How eating like a Catholic can change your life “The Catholic Table” may just restore some sanity to the way you eat. Full Article
Do you eat too much or too little? Do you obsess about calories, worry about food labels, or find yourself wishing you didn’t have to worry about food at all?
I talk in the book about the difference between controlling the body and caring for the body. Some people emphasize controlling the body because it can be the source of sin — it’s what gives into temptation so you need to control it. But the body has to be cared for, it’s a great gift and we need to give the body what it needs to do what God made it to do, honoring it the way God meant it to be honored.
I really wanted to convey the joy of eating. It’s so easy in our culture to strip food of its joy and love and its communal significance. Instead, it can become about calories, nutrients, making your body look a certain way — we project all these different things onto food so it stops being what God made it to be: a sign of love, healing, nourishment, and joy. Food tastes good because God wanted us to enjoy eating. There is so much love from God in every bite of food and when you sit down to a delicious meal, recognizing how much God loves you through that meal is the most important thing you can do.
Many of us struggle to understand and receive food as a natural gift from God. Some of us eat too much food. Or we eat too little. Often, we eat without gratitude, without charity, without respect. But, as award-winning author Emily Stimpson Chapman explains in The Catholic Table, with a sacramental worldview the supernatural gift of God’s grace can transform and heal us through the food we make, eat, and share.