Food Overdose

One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 2 Kings 4:39-40

I once met a man who claimed to be delivered from drug addiction, but who, in my estimation, appeared to have developed a food addiction. No, he wasn’t using drugs, but rather, he had now turned his attention to food. He wasn’t going to die of an overdose, but he was dying of obesity. When he, at a young age, inevitably succumbs to obesity, that death will be no less tragic and no less of a failure than dying of a drug addiction. A drug overdose is considered tragic because it involves an obviously unhealthy and preventable behavior that leads to premature death. Though we often give gluttony a pass, food addiction is also an obviously unhealthy and preventable behavior and so, a death from obesity is no less tragic.

We can kill ourselves with what we eat, and eating can be as self-destructive as any drug addiction. Though today’s passage isn’t about gluttony, it does illustrate that carelessness about food can have deadly consequences. In the story, there was a famine in the land, so the prophet Elisha planned a communal meal for his fellow prophets. Desperate for ingredients, one of the men gathered poisonous gourds and put them in the stew. Only after the men began to eat did they realize the error. In the end, Elisha miraculously transformed the stew, but until then, there was death in the food.

Admittedly, food is one of my great struggles in life and, for better or worse, it’s allowable. If I use drugs, I’ll destroy my marriage and lose my job. If, however, I put on 20 pounds – which I’ve recently done – I may struggle at the gym, but I’m not going to get fired. Food is a far more acceptable addiction. It’s a grave mistake though, for me to think that it’s not a moral problem. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12). Any self-destructive behavior that I repeat despite known consequences is an addiction and living in faith and recovery means seeking to be free from all addictions, not just drugs. Getting sober only to die prematurely from a food overdose isn’t a grand success. If I sound condemning, know that these words are for myself as I’ve got some serious work to do in this area. I don’t want to get sober, only to become a slave to food.