Church makes you fat seems to be the common belief that most scribes have. Take the instance of a write up in Associated Press 7 years ago or the most recent press musings in the present times featured prominently in Time Now, MSNBC. Com and USA Today, you are bound to come across a piece of writing blaming the church for the general trend of obesity that is seen everywhere around. But what is it that makes the church goers are prone to obesity? Are the non-believers or followers of other religions destined to sport the lean and thin look and the ones who sing paeans in praise of our Lord God aren’t? Read on and get a new insight into this dilemma…

Food At Church Gatherings

Fried chicken and the lure of pizza seems to be the most convenient way of drawing the people to religion it seems. A lot of church in the country attempt to lure the young population by food, which really makes one wonder whether the way to God, can also be through the stomach. The MSNBC.com and the Time Now declared that turning to religion might actually make you obese. A look at the growing number of pot bellied pastors will lend credence to the fact automatically went the reports.

Research Studies

A release by the Northwestern University helped to clarify matters further. A research conducted by medical students on the topic of whether church makes you fat was published in Chicago. The researchers said that most people ran into the “fat” bracket by the time they reached their middle age. Was it the gift of religion or the huge quantities of potato salads and other equally unhealthy foods eaten as the citizens discussed their good deeds happily?

Matthew Feinstein, the leader of the study and a fourth year student of medicine hoped to find a possible way of obesity prevention by sharing the facts unearthed about church goers being prone to obesity. The University had undertaken a similar research years before where it established a relationship between obese adults and religion. The new study results now indicate that weight gain is directly proportional to religious involvement instead of obese individuals being attracted to religion.

However, the researchers have also cautioned the public that the study results did not mean that the religious lot was unhealthy. On the contrary, they tend to live much longer than the atheists who are likely to inculcate bad habits like smoking and drinking.

Other Theories

Other theories about the notion that church makes you fat tried to relate marriage and religion by stating that religious people marry early and are likely to put on weight because of that.

The debate rages on for now, with no concrete reason being attributed to the question of why going to church makes you fat.

Image Credit: godmissionpossible.blogspot.com