Orem Chiropractor Discusses Religious Activity and Obesity

As your Orem Chiropractor I don’t necessarily deal with obesity directly, I do see and address several of the consequences of it.

With that in mind I thought our religious readers should be familiar with this study.

“Oh Heavily, Father: Churchgoers More Likely to Become Obese”

The results of this study suggest that church goers are “consuming a little bit more than the . . . good word of God.”  Those who attend church frequently in young adulthood are significantly more likely to become obese in middle age.  In fact researchers found that those who with “high frequency” of religious activities were 50% more likely to be obese in middle age.

One of the researchers said, "One possible explanation, though, is that religious gatherings might center on eating traditional, high-calorie comfort food, and this in itself might contribute to the higher incidence and prevalence of obesity."

There might be some actual truth to that.  Having attended religious activities of several faiths, many are associated with food and typically food that is “high-calorie comfort food.”  I haven't seen a church gathering that had baked salmon, spinach salad and filtered water.

In past articles we’ve discussed how many who seek fibromyalgia treatment in Orem or migraine treatment in Orem eat these kinds of foods regularly.

So the take home lesson isn’t to stop your religious activities (many studies suggest that such activities have many beneficial results) but to either avoid the buffet line or convert your congregation to higher nutritional value foods at your gatherings.