Feasting on love

Lutheran, The, Nov 1999 by Smith, M J

Healthy food traditions can season your holidays and nourish your Christ-centered service

The holidays are a slow time of year for dieticians. I spent 20 years in nutrition practice, helping people make food choices to slash blood sugar and clobber high LDL-cholesterol.

But no one wanted to come in November. It seemed like a ' waste of time. Finally, even the doctors caught on, reassuring patients they may as well start after the new year. The "eat, drink and be merry" attitude started earlier and earlier-for some just as the Halloween candy hit the shelves.

When the new year dawned, my phone rang off the hook. Grumpy people, seven pounds heavier than a month before, begged for a diet of deprivation. How many times did I sit down and help people figure out what to do with a freezer full of leftover cookies and cheese logs?

It was difficult, if not impossible, to impart my faith-inspired orientation to food during a diet consultation in a public hospital. But I tried. After two decades on the front line of the diet war, I found a simple philosophy to sing: Food can be the delicious and blessed fuel for our Christ-centered service to others. Food is a physical medium for sharing our spirit along life's way. Most all of it goes well with conversation, laughter and hugs.

In contrast, the media paints the American diet as decadent or healthy, fattening or tasteless. If something tastes good, we lament, it's probably bad for you. Where did this start and how did healthy eating become so complicated?

The nutrition community takes its fair share of the blame. I've said it myself. "Stay away from saturated fat!" But those of us in the white coats have mellowed and the American Dietetic Association's national nutrition theme, "All Foods Can Fit," counters the perception that we are the food police.

Our friends in food marketing have their own foolish food language: "100% fat-free, gourmet, reduced calorie and completely natural." Let's remember, these folks have products to sell.

In the Bible we find quotes to support many eating styles. Consider the complex and opposite views of these passages:

If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink,-for tomorrow we die" (I Corinthians 15:32).

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you (Luke 14:13-14).

Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them (Romans 14:3).

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear (Luke 12:22).

If we use Jesus' example, he ate when he was hungry and quit when he was full. Food was a fuel for his days and nights of teaching and serving others. And when he kicked back with his disciples, the party included relaxed enjoyment of a wide variety of food and spirits. I don't remember any mention of food fright when he went to supper at Zacchaeus' house. How many of us complain in anticipation of dinner at the in-laws?

It seems as the last holiday season of the century awaits us, we may be ready to let heaven and nature sing from our kitchen. I've found a wonderful way to purify a holiday is to make food less and less the centerpiece of the experience. Hungry? Go ahead and celebrate with something delicious and healthy. But then let's get on with the reason for the season.

Family togetherness and food traditions will always be rich ingredients in Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, It's wise to examine them in the context of your values. What's really important? Making candy, writing cards, finding a new dress, helping your child with her part in the program, decorating the tree, visiting a homebound relative or making a wreath for the front door? The answer is different for each of us.

We all face the self-imposed craziness and inevitable time crunch of December, so consider this stockingfull of shortcuts to the holiday feast. As you save time and energy with these ideas, discover more and more goodness of this season. Call an old friend you truly miss at Christmas, visit someone steeped in fresh grief, keep a family journal or volunteer for the community choir. With less holiday anxiety about food, you may find yourself, for the first time, able to hear the sounding joy.

But before you read further, turn up your favorite carols, light a fragrant candle and sit down in a cozy chair. Contemplating your food celebration is intended be a wonder of love.

Smith, a registered dietician and cook

book author is a member of St. John Lutheran Church, Guttenberg, Her Web site is

lowfatkitchen.com.