
Oh, and to add to the absurdity of the situation, during the time I was being healed (and rapidly losing weight) I had never eaten so many calories in my life, several times more than is recommended daily; peanut butter and honey sandwiches, lots and lots and lots of them. Looking back though, it was healthy whole grain bread and hippy style peanut butter. Shrug, so, no added sugars.
To answer the initial question: The whole rationale for our doctrine of continuous revelation is so that doctrines and commandments *can* be updated. And the WoW had been updated, first when around the turn of the century it was reclassified as a commandment, rather than good advice; then in mid-century when it was made clear the prohibition extended to illegal drugs (and abuse of legal prescription drugs).
Whether now is the time for a new WoW update — well, asking senior leaders to ask for revelation regarding doctrinal updates is apparently a perilous undertaking. I wouldn’t picket outside Conference with “more words, more wisdom” signs quite yet.
I think we need to get rid of the checklist and just say: Eat healthily and in moderation. Other than avoiding smoking and alcohol, mormon are some of the most unhealthy eaters (processed, sugar addicted, etc.) I know as a group. It seems all my groups of friends spoil themselves with something, with nonmormons it’s usually alcohol. Mormons = sugar addictions. I’m always appalled there’s as much dessert at our ward functions as there is regular food. Then again, I have blood sugar issues and eating sugar makes me sick, FWIW. As an advocate for whole foods (I attempt 50% vegan/vegetarian) I’d love to add some healthy green tea in the mix.
Holy rigid food rules, batman! No wonder eating disorders are on the rise. Intuitive Eating people!
http://www.intuitiveeating.com/content/10-principles-intuitive-eating
There’s nothing quite like ending a round of HCG and feeling all the energy that comes from a lower weight! I can’t say I have the answers to this. Living in Asia was no more healthy than the US, possibly less for me. Sure, there was no high fructose corn syrup and things had less sugar in them, but there were a lot of heavy oily sauces, rice (white rice is very low in nutrition) and noodles. The meat wasn’t full of additives, but it wasn’t very meaty as a result. There was a lot more fat in the food than I’m used to in the states. Fat free and low calorie options were almost nil. Basically, no matter where you live, it’s tougher the older we get.
Mike S. says, in #15, The WofW isn’t primarily about health – it’s about obedience.
I both disagree and agree – the revelation itself is clearly about health if we take the Lord at his word, but our interpretation of it, especially as it relates to the Big Four and the temple recommend, is about obedience. We’ve taken the Lord’s advice about health and turned it into an obedience test, with its concomitant logical contradictions – caffeine, hot cocoa, a complete ban on alcohol, all of the “unholy and impure practices” of modern eating that have been called out in these comments. Then we rationalize how OK all of this is by pointing to the Big Four.
It may be that the Lord would prefer that we observe BOTH senses of the law.
The only changes I would make to the Word of Wisdom would make it less strict, not more so. I would welcome an “all things in moderation” emphasis, and no barrier to temple attendance associated with it. I personally don’t avoid sugar, or fat, or even cholesterol, for that matter. I eat what tastes good, and don’t eat to the point that I’m overly full, and only snack on fruits or vegetables or a small bite of chocolate occasionally. I am very healthy (knock wood) in my fifties. I think singling out any one category of foods for avoidance, unless medically necessary, is troublesome.
I would like the Word of Wisdom to be downgraded back to a suggestion, not a commandment.
The Word of Wisdom will never ever EVER change. It’s what keeps us in an Us vs. Them mentality.
Morgan, I was skinny as a teen and even through college. (I remember wishing I could gain weight so I would stop getting pushed around on the bball floor. It is a nice benefit of being bigger now.) But I don’t exercise like I once did so now I am facing the crisis of the overweight Americans. My guess is you still exercise like a marine.
Andrew, while I understand that a diet is what we eat, the purpose of a weight loss diet is to lose weight, just as medicine is used to remove pain, or antibiotics to get rid of disease. You would never tell someone that they needed antibiotics for the rest of their life (which would be bad), but temporary use is useful and can get one through an illness. So yes, we all need to eat better, but a diet can be useful to get the excess pounds off, at which point *hopefully* we will improve what we eat (though I know many return to old habits as alcoholics and cigarette smokers do, but we shouldn’t quit trying, even when we fall off the wagon.)
BJohnson, we don’t have breathalyzers in the bishop’s office to test for alcoholism, so I don’t think we need scales there either.
Delina, with the decrease in smoking and alcoholism (especially when compared to pre-Prohibition levels), the church could act as Emma did. Emma, upset at the smoke-filled room and tobacco spit, discussed the problem with Joseph. Why can’t Elder Nelson, a physician that actually worked on Pres. Kimball’s heart, act as Emma did and notice that it’s not tobacco spit that;s a problem, but bad eating habits.
My bigger problem is the “conspiring men” aspect of the problem. As noted earlier, Naked Fruit juice is falsely advertised as having “no sugar added”, but is like eating 3 donuts. Why can’t the Brethren rail against these unscrupolous businessmen. And if the WoW is a health code, why don’t they take the license to not only call out misleading business practices, but advise the members to eat better? Why don’t they mention that we should “flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;”? We eat them every meal. When I told me wife that I was going to cut down on meat, she complained that it is part of EVERY meal.
Why can’t the brethren revelate? Why can’t they see the obesity epidemic before our eyes? Why can’t they advise us to eat more whole foods, and shun the seductive advertisers like they tell us to shun seductive movies? Why don’t they tell us that junk food is bad for our spiritual guidance? I mean who recieves revelation after downing a bad of Ding Dongs (or Fat Free French dressing which has as much sugar as 4 donuts)? What’s wrong with the leaders telling us to eat more healthy, and why do they focus on the bogeymen of alcohol and tobacco, which evidence shows us is declining in use? Why don’t they attack today’s problems, instead of 1830s problems? Don’t we have prophets to guide us in these latter-days, or are they limited to 19th century guidance of Joseph Smith? Where are our modern revelations?
Hawk,
I remember being astonished at how much energy I had on HCG. Funny thing is I have really been eating better after watching “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”, but I don’t have the same energy I had with HCG. I think there is something in there that gives an energy boost.
MH:
Two thoughts. Without a doubt they should be aware of the obesity problem. In fact it would be as simple as knowing what sizes of garments are selling in higher numbers. It's pretty plain we have a slight problem when larger sizes are more heavily stocked, and smaller sizes are harder to get. Some stores don't even stock 30s or 28s anymore, and getting that in tall sizing often requires a special order. Running those numbers would be a good sampling of the general health of the endowed members.
They have however, and recently, reminded us that what we eat does effect our spiritual receptivity. From Elder Scott in April 2012:
Granted, they haven't come out directly against sugar, but do we really want another checklist item? Maybe it's better to remind us of our responsibility towards our bodies and leave us to consult the Lord for what we each need to personally do.
In the end, we are pretty stiff-necked, so they might have to become more direct.
In the last General Conference Elder Klebingat spoke on “six practical suggestions that, if heeded, will dissipate these evil voices and restore to you the kind of peaceful assurance and spiritual confidence that is yours to have if you only want it.” Take a look at the second suggestion. The shorthand version that stuck in my mind was that eating correctly is an element of true repentance.
forgetting, I’m sure there is a talk here and there, but the emphasis is a far cry of the commands against tobacco and alcohol. This is why the WoW needs updating. We need revelations for OUR day, not Joseph Smith’s day.
I find that it’s a little like quitting smoking-actually it’s far easier than the pro smoking lobby would have you believe.
Don’t buy junk, if you want it, bake it.
Otherwise, it’s half the plate vegetables, quarter carbs, quarter protein. No seconds. Live a little on festivals.
Do some exercise you can enjoy.
I think most sources would agree this to be a healthy lifestyle.
Tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol are commonly held to be problematic to health. A bottle of wine equals an entire day’s calories. So I’m comfortable with the wow, as much as I find it socially isolating. Socially, I drink mineral water with a lemon or lime slice. 6-8 desertspoons of sugar in a soda. I think it’s my responsibility to take control of my health as far as I can realistically. I avoided giving candy to my kids-of course they loved it as kids but a lower intake certainly does seem to have helped them into maintaining healthy body weight.
As a near-Vegan vegetarian, I think most members of the LDS faith DONT live the wow. Rather than update it, people need to more closely read what it says about eating meat.. and eat less, A LOT less. That said, I’m reminded of a conference talk where President Hinkley wryly commented that just because the wow doesn’t proscribe diving head first into an empty swimming pool that it’s OK to do. God gave us a brain, He expects us to use it. I think the wow, mixed with common sense and exercise is very timely.
If they are going to update it, then update it to a diet that humans grew up (evolved) with. Hunter/gatherer. Plenty of meat from animals who eat a natural diet, not cows fed corn (even though the W0W says corn is for the ox). Ruminents have terrible health on corn (or other grains). They are designed to eat grass. We should also be eating lots of plants. The average hunter/gatherer eats between 100-200 species of plants a year. Most domesticated humans (us) eat about 30-40 a year if we are lucky, and that would only be if we were eating huge quantities/varieties of produce. For example, cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kohlrobi, and collard greens are all the same plant (just expressed in different ways). And with the plants we do eat we have bred out all the medicine because it tastes bitter or strong. So instead we eat a diet lacking in nutrients and medicine and go to a doctor to get medication that is a synthesised version of the plant compounds, but comes with side effects.
Why not eat in a way that our DNA has been programmed to respond positivly toward?
The average hunter-gatherer also died of malnutrition. While I’m all for getting back to basics, life ended much earlier due to disease and spoiled food of hunter-gatherers. I think they would actually envy our food supply. We have Pasteurization–they didn’t. I have no desire to live like a hunter-gatherer. I don’t need the cholera, diarrhea that was apparently in the hunter-gatherer’s DNA. No thanks.
This is the first time in the world’s history that more people are dying from obesity than malnutrition and starvation. The school lunch program was implemented precisely because many of the draftees in the army were malnourished, and the government felt school lunch would help the general population. Now the school lunch program has been perverted into calling french fries and pizza as vegetables.
I’m all for eating better, but it would be nice to hear the GA’s say in General Conference, “We don’t want you to smoke or drink alcohol. We want you to stop drinking sugary sodas, and drink more water. Please eat apples instead of junk food. And we call on food manufacturers to stop deceptive advertising by dumping so much sugar and salt in their so-called fat-free foods.”
Does anyone object to this sort of message at Conference, or in the Ensign when talking about the WoW?
Wild humans did not die from malnutrition. For the most part they would die from trauma. None of the major diseases that we face today were experienced in any significant numbers either. Did they live perfect lives? No. However we can learn a lot from these individual, some of whom are still alive and well today. We have accounts of researchers who have befriended H/Gs and brought them back to see modern lifestyle. Most of the time they prefer to go back home. They tend to like our metal pots or the knowledge of putting feathers on their arrows to make them fly straighter, but for the most part they do not like our lifestyle. On average a H/G spends 18 hours a week procuring food and other necessities. The rest of the time is spend on relaxing, relationships, music, etc.
But back to the question. Yes it would be nice if they would address the obesity question more directly and things that contribute, like HFCS. However, I don’t think it would go well if a “revelation” came about since a lot of people would say this is just another example of how the leadership is behind the times again, and that they are just following popular opinion/modern science.
Here is an article on a Sugar Rehab center: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/maria-shriver/sugar-rehab-new-treatment-not-so-sweet-addiction-n251836
I think the Brethren have consistently encouraged us to follow the Word of Wisdom, which contains a lot of advice beyond the mandates required for temple worthiness. Do we need to be commanded in all things? I’ve been collecting stories of Mormons who are embracing the counsel in D&C 89 and discovering the great blessing that can attend. Here is one example: http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com/wfpb-story-sam-swenson/
The dietary counsel in D&C 89 may not be mandated by the Church, but it is wise counsel from a loving Father. Note that the 3 dietary principles in D&C 89 are EXACTLY the wisdom needed for OUR day. Anyone who eats this way will not have a weight issue:
1. “All WHOLESOME herbs [i.e., plants] God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving” (vss. 10, 11, emphasis added).
What might the word “wholesome” imply in light of intense modern processing that strips out many plant nutrients and adds unwholesome additives to keep them edible well past “the season thereof”? Does stripping plants of their nutrients sound very prudent? Are any plants more wholesome than the whole plant?
2. “Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; And it is PLEASING unto me that they should NOT be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine” (vss. 12, 13, emphasis added).
Have we been too cavalier about these verses because the Church does not require us to take them seriously? Since no one ever talks about them, should we just ignore them? Why exactly would I want to ignore something that “pleases” the Lord?
3. “All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth; And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger” (vss. 14, 15).
In a day when grains are under a surprising amount of criticism, we are fortunate to have the Lord’s words to help evaluate the evidence. According to the Lord all grain is good. God specifically “ordained” these plants to be the staple of our diets.
Before we dismiss any of the counsel in D&C 89 as “outdated,” note that the Lord tells us that this wisdom is for “all saints in the last days” (D&C 89:2, emphasis added). Are we not saints in the last day? Did not the Lord see our day and give us the exactly the wisdom we need . . . or is this beyond His ability?
I believe the Lord has already given us the answers to our health issues. They are found in D&C 89. If we follow this counsel with a sincere heart, He will bless us with any additional light and knowledge we need for our health (see D&C 89:19).
There is lots more info about the Word of Wisdom and things to consider as you prayerfully study it on this website (check the menus): http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com
MH,
Just a quick clarification of something you said earlier. People aren’t just dying from obesity, many, many cases of obesity include malnourishment. Just because we are large doesn’t mean we are nourished. Sorry if that was expressed already and I missed it.
I also want to include high praise for Jane’s work and writings concerning the Word of Wisdom. I think that this is a good example of the community of saints teaching each other. Something the Lord expects. Not every message has to come from some authority in the Church; truth is found where truth exists. Wise leaders will recognize this, and leave room, or gaps, for us to teach each other. I really appreciate both Jane’s dogged persistence with this topic. I also appreciate the last few posts you have written on the topic.
I do recognise however that for many of our sisters and brothers, if it isn’t coming from the GA’s then it isn’t truth, applicable, or of value. So, I think I understand why it would be important or helpful for the leaders to be as vocal about the ideas you expressed in the OP as they are about tobacco and coffee.
“I do recognise however that for many of our sisters and brothers, if it isn’t coming from the GA’s then it isn’t truth, applicable, or of value. So, I think I understand why it would be important or helpful for the leaders to be as vocal about the ideas you expressed in the OP as they are about tobacco and coffee.”
That needs to be repeated.
Jane: #40
“In a day when grains are under a surprising amount of criticism, we are fortunate to have the Lord’s words to help evaluate the evidence. According to the Lord all grain is good. God specifically “ordained” these plants to be the staple of our diets.”
I wonder how much our, genetically modified, wheat, today, resembles the wheat of Joseph Smith’s time. And this is not to say anything against what you are saying.
When God organized this world, He was aware of the hazards a mortal, telestial body would meet and, as has been pointed out in the thread, divine revelation has been pointed to as one of His means to deal with problems.
With that in mind, is it possible that we are not paying enough attention to the fact that Heavenly Father has given some people very brilliant minds who do brilliant thinking and perform brilliant experiments which give us understanding we didn’t have. Now let’s take this a step further and give these findings to a people who have the gift of the Holy Ghost. What could it look like, to God, when these people go to His, ecclesiastically appointed, leaders to get more revelation? They go to His appointed leaders to get information they could have received as revelation, directly to them, from God. We need to understand that leaders can’t give revelation. They can only pass on information. It is the responsibility of everyone who has the gift of the Holy Ghost to receive revelation. In this way each one of that group becomes (now get this.) authentically authoritative.
(Unfortunately, as a child, I decided not to like to read, but I have forced myself to read a lot of the stuff you guys have written and it’s been quite instructive.)
Anyway, yes, we need more revelation but we don’t need the leaders to get it. Maybe we have already been getting it but not receiving it.
Hi Rich! You make many great points. About wheat: yes, the wheat today is not the same as it was in 1833, but then neither are the strawberries, the kidney beans, the oatmeal, the carrots and every other plant food we eat. None are the same today as in Joseph Smith’s day. What does that tell us? I’m not sure.
Nutritional science to date strongly supports the healthfulness of whole wheat/whole grains. Of course a vocal minority hotly contests that. The issue is complex enough that it will not be fully resolved in our lifetimes. In the meantime, we all need to eat. I choose to give the Lord the benefit of the doubt. As I noted above, His counsel in the Word of Wisdom was given to “all saints in the last days” (D&C 89:2).
If anyone is interested, I’ve written extensively on this subject (and I welcome other viewpoints!): http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com/qas/food-sensitivities/