French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was one of the first scientist to declare food as fuel. That message continues today throughout food and nutrition education.1
March is National Nutrition Month. The theme for 2023 is “Fuel for the Future.” This month, nutrition professionals will reinforce the food as fuel message in schools, workplaces, and the public sphere, emphasizing whole foods as essential to fueling the future health of individuals, families, and communities.
This message resonates not just with food, but with God’s Word. Just as the fuel for a healthy future is filled with fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains, the fuel for a faithful future for our children is filled with God’s Word and individual and corporate worship.
The medical community has observed the decay of the physical and mental health of Americans. Unfortunately, church leaders have observed the decay of their spiritual health as well. The decline of biblical literacy and church attendance in the United States is well documented. The Standard American Diet (SAD) or Modern American Diet (MAD) lacks both fruit and the Fruit of the Spirit. Our diet culture rejects bread and the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ.
Fuel for Following Jesus
Research shows that if Americans followed the traditional food and physical activity habits of almost any other culture on the planet, we would reduce chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.2 Eating whole foods and mostly plants more than processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages strengthens our bodies and immune systems through intense growth periods, illnesses, and aging.
Similarly, following Jesus reduces the chronic and infectious disease of sin. Consuming God’s Word through Bible reading and weekly worship strengthens us for periods of fear, doubt, suffering, and sadness.
Spending time with Jesus through his Word and in worship is like the essential hormone insulin, which controls blood sugar. Consuming too much added sugar weakens insulin’s ability to control blood sugar, and may lead to diabetes. Alternatively, consuming whole fruits supports insulin’s work, helping our bodies turn food into energy for optimal health through the years.
Daily Bible reading and weekly church attendance over time will support Christ’s work in our personal lives and in our relationships with others. We can’t rewrite our past sins or sufferings, and we don’t know what temptations and trails await in our future, but we know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Fuel for Making Change
My hope for Americans during National Nutrition Month is that it won’t just be about social media posts, coloring sheets in classrooms, and email blasts from corporate wellness. Rather, I hope this month will be about making meaningful change in food policy. With these changes, we would see better food in schools, long-term care facilities, and prisons, as well as change in the American diet that leads to a future that is healthier for all people, animals, land, and water in every community.
My hope for Christians in America during National Nutrition Month is that we and our children will be the leaders of this meaningful change. As we read our Bibles and follow Jesus, we will care more for his creation, for the nations, and for our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies.
Meaningful change for some families may include eating with the environment in mind through more plant-based meals and snacks or purchasing food with minimal packaging. For others, meal planning to reduce food cost and waste or supporting a local food bank or teaching farm may be the meaningful change God is calling your family to. Practicing gratitude or spending time learning about other cultural food traditions by visiting a local restaurant or getting involved with a refugee ministry are also ways to fuel change that glorifies God through caring for his creation and the tribes and nations he has made.
Fuel Until We Feast
All of Scripture is fuel for our future, but we have unique and hopeful fuel from the book of Revelation. In her book Blessed, author Nancy Guthrie reminds us that Revelation reveals the Lamb of God who is on the throne, ruling and reigning over everyone and everything.3
This includes our bodies, food systems, and food policies. In fact, one of the images used to display the blessings we have in the resurrected Christ is an invitation to the marriage super of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6-9).
Throughout National Nutrition Month, parents can remind their teenagers that the best fuel for their future is a rainbow of foods and the reading of God’s Word. And the more we fuel ourselves with God’s Word, the more we see that even the mundane tasks surrounding eating and cooking point us to the glory and goodness of God.
Every labor-intensive meal plan and purchase at the grocery store points us to the costly sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Every messy meal preparation with your children prompts us to remember that Jesus enters our messy sin, invites us to join with him in his redemptive work, and that he is preparing a glorious feast for his children. Every shared family dinner reminds us that God himself came down to dwell among us and that he now invites us to participate in his Eucharist and eternal table.
Healthy food is a temporary fuel for the future. The Word of God, however, is everlasting fuel for the future. Feeding our children this fuel will lead to a faithful future for our families and churches as we follow Jesus.
Discussion Questions for Families
- Describe a meal that made you feel especially fueled-up for an activity or filled-up with gratitude (i.e. a team meal before a game, a family meal before going back to college, a favorite meal at summer camp, etc.).
- How is reading our Bibles, going to church, or praying similar to eating healthy foods? What happens when we practice these spiritual disciplines over a week, month or year?
- What is one change you can make as an individual or family that would show compassion towards God’s creation (land, water, or animals) or God’s people (in the world, your community, or your own body)?
Footnotes
- Stafford, N. (2010). History: The changing notion of food. Nature, 468(7327), S16-S17.
- Old Ways. (2023, February 8). https://oldwayspt.org/
- Guthrie, N. (2022). Blessed: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Revelation. Crossway.
