America's Weight-Loss Obsession and Reclaiming Health for God's Glory
Health and Wellness
Audio By Carbonatix
By Amanda Idleman, Crosswalk.com
Medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, originally developed for diabetes, have skyrocketed in popularity as weight-loss drugs, reshaping the health industry and cultural attitudes toward body image. Demand has surged so high that shortages persist, and some patients report physical side effects and emotional dependency. While some see these drugs as medical breakthroughs, others worry they fuel a deeper obsession with appearance, performance, and self-control.
Obesity is an epidemic in our country, impacting about 42% of adults according to the CDC. More than half of Americans report that willpower alone is not sufficient when trying to achieve sustained weight loss, according the the Pew Research Center survey. These conditions have paved the way for a new class of drugs that help people lose weight, including Ozempic and Wegovy, to become incredibly popular. A recent study reports that one in eight Americans has taken or is currently taking one of these drugs for diabetes, heart disease, or obesity.
While there are many medical benefits these drugs offer for a variety of medical conditions, the surge of popularity in their usage is primarily due to their weight loss capabilities. Every drug comes with risks, side effects, and unintended impacts on the body. Many have reported downsides to the medication, including GI problems, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach paralysis, thyroid tumors, and harm to the pancreas and kidneys. Patients on these drugs must be monitored closely for pancreatitis and kidney function. Patients also report dependency on the drug to maintain their desired weight. These drugs can be expensive when not covered by insurance and are not always the best path to a healthy body composition for all people. Many factors go into a healthy weight, and quick fixes such as medication are not always the best path forward.
When the world promises transformation through medication, how can Christians remember that our truest renewal—body, mind, and spirit—comes not from injections, but from the redeeming work of Christ?
Bodies matter to God, and how we steward them has spiritual implications. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says,
“What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own?” God cares deeply about the skin we’ve been given and calls us to do our best to take good care of it.
Medications can be a useful tool for health and quality of life. When we have an ailment, medicine is one of many tools God uses to bring relief to our suffering. For many years, I struggled with chronic anxiety and depression. The way God ushered in the breakthrough I needed was through taking an antidepressant for a period of time. I am so very thankful for the relief that this medical intervention offered to my life.
I am a mother to a medically complex child, and medical interventions have given her a life that even just 50 years ago would not have been possible. God often uses the creativity of medical professionals for his glory. But when pursuing health, we always have to seek his wisdom and guidance when weighing our options for treatment. Almost every medical intervention comes with a side effect or an unexpected manner in which the medicine impacts our body, making choices around treatment complex.
When it comes to medical interventions designed for weight loss, these decisions get even trickier, and more questions arise about our motives when pursuing these interventions. Obesity is indeed a major health risk, and many truly need assistance on their weight loss journey, but medication is one of many proven options that lead towards a healthier body. Many other paths towards weight loss can be challenging, but are not accompanied by the potential side effects of medication, and while they can be more challenging, they tend to offer exponential benefits to our minds, bodies, and souls.
Additionally, one major downside to these medications is that they don’t often require a change in habit or change in nutrition. These medications are designed to change your appetite, which means you may only eat a handful of French fries instead of the whole plate of fries, but it doesn’t teach you not to eat the fries. If you choose to end these medications, many times the weight returns because without the medicine, your appetite returns.
Lessons in nutrition, stewardship, and self-discipline are not required for the drug to work. The most optimal way to use the drug would be alongside a whole foods, nutrient-dense diet, so you are relearning how to eat while enjoying the advantage of a lowered appetite, but doctors are not often guiding their patients towards health; they are primarily driven by results.
Temptation to Meet an Ideal Can Put Our Bodies at Risk
Many of us are tempted to use these drugs to obtain an ideal body that is not necessarily healthy for our body type and lifestyle. Weight is impacted by habits and genetics. Some of us are genetically more lean, while others of us are destined to be a bit more medium in stature.
Unfortunately, social media and Hollywood really only glorify the lean body type. I cannot tell you how many Instagram posts I am daily inundated with of moms in their early 40s who are shredded. It’s really disgusting, and it’s not celebrating the beauty that comes with being different. It definitely is not setting reasonable expectations for our bodies at middle age, or really at any point in time. These drugs have gone viral, making the common usage of this drug driven by a desire to keep up with the pressure the world places on all of us to look a certain way. Holiday actors flaunt perfected bodies, giving credit to their prescription drugs for the unnatural physiques.
If you are 10-15 pounds from your ideal weight, medications such as these may be tempting to get you to that ideal body type, but they can cause real damage to our bodies that we are supposed to be protecting by taking these medications without a true medical need. If you are very overweight and diets have failed you, the risks most often outweigh the benefits of medication, but if you are active, healthy, and just seeking a body ideal, medication is not a necessary intervention. It’s a greedy pursuit of vanity rather than a holy and surrendered pursuit of health.
Wisdom Is Required for Health
1 Corinthians 10:31 states, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
When we make choices about diet, exercise, lifestyle, starting a new medication, or medical treatment, it’s important that we approach each of these parts of our lives with a posture that seeks God’s guidance. Our habits should be formed around a desire to bring God glory.
If I choose to train for a race, I do so because I want God to be glorified through what is possible with the body he has given me. When I am sick, I have to seek Him and determine what steps he is calling me to take to find wholeness. His word promises that if we ask for wisdom, he will give it to us (James 1:5).
In my story, I had several autoimmune issues, one of which led to some weight gain that was resistant to my diet and exercise efforts. I, like many of us, felt shame, despair, and frustration as I talked to doctors about my situation. I wanted a quick fix to the mounting pain and frustrating added pounds that were starting to rule my life.
After many doctors' appointments and no answers, I began to pray and ask God to reveal to me how to find relief. When I had to, I utilized medications to manage my symptoms on a short-term basis, but what I found was that my body desperately needed me to invest in stress management, nutrition, therapy, adding more support to our life, and regularly moving my body.
God called me to a fast. It was hard. It took well over a year for things to start shifting, but the more I surrendered my habits to him, the more incremental healing came, and the less I needed the support of medication.
My story is unique, and each of us has to personally seek wisdom from the Lord on how to best manage our bodies, but oftentimes we shy away from the discipline of intentional eating, regular movement, and, probably most importantly, stress management because we aren’t willing to surrender those parts of our lives over to the Lord. We opt for quick fixes, but these shortcuts can come with unforeseen long-term consequences.
When Daniel needed the Lord, he fasted, eating vegetables, and prayed, and the Bible said he looked good. God created certain habits and foods that yield better results for us than others. Our fast-paced and high-pressure culture wants to tell us that habits don’t matter and that a certain weight is all we need to focus on for health, but there are many sick skinny people. Health is complex in a society that values convenience and pleasure over nourishment. As you feel the pressure to look a certain way, remember God does not require weigh-ins to please him. All he wants is the best for you. Ask for his guidance on how to find a breakthrough for your health, and he is faithful to guide you towards his goodness.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Diana Polekhina
Amanda Idleman is a writer whose passion is encouraging others to live joyfully. She writes devotions for Your Nightly Prayer, Crosswalk Couples Devotional, Your Daily Prayer, and more. She has work published with Her View from Home, on the MOPS Blog, and is a regular contributor for Crosswalk.com, Biblestudytools.com, and Christianity.com. She has most recently published a devotional, Comfort: A 30 Day Devotional Exploring God's Heart of Love for Mommas, alongside her husband’s companion devotional, Shepherd. You can find out more about Amanda on her Facebook Page or follow her on Instagram.
