Weighty matter: Is religion making us fat?
Ferraro’s most recent study, published in the June issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is a follow-up to a study he published in 1998, where he found there were more obese people in states with larger populations of folks claiming a religious affiliation than elsewhere — particularly in states with the most Baptists.
So it’s not surprising that Ferraro’s latest study found that about 27 percent of Baptists, including Southern Baptists, North American Baptists, and Fundamentalist Baptist, were obese.
Food often is substituted for alcohol at Baptist and other conservative Protestant gatherings, Ferraro says. I once attended a wedding at a conservative Bible church where, instead of an open bar or champagne fountain, the bride and groom toasted their new beginning with a massive ice-cream sundae buffet.
I kid you not.
“Baptists may find food one of the few available sources of earthly pleasures,” Ferraro says.
who knew “gluttony” was optional?
Maybe they will thereby “Darwinially” deselect themselves from the gene pool through obesity-related diseases.
I have to fault the study. Rural areas are all known for peasant foods that are high in starch and fat. It was needed 75 years ago when you worked in the fields 12 hours a day. More related to culture than religion. Trouble is it tastes so damn good it’s hard to stop eating it. People over eat just fine sitting at home, they don’t need a religious function to justify it.
Right on, #3.
Too often, the biggest problem with large swaths of Christianity is that it’s presumed to mean much more than it does. I’ve long wondered, for example, why some of the more exotic varieties of violent crime occur against a Christian motif. The case of Andrea Yates being a class-a example, or Waco, or even Jonestown, if one prefers something a little more made for TV.
Ultimately, however, it’s simply that Christianity is such a pervasive and accessible form of symbolism that it’s probably as much a matter of statistics as anything that explains how it becomes woven in with someone’s fantasies. Christianity doesn’t necessarily imbue it’s adherants with any of the social philosophy that preportedly it was created to facilitate, either, and no one seems to find it unusual that there isn’t a cause-effect relationship there, either (outside of the effectiveness and viability of it’s social philosophy, perhaps ;).
When considering whether or not something has a cause-effect relationship with a particular behavior, it’s often easiest to understand if one simply asks if, where the supposed cause eliminated, whether the end product would be any different.
Take away Jeebus and these folks would probably still be chubby.
Correlation is not Causation, in this case it is more of an indicator of other issues. Some of which are mentioned above, some in the article.
It’s more an interesting finding that can be used with other information to create a better picture of certain groups in the US
What is useful with correlation is that things move in the same direction. So if you want to do something about obesity then you can start developing curriculum that would be used for helping to reduce obesity.
I call fable, I don’t believe in organized religion and I’m fat.
Normally I am not shy about kicking the pious when there is a chance… But RTaylor and pals is right…
It isn’t the imaginary voice in their heads that makes them eat, but the real voice in their stomach (and the high starch/carb diets).
You know, i just gandered again at the pic chosen to post with the link… and those church folk don’t look particularly fat. I know, the pic isn’t really related to the article, but I bet there is a jpg of some hefty churchgoers somewhere.
I didn’t see one huge person in that picture. Looked to me like a bunch of older people just chewing the fat.
#3, #$ — Do you guys live in rural areas? What you describe ended in the 1930’s. Cripes. You can get food other than cornmeal and pork fat nowadays in “rural” areas. In fact the fruit and vegetables available in the south are generally better than in New England.
The fact that people choose not to eat right is not because of the lack of availability.
It amazes me that those that supposedly strive for logic and scientific or empirical analysis can just about believe any story that fits their prejudiices.
Ok, at any rate, alcohol has no calories? Tell my tummy that.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t . Sorry I didn’t mean the biblical damned.
No. Most churches are losing membership. The whole church is thinning out. In my area they are converting the empty churches into nightclubs, microbreweries and banquet halls. That is where people are getting fat, at the place that used to be the church. We have been losing population for years so we have all sorts of vacant industrial property, which the political nitwits have been put in charge of finding new uses for. The latest brainstorm produced a building spree of shopping centers and malls with eateries (their word) to replace industry. These are also filled with fat people who seem to herd around national chain eateries. The do gooders put the food bank where there was industry, instead of in the numerous empty churches. They put the bars in the churches. Now we have one empty brewery and another bankrupt brewery in the area.
Commonsense would tell you that corporations are making us fat, while making themselves fatter.
Perhaps his conclusion is wrong. Perhaps it’s the non-religious people in these states that are fat? They comfort themselves for being surrounded by so many gullible people…
Another anti-Christian study?? Why not a anti-Muslim study???
Honestly, everyone says we shouldn’t take the governments word for our civil liberties, that the government doesn’t tell the truth. Etc, Etc. But if Global Warming or Evolutionist belief, ie.. athiest religious beliefs, come up they bit hook and sinker. If we question any of these theories, you say we aren’t educated. Has is occurred the maybe we’ve looked into the information more than you have and came to a different conclusion?
I’ve seen a lot of fat people, especially in the Northwest and that area of the country has the lowest church and conventional religious attendance of any region.
Studies are supposed to start with a question and then look for answers, usually the studies end up with a question and answer which they try to prove. ……………..Whatever, why can’t all the atheist NAZI’s leave the Christians alone and mind their own business?
“Communities with more churches always have more bars.”
This is the one lesson I remember from my university statistics class.
Obviously, both are correlated to population but it is natural to conclude a false causality. I’m guessing it’s the same with fat and religousness.
Whats my excuse then?
I’m surrounded by dead or dying rustbelt communities. The upolstery shop which became a Four Star pizza joint is now a little clinic offering free STD testing. The deli is a chiropractor, the gas station is a diner, wait that closed and it an empty gas station again,the railroad is a walking trail and so on and so forth. The churches are either empty or operating with fewer members doing more work keeping them going. This uses a lot of energy, suggesting church members burn more energy than a lot of people. I guess in a place with more wealth, the church could fatten you up. From where I sit, it’s looking more likely that the church will open a soup kitchen to feed out of work people who seem to be increasing in number. Don’t plan on getting fat at the church soup kitchen on faith based soup. Politics makes people fat according to a local reporter staking out a capitol steakhouse. We have a well fed legislature (the steaks are $30.00) and communities falling by the waste side.
“So it’s not surprising that Ferraro’s latest study found that about 27 percent of Baptists, including Southern Baptists, North American Baptists, and Fundamentalist Baptist, were obese.” I love how this study attempts to point out a weakness, despite the fact that as a whole, the US population, according to experts, 30.5% are obese, meaning that even the FATTEST group of christians is still proportionately less obese than the general public. I would submit that a better headline would be:
“Churchgoers experience less obesity problems”
Answer to headline… “No, just stupid”
Mike T
Ferraro’s most recent study, published in the June issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is a follow-up to a study he published in 1998, where he found there were more obese people in states with larger populations of folks claiming a religious affiliation than elsewhere — particularly in states with the most Baptists.
So it’s not surprising that Ferraro’s latest study found that about 27 percent of Baptists, including Southern Baptists, North American Baptists, and Fundamentalist Baptist, were obese.
Food often is substituted for alcohol at Baptist and other conservative Protestant gatherings, Ferraro says. I once attended a wedding at a conservative Bible church where, instead of an open bar or champagne fountain, the bride and groom toasted their new beginning with a massive ice-cream sundae buffet.
I kid you not.
“Baptists may find food one of the few available sources of earthly pleasures,” Ferraro says.
[Edited for length: See comment guidelines.]