Much pondering is called for

on this article from The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/02/eating-toward-immortality/515658/

My first reaction is that I am much closer to the
“the omnivore’s fun time at the supermarket”
than I am to the omnivore's dilemma, even though I do have certain values which guide my food choices.

My second thought is that dietary rigidity, when seen as a path to salvation and escape from disease and death, is really a form of idolatry.

I also wonder why this article, from February, just showed up in my Facebook feed today. Is it too challenging to too many of us to have made the rounds any quicker than that?

Justice at the Table

Justice at the Table – A New MSA Resource

Christine Sine has announced that a new Mustard Seed Associates resource Justice at the Table by Ricci Kilmer has become available.

This resource is a collection of personal reflections and practical ideas to help us redeem “food” in all its dimensions from its mundane place as an annoying chore to a spiritual practice essential to a life of faith. This resource is designed for busy people and includes a mini-booklet for jotting notes on the go.

Ricci continues to challenge me and many of us in MSA about the importance of considering the decisions we make about what we eat and how we think about our food. Take a look and see how you can continue to redeem your relationship with food for the kingdom of God.

http://godspace.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/justice-at-the-table-a-new-msa-resource/

Christine Sine is teaching me a lot about the spirituality of gardens and of creation.


+

Can we just call it food?

I have noticed a creeping trend to speak of "nutrition" when "food" would be a perfectly adequate word. Why is this? Seems like food is a word with many layers of meaning, cultural and affective as well as biological, while nutrition is clinical and without nuance. From my vantage point, using "nutrition" bespeaks an analytical, bloodless and cheerless attitude toward food. Nutrition is what thin rich people want for fat poor people.

It all reminds me of when we gave up sex for gender, and began referring to women as females. Ugh!

Justice at the Table

I heard about this from Christine Sine (http://godspace.wordpress.com/)

Mustard Seed Associates:

February 7: Justice at the Table Workshop

Come to our second “The Revolution Starts at Home” event, Justice at the Table! We will explore together the intricate connections between our faith and the food we eat. We will challenge ourselves and each other to bring our eating and buying practices more in line with our beliefs and draft a “Justice at the Table Plan” to help us implement the changes we hope to make.

Registration is required. Register online at http://msainfo.org/

Event Details: * Date – February 7th, 2009 * Where – Mustard Seed House, 510 NE 81st Street Seattle, WA 98115 (upper floor, back entrance) * Time – 9am – 3pm * Food – Coffee, Tea, and a vegetarian lunch is included. Please bring any snack with you that you wish to share. * Children – Due to our limited space and small staff, we are unable to offer childcare at this event. You are welcome however to bring children 2 and under with you if you feel they’d do well in a room of chatting adults. * Cost – $40 individual/$35 groups of 2 or more (if cost is prohibitive please contact mail@msainfo.org for scholarship information)

Family Food Mission Plan: Family Food Covenant

Hosted by Mustard Seed Associates and The Mustard Seed House

Facilitated: Ricci Kilmer

http://msainfo.org/promo/justice-at-the-table-food-and-justice-workshop

Our conflicted way of food

I've been wanting for some time to write about attitudes toward food in our American culture, but have been mulling over just where to begin and what to say.

Then this weekend I noticed that our seasonal confusion now extends to confusing times of feasting and times of fasting. Used to be we had lots of advertising and editorial copy in the various media about feasting until the New Year, when the ads and features about exercise and dieting began. Gradually this moved backward until one could see the diet and exercise pitches beginning on Boxing Day. This, more than anything, signalled that the Christmas season was dead except liturgically. Now it seems that the diet data comes right along with the recipes for butter cookies. The Saturday after Thanksgiving I turned on the tv a few minutes in advance of something I wanted to watch and stumbled upon a segment - on one of those shows that fills the gossip column niche - on how to take off the pounds gained on Thursday.

So I want to know - who gains multiple pounds in one day? Surely that is only possible for chronic dieters and the dehydrated? And who weighs themselves the day after a major feast? And I want to know why we must jettison the leftovers and get all puritanical right away?

Are we afraid of food? afraid of pleasure? afraid of losing control? Or we are just determined to make ourselves miserable and never enjoy anything?

Actually, I have been wondering if our life circumstances are so out of control, or seem to be, that one of the few places we feel we can exercise control is over our food choices. Is this a motivation for both the addiction to diets and the interest in fresh, seasonal and local food?

I want to think that the latter is somehow more positive than the former because it allows for seasonal celebration and choosing foods for taste, not just for caloric, carb or fat content.

But I'm still mulling.