Biblical Truths for a Healthy Relationship with Food and Body: 4 Things Every Christian Should Hear

What does the Bible really say about health, food, and body image? 

You asked, I'm delivering! Due to popular demand, here's another episode on the topic of faith & food freedom or being a Christian woman while navigating a healthy relationship with food.

I've boiled my thoughts down to 4 biblical truths I think every Christian woman (or man, really) needs to hear about honoring God with her body.... without making health an idol. Learn how faith and science work together, why “your body is a temple” is often misunderstood, and how to find peace in biblical stewardship, not obsession.

TOPICS COVERED

• 00:00 — What happens when you mix theology with health advice?
• 00:59 — Can faith and health coexist?
• 02:21 — Made in the image of God… Not the image of Instagram
• 07:03 — When “healthy” becomes an idol
• 12:42 — Who’s really in control of your body?
• 15:00 — Stewardship without obsession
• 17:10 — Science: The part of God’s plan we keep ignoring
• 17:47 — Control, trust, and letting God be God
• 21:47 — How the appeal to nature fallacy confuses Christians
• 26:04 — Living nourished, not obsessed

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Systematic review on body fat % and all cause mortality

Transcript

Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT (00:00)
Hey friends, welcome back to Nourished and Free the Podcast, where mental health meets physical health, food guilt gets ghosted, and toxic wellness advice gets roasted. And today we're adding in a little theology to the mix. I did an episode, I posted it on July 22nd, with a previous client of mine, and we talked more about being a Christian specifically, and being a woman in the church, the challenges of having a healthy relationship with food, and your body, and fitness. And I asked, hey, is this a topic that you guys are interested in? Do you want to hear more about?

having healthy relationship with food and with your body from the lens of being a Christian and how that applies to your relationship with the Lord and everything and really bringing God into that. And a lot of you reached out and said, yes, absolutely. I'd love an episode that talks more on that. So that's really where this episode was born from. My prayer is that this episode does help to, well, ultimately, I just want God to reveal Himself more to you and pursue you through this episode today, I hope.

you know, if it's not your thing to talk about the Bible, Then maybe this episode isn't for you. But there's about 100 others that you're welcome to sift through and enjoy. And on that note, be sure you do subscribe to the show if you are wanting to create a healthy relationship with food and with your body, regardless of whether you're a Christian or not, because everybody, no matter your faith, no matter your background,

can absolutely have a healthy relationship with food and a positive body image. So yeah, it's probably a good idea to subscribe to the show so that you see your new episodes pop up on your screen. OK, so here's the thing. This episode might potentially step on a few toes, but I promise it's in love.

Somewhere along the way, I feel like as Christians, we get really confused. We get confusing messages about faith and health and our bodies. We've been told things like, your body is a temple, which is usually right before someone tries to sell us like a protein powder or a fat loss meal plan or something. Or we get told that caring about your body is vain, right? So today, I want to try to cut through the noise.

Get back to what scripture actually says and we'll talk about what it really means to be made in the image of God, why your health should never be your God, the true meaning behind your body as a temple, how science and faith aren't enemies, they're actually teammates,

grab your coffee, open up your Bibles with me, and let's talk about four things that I think every Christian needs to hear, especially if you care about your health and fitness.

first things first.

We are made in the image of God. What does that mean? Why does that matter for our health and wellness? So here's the thing. And in Genesis 1 verse 26 and 27, God said, us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him.

male and female, he created them. That means that our bodies aren't something to cast off as insignificant. They are an incredible piece of machinery and art, right? Both sides of the spectrum. From the instrument and machinery standpoint, I mean, those of us who have studied the human body, it's incredible. There's still so much that we don't understand about how our bodies work.

And one thing that we know for sure is that it is amazing. Our bodies are amazing.

To me, just the human body alone is evidence of a god because it's insane. Our bodies are insane. They are so intelligently made and beyond our understanding. They really surpass our understanding. There's still so much we don't know. And so from the machinery perspective,

It's all working together like a well-oiled machine. Obviously, our bodies aren't perfect, though. Right? Like, we on Earth do not have perfect bodies. We get diseases. We have disabilities. We have challenges. There are things that are hard. There are ways that our bodies get weary and broken. And that's a part of being on Earth. And so, there's still this reality of what God has created in His image.

because of sin in the fall is not perfect right now, or at least not here on earth. But we still shouldn't cast off this body as insignificant because it is in His image, right? Like He says that He created us in His image, actually in our image. Let us make man in our image, so the image of the Trinity.

That's a seriously awesome template to be built off of, is the image of God. And he didn't make cats in the image of God. He didn't make trees in the image of God. He made us in the image of God. And I just think that's one of the coolest things. And

not only do we function very practically and we're an incredible machine, but we're also a work of art. We're made in the image of God. That's incredible. That's beautiful. There's nothing more beautiful than who God is. So for us to be made in His image, who cares? Who freaking cares if we have a thigh gap or not?

we're made in the image of God. yo, that's incredible. So I think that we kind of lose sight of that because we get stuck in what we see in the world and we get really bogged down by what we see on social media or beauty standards. And it's very normal, it's very human to be bogged down by those things, but we lose sight of who we're made to look like. And it doesn't say that God is...

you know, five foot six, 135 pounds, blonde, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't say any of that because that doesn't matter, right? Like those are semantics. How cool that he made us to look different in the coloring of our skin, the coloring of our hair, our eyes, our shape, our size. Like that just keeps things really interesting and fun, right?

Any standard that we have beyond that is a human created standard, not created by God.

With that in mind, the machine needs to be tended to as well. You should be caring for it, right? Like, you can't share the gospel with others if you don't have lungs that are functioning properly and you can't breathe. You can't go to church and worship without the bones that are strong enough to hold you up and lift your hands in worship. can't lift those up who are hurting if you don't have muscles strong enough to lift them.

Like all these things, you could make arguments for how our bodies are important in order to carry out the work of the Lord and to be a servant of God.

So care for your body enough that you can now care for others and carry out the mission of the Lord. But with that being said,

And the second thing that I think every Christian needs to hear, do not make health and wellness your God. If I hear a Christian, quote unquote, coach say one more time that your body is a temple, I'm going to lose it. What does the...

your body as a temple verse actually say? Well, that's a great question. Let's pull it up.

1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Do you hear that? You're a temple of the Holy Spirit. You were bought with a price. You were bought with the blood of Jesus. You are here to glorify God in your body, not yourself. It's a temple for worshiping what the Lord has done for you. That's what our bodies are a temple of.

what Jesus did for you, right? Not to worship yourself and your six pack abs, right? Now, if we want to talk about being a good steward of what God created in His image, absolutely, go back to my first point, take care of what's made in His image. Because that's a serious thing to be made in the image of, and we should care for that.

But don't twist what scripture says to try and convince people that worshipping muscles and protein and going to the gym and CrossFit or whatever is the Christian thing to do. Now, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying it's wrong to do CrossFit or that it's sinful. I'm saying don't worship it. Don't become so obsessed with it that it becomes your God.

If you are more worried about making it to the gym or hitting your macros than you are about making it to church, we have an issue. If you care more about reading your meal plan than you do about reading your Bible, there's a disconnect between priorities there. Why are we so concerned about fat loss? Holy cow. seen like...

faith-led fat loss coaches on Instagram, like what even is that? What does that have to do with the kingdom of God? Why do we need to be obsessively talking about the fat on our bodies in order to meet God someday? We don't. Yeah, you can care about your health, but you don't need to get to the lowest body fat percentage in order to do that,

When we look at the research, the body fat percentage associated with the lowest risk, mortality risk, and the longest lifespan was about 22 % for men and 35 % for women, 35 % body fat. And I'll put the link to this study in the show notes. But when I see these faith-led fat loss coaches on Instagram, that's not at all what they're saying, right?

They're saying, no, let's get your body fat down as much as possible. Let me show you my six pack abs. Let me show you how much I can lift. Instead of saying, hey, you actually don't need to worry that much about your body fat percentage because from a health perspective, you can carry out the kingdom of God, even at a 35 % body fat. Right? Like I just think we get, we just we make it a new idol, we make it a God.

getting as skinny as possible or getting as lean as possible.

Here's the thing, we are all human, we are all sinners, including me. So a lot of this is stuff that I've had to learn myself and that God has taught me himself because of my sin.

and where I struggled with making health and fitness an idol and my body image an idol. So please hear that so much of this was first preached to me

the Lord has revealed himself to me and he has saved me from that. And I hope that you can also be saved from that

So with that being said, I think a helpful way to ask yourself if maybe you're caring too much to the point of it being a God or an idol is to ask yourself, why am I so concerned about specific ingredients in my food or how many workouts I get in this week or my body fat percentage? What do I think will happen? And is it something that would actually matter for eternal life and for the kingdom of heaven, right? And for furthering

God's mission or am I idolizing my earthly body? We get so focused on this earthly body that we forget we're going to have a heavenly one someday. Am I setting myself up for success in heaven? Not on earth, not on the size of my pants. Or am I trying to be more like God and control things? Which brings me to point number three. The third thing I think every Christian needs to hear is that God is ultimately in control of what happens to your body, not you.

Not us. Not the government. God is.

1 Corinthians 10, 31 says, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. It does not say, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, Make sure there is no red dye 40.

Right, like, okay, so when we are thinking about the ingredients in our food, or we're thinking about whether it was farm-raised or pasture or whatever, if it's organic or not organic, I think we get distressed if we can't have the thing that we've deemed is more healthy for whatever reason. And the question is, why is that so distressing? Right, if God is truly in control, which...

Typically, we're pretty good at believing that about a lot of different things. But when it comes to our food and our bodies, that just kind of starts to crumble. We forget. We forget that God is still in control, even if the food we're eating is not organic. Or if it has red dye 40, we forget that He is still in control. And I think we also don't give Him enough credit.

for how amazingly he did design these machines we live in. We think that a simple food dye is enough to give us cancer. First of all, that's not what the research shows. Second of all, do you really think that he made us that weak? No, I know. I know how I sound. I sound a little crabby there about that, maybe a little snobby. But ⁓ seriously, like let's...

Let's zoom out a bit and think about how he created us. He knew that there would be food dyes in our food system. He knew that there would be the agricultural system that we have now. He knew that pesticides would be invented. Don't you think he thought of that? Don't you think he set us up for success there? I'm not saying to never be concerned about what's in your food. I'm saying don't try to control it to the point that you're losing sight of him.

we shouldn't be so insistent on controlling what he's given us to steward that we lose the plot of why we have them in the first place, right? Changing the ingredients in our food, is that really going to make the difference between you being able to carry out the kingdom of God or not, or being able to serve the Lord or not?

think of a farmer, right, who has his crops to tend and steward. They are his to tend. And what's more, his crops are going to be blessing others. They're going to be feeding mouths. They're going to be giving people energy, right? He is a blessing to others by having his crops and tending to them and making them the best they can be. But with that being said,

there's a chance that a natural disaster will happen, At the end of the day, no matter how much he feels in control of those crops, he's still not because natural disasters happen. There might be a tornado that blows through, there might be a storm that drowns them all, ruins them all. There could be a frost that comes at the wrong time of year. These things are ultimately out of his control. So he has to hold them with an open hand, knowing whatever God decides,

is going to happen with these is what's going to happen with these. And so we need to treat our bodies the same way. Even though we can care for them, tend to them, make sure that we're blessing others with them, there's still going to be a point where we're out of control. And we can't decide whether we get cancer or not. We can't decide whether our genetics have coded us to have heart disease or not. We can't decide whether we get hit by a car or not.

We can try our best to avoid those things, and we should, I think, to further carry out the kingdom of God and to spread the good news of the gospel. But at a point, it is beyond your control. And that's not to create anxiety. It's actually to give you some peace of mind that no matter how hard you try, you're not going to be able to do it all. Let that be a source of assurance and peace for you.

so that you can relax a little bit. I think when we put so much pressure on ourselves to do everything right, ⁓ it really sets us up for lot of anxiety

So that's the third point. God is ultimately in control. He's the one that knows what your body is doing behind the scenes. He's the one that knows what your lab values are at this very moment He's the one that knows what disease you may or may not have in 20 years. He knows how you're going to die. We can do the best that we can to care for and steward the body that he's given us that's made in his image. But remember that at the end of the day, it's still his call on what happens to you.

Now, the fourth thing that I think every Christian needs to hear is that science brings us closer to God. It doesn't need to be one or the other. A big thing that I've noticed lately is that it's very popular for Christians to be anti-science, and I'm not totally sure why that is.

I think somewhere along the way, we forgot that God is a scientist. He created this world that we live in. And the more that you study it, the more that He reveals Himself to us. I mentioned how incredibly designed our human body is. I don't know about you, but when I learn about the human body, I'm like, wow, look at what God did. Look at what He thought of that we could have never thought of. Look at all the ways that He is in control.

and that He loves us and cares for us. I was just thinking the other day, like, man, how cool is it that I have two arms so that I can hold my baby while I'm making food for my other two children? That was so thoughtful that the Lord gave us two arms, you know, or that I have 10 fingers so that I can, like, hold five different grocery bags at one time. I don't know. Like, there's just...

Think about all the ways you use your body every day to carry out all your tasks. We don't really stop to think about all the different ways that our body is functioning, like literally what it's doing in order to accomplish the things that we're doing. I have ears right now that are helping me to listen to the feedback I'm getting from my microphone. I have a mouth that's speaking and making sounds so that you can hear me.

I have brain that can process all this information and then relay it to you. It's really incredible. And we wouldn't know any of that. I mean, there's like an element of like, yeah, I can see it right in front of my eyes. But there's so much more that we wouldn't know if it weren't for the field of science And God is the greatest scientist. He created the heavens and the earth, the animals, all creeping things.

If go back to the story of creation, mean, you can see how much he loves science, right? Like, he's all about it. God is amazing in terms of astronomy and biology and zoology and anatomy and physiology, all of these things, even food and nutrition and agriculture. If we look at the creation account, Genesis 1.29, he says,

See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you, it shall be for food. He was thinking about nutrition before any of us were. How cool is that? And he gave Adam and Eve fruits and veg and seed to eat and consume. And it makes sense now too that like fruits and veggies tend to be so beneficial for our body, right? Because you can see, okay, in the Garden of Eden, like that's what they were eating. That's pretty cool.

And then later we see that there's a transition to having meat as well. It's very interesting. I mean, you could argue, I guess, that veganism is the best diet if you really want to be extreme. I think we forget, though, that very soon after this, the fall happens and sin happens. And so what happened in the Garden of Eden is not necessarily our template for how we live now because hashtag sin. And now there's pests. There's things that need to be

removed from the food that we eat. There are diseases that occur in the animals that we want to drink their milk that need to be pasteurized and gotten rid of. Sin still happened. The fall still happened. And there are things that can contaminate our food now. And thank the Lord quite literally for creating us in His image and so intelligently that we are able as humans to discover those things.

advance in science and technology to understand more about how we can live longer to better serve Him. Not because we, again, not because we idolize these bodies and we have to live longer so that we can stay on this earth as long as possible because we're obsessed with ourselves, but so that we have the best chance of furthering the kingdom of God.

Psalm 111 verse 2 says, works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in Him. Now you could interpret that many different ways, I think, but one way that I think you could easily interpret that is that we're studying His works. We are studying what He's made, what He's created. And that's science in a nutshell, right? We're really just discovering what God has created.

and we're asking questions and we're answering those questions. These things don't live in contrast to each other. We don't need to deny science or Western medicine or conventional medicine because science reveals more about who God is, right? Do not run from how God can reveal himself to us. And don't forget that he created us with the abilities to learn and to discover and to advance technology, right? As long as they're still honoring the Lord.

Why are we running from advancing sciences and advancing technologies if they're still honoring the Lord? Right? And it's not ⁓ creating a chasm between our relationship with Him. I think as Christians, we can really easily get stuck in the appeal to nature fallacy, where we think if something is more natural, then it's naturally better for you. Again, this goes back to what I was saying earlier about automatically thinking

everything that was in the Garden of Eden is the template for now. And anything that our ancestors did is the template for now. But again, like that really sin, the fall, the curses of the fall.

Because here's the thing, just because something is naturally occurring doesn't mean it'll be better for you. In chapter 3, verse 17 of Genesis, when God is giving Adam his curses, his consequences for disobeying, He says, I mean, honestly,

When I read that, what I'm hearing is, OK, so that means that things that are naturally occurring aren't automatically good for us anymore. And there has to be work done to them to make them better for us and not worry about the pests on them or if they're poisonous, toxic, whatever.

I mean, the appeal of nature fallacy, thinking that everything must be better for you if it's more natural, falls apart immediately when we think of how many toxic herbs there are out in my forest right now. There's poison ivy out there. That's naturally occurring. So where are we going here when we think that everything that's more natural must be better? That doesn't make any sense, not if we're reading the Word, not if we're seeing that the earth, the ground was cursed.

because of the sin of Adam and Eve and because of the fall.

Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT (25:07)
So with that being said, yeah, our food is probably not always naturally going to be great for us because Adam and Eve sinned. And what a blessing that we have modern technology and we have brilliant people who want to study agriculture and food and nutrition and biology and chemistry to find these things that are easily going to harm us and then eliminate them or at least correct them as much as we can.

Somewhere along the way around the time of the Maha movement, Christians stopped trusting science. Why? Because people who align with political parties we feel are more related to Christian values are automatically perceived as being trustworthy. At least that's my thought, my theory. But denying science is denying the work of the Lord.

and how incredible He is and how He designed this earth and also what the Bible says in a lot of ways.

So a quick recap, Number one, we are made in the image of God. That means our bodies aren't something to cast off as insignificant. They are an incredible piece of machinery and art. So care for it, attend to it. The second, with that in mind, don't make health your God. Don't make food and nutrition and exercise and fitness your idol. Don't make body image your God. Third, God is ultimately in control of what happens to your body.

not you. We can steward what God gave us as we should so that we can further the kingdom of God and spread the good news of the gospel and assist others and show the love of Jesus. But ultimately, He is the one that's going to decide if you get cancer or not or what have you. Fourth, science brings us closer to God because it shows us how incredible of a scientist God is and what He's created. That's a joy that we get to study that and that we get to know more.

but we can't know it all. Nobody can know it all. We all have different gifts. We all have different capacities. None of us can know everything. We all work together as the body of Christ.

I hope you found this episode helpful. I hope that it landed for you well. Again, my prayer is that God has revealed himself to you in some new way today. Please let me know if there was anything in particular that you needed to hear today that you feel like God was speaking to you about. I'd love to hear how God is working in your life through your relationship with food and body image. And if you want even more episodes on this.

Let me know what questions you have. You can leave feedback in the show notes. There's a link to go leave anonymous feedback. So feel free to click that link. You can let me know what it was that stuck out to you. I won't be able to see your name. This is totally anonymous. So you can say what it was that you feel like the Lord needed you to hear from this episode, or if you have a question that you want me to answer in an upcoming episode. And if you love this show, be sure you leave a rating and review.

That's really the only way that my show gets recommended to other people if you love it, let me know that. It really does support me. All right. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. Thanks for spending your time with me today. Cheers to living nourished and free.