in three ways:

1) It wipes out one of the two days that are generally free for people to exercise, leaving only Saturday. After church and a meal, no one is motivated to do much of anything. Sometimes it even wipes out Saturdays and post-work weekdays with meetings and callings.

2) It misleads people into thinking that health in this life is not that important because they are on the brink of an eternity of perfect health in the CK.

3) It results in an over-consumption of jello.

It causes stress eating from unearned guilt, and denial of reality.

If you have a years worth of food out in the garage, your more likely to eat without the normal controls.

If you are using wheat, sugar, and milk in everything you are going to get fat.

Your lack of decent food at home makes you and your kids more likely to crave junk or fast food.

If you are a SAHM that is cooking 3x a day for several people, you have to obsess about food all of the time, it never leaves your mind. This can cause overeating.

If you bake several times a week for your family, you most likely will be overweight.

I think it causes stress in peoples' lives and when people are stressed, they tend to look toward food or something else to comfort them. If it's exercise that makes them feel better, usually they are so busy with church work they don't have time to comfort themselves in this way. Grabbing a slice of cake is easier. And a nice cup of tea, or coffee or a beer after a hard day is O-U-T as well. Furthermore, a lot of Mormons are too hung up regarding sex to blow off steam with a good romp in the hay. Maybe some are eating because they are sexually or emotionally starving and trying to compensate with food to fill up a different kind of emptiness.

So basically it adds more stress and takes away time and ways to reduce stress. So people resort to classic stress eating patterns. Also, and this idea may be way out there, but the lack of boundaries in Mormonism may cause some people to subconsciously build a "wall" of 20 or more extra pound around them. I only add this because about a year after my SIL got her divorce, she moved into her parents basement for financial reasons. Even though she still had control of her food choices and actually had more time to exercise because of live-in babysitters, she actually gained almost 30 pounds within about 8 months. When she moved out, she lost the weight just as fast without any lifestyle changes at all. She swears it's because she and her mom have always fought like rabid cats and she thinks she subconsciously built a literal "fat wall" around herself to protect herself from her mom's jabs. I wonder how many Mormons gain weight unintentionally, just to build boundaries they aren't courageous enough to build with their character.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2012 01:34PM by CA girl.

I was always eating my feelings when I was a TBM. All that guilt can definitely do it to ya.

When we stress, we release cortisol, which makes us store more of our calories as fat, even if we are NOT over-eating. Chronic stress and low socio-economic status (both typical components of TBM family life) make people fat. Even when they are fed the same diet as more prosperous and less-stressed individuals, they will come out fatter.

Plus, when TBMs pay tithing, stockpile food storage, and save for missions, they have less $$ available to spend on healthy food, like fruits and vegetables.

http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v14/n2/full/oby200642a.html

http://www.rense.com/general42/fatter.htm

If you wear garments, you don't have much incentive to keep the weight off, because the g's cover everything up.

Wearing G's would make anyone not want to look sexy or good. It is humiliating to wear and is the last thing any man wants to see on a woman. That alone creates so much unhappiness that we would want to eat to feel better.

Mormonism is full of situations like that.

Food in Mormonism is the only acceptable thing, since coffee, tea, and alcohol are forbidden. Then, there's storing a year's supply of food, so if someone had things they would eat, it's mostly processed food and not much fresh produce unless one were to have their own garden. There's also a lot of stress from the impossibility of perfection, so people eat when they feel they're not worthy, and when combined with regulation underwear that covers everything up, there's no incentive to lose weight. People are also kept busy so they don't have time to get exercise, and with women being pressured to have children because there are "spirits waiting to be born" they often get pregnant before they've lost their baby weight.

Adolyelb is right. They're self-medicating with ice cream. It goes well with the Prozac.