Why Oklahoma Christians could benefit from a biblical diet

Oklahoma’s obesity rates are higher than the national average. At least 1 in 3 people here are obese. Among African Americans in Oklahoma, the rate of obesity is 43.4%. Fueling the obesity epidemic in the U.S. is certainly fast food, sugar, high-fat high calorie, comfort foods, minimal expenditure of energy and lack of quality health education.

Oklahoma is also a part of the United States known as the Bible Belt ― “a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics.” These states also have some of the highest rates of obesity. A friend affectionately called these states the Bulging Belt due to the high rates of obesity and sickness.

Some of the state of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City-County Health Department’s recent programs are geared toward combating disease by promoting weight loss. But weight loss is not a strong enough motivator to regain health, especially since diets like the cookie diet, Atkins or Keto can be restrictive, tasteless and/or unhealthy for some, so losing weight no longer becomes an incentive for many Oklahomans. When work, life and family stressors outweigh weight loss, Oklahomans turn to comfort food rather than the gym.

So, what can help to reduce the state’s obesity rate? Lifestyle programs that are geared toward the whole person’s body, mind and spirit are most helpful in reducing obesity. The cause of obesity is, of course, diet, but it is also…