Super Size Me

I've been on a few health food kicks in my life. I've read books, and we've tried to eat healthy, usually lasts a couple of months. Last night we watched "Super Size Me." If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's about a guy who decides to eat nothing but McDonald's for a whole month to see what it does to his body. He has to eat everything on the menu at least once, and every time he is asked if he wants to Supersize, he does. (Especially check out the bonus french fry test. 5 weeks in a jar and the fries don't even grow mold! What the hell are they made of!)

Prior to the experiment all the tests show that he is extremely healthy. Needless to say the diet has some seriously adverse effects.... But there is a good message contained in this movie about the power of advertising, corporate and individual responsibility, and greed.

One of the scariest scenes is when the guy is showing school children pictures of people to see if they recognize them. All of the them know who Ronald McDonald is, and get excited seeing him. He then starts showing them a picture hidden from us and none of the kids know who this guy is....he turns the picture around to reveal a picture of Jesus. Yea, yea, I know what you are going to say, but the branding of our kids is happening...

• The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year
• McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
• Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's
• McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market
  

I believe in holistic Christianity. Every part of my life matters. So, where does what we eat fit in to our theology? Should it? Does my diet effect my relationship with God and others?

The movie makes a good point that it is socially acceptable to berate people about smoking. It's unhealthy, it effects others.... But, isn't that true for most of our diets too? Especially, when in the coming few years obesity will be the number one fatal disease that is preventable...

What if part of our alternative Christian lifestyle had to do with treating our bodies well in this fast food culture?

1Co 6:12 Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims.
1Co 6:13 You know the old saying, "First you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!
1Co 6:14 God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power.
1Co 6:19 Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you.
1Co 6:20 God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
(The Message)