Women Food and God: My Review
May 14, 2010 by Kim T
Filed under Emotional Eating, Grow Spiritually
Note: Below is my original review of Women Food and God. Since then, I have since taken a closer look at the book and recorded a video with my additional thoughts. You can listen to it at the end of this post.
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You may have heard of a new book called “Women Food and God” by Geneen Roth about compulsive overeating. I heard it was featured on Oprah, but I discovered it by accident while browsing popular books on Amazon. The title intrigued me, so I bought it.
But I stopped reading on page 16. More about that later, but first I want to share a conversation I read on an earlier page. The author has a retreat for women who compulsively overeat and this is what one attendee told her over dinner. It is startling:
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Laurie, a thirty-five year old CEO of a Boston mortgage company, raises her hand. “I am not hungry, but I want to be. I want to eat anyway.”
“Why is that?” I ask.
“Because it looks good and it’s here, right now. It’s the best comfort in town. What’s wrong with wanting comfort from food?”
“Not a thing,” I say. “Food is good and comfort is good. Except that when you are not hungry and you want comfort, food is only a temporary pallative; why not address the discomfort directly?”
“It’s too hard to address things directly, too painful, and there isn’t any end to it. And if it’s going to be endlessly painful, then at least I have food,” she answers.
“So you figure that the best you can get out of life is cold vegetable soup?”
When she talks again, her voice is quivering. “It’s the only true comfort I have and I am not going to deprive myself of it.”
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That hurt my heart because I was once in the same place as Laurie. Even though I was “saved,” I did not trust God for comfort. At that time, I didn’t view him as one who loved me and could heal my pain. Instead, I viewed him as ready to judge and condemn me.
Reading that conversation alone was worth the cost of Women Food and God for me, but I stopped reading on page 16 because of this author statement: “It doesn’t matter whether we believe in one God, many gods, or no god.”
Oh, but it does matter! I believe there is no such thing as a weight management issue; it is all ultimately a life management issue.
Your belief about God determines how you view life, approach it, and what you expect from it. If you believe there is no god, then all you have is yourself as the compass to discern what is good and right. And we know all know how self-deceptive humans can be.
If you believe in many gods, then how do you know which to follow in a given situation? God is not the author of confusion.
I believe in the God who says in Isaiah 44:6: “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.”
It makes a big difference when you view yourself as a daughter (or son) of the King.
I believe in the God who heals as said in Psalm 147:3: “He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.”
And I believe in the God who comforts, protects, and leads me in the right way as said in Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
I have a personal relationship with the one true God, which I obtained through the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6): Jesus.
So I say to Laurie and to anyone else suffering from compulsive eating: “God is the true source of comfort and he wants you to expect more from life than cold vegetable soup! He wants you to experience eternal life, which is that you may know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent.”
Open up your heart and let God comfort you. Trust him and you will be healed.
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Video Follow-up Review: Author’s Views on God
Did you find this information on overcoming compulsive eating useful? You can learn a lot more about starting the healing process through achieving a closer relationship with God and how to achieve healthy weight loss. Check out my Take Back Your Temple eBook and the 8 bonuses that come with it.
Kimberly Taylor, C.W.C.
Certified Wellness Coach
Author of the ‘Take Back Your Temple’ ebook
http://www.takebackyourtemple.com/book
Hello Kim,
Just found your website while searching for high energy foods. What a blessing to find such a strong Christian woman behind it all!
He is so good & I love Him. Thank you for your site, I am so excited to see more of it and continue to follow it regularly!
I had not heard about this book you are discussing, but I saw a blurp about this author G.R. would be on Oprah’s show. Years ago I use to watch Oprah quite often, but about 7-8 years ago I began to notice her “christianity” & belief in God had become VERY askewed! I heard some very scary comments from her and just could not support her anymore. I quit watching her, & instead I pray for her because I believe she use to have more biblical views, but it has become very apparent to have switched to a more “worldly/new age” religion. So anyway, even though I have not read the book or even know much about it, this discussion has showed me your strength in Jesus and the Bible. I really liked your comment to Sandi & the cake bit, it is such a great example of how important it is to be in God’s Word to discern against the rampant so called christian views these days. Really sad how up is down and down is up in our world, but God warns us of these days and prayer, reading His word & listening to the Holy Spirit will keep me right
God Bless you,
Valerie
Hi Valerie,
I am so glad that you found TBYT! Yes, this discussion about ‘Women Food and God’ was quite eye-opening for me! But you are right – as believers, we must stay in God’s word so can see for ourselves what it says. Unfortunately, there are many who just rely on what they heard in church, heard from tradition, or take as gospel truth what someone else says. But it’s like that game most of us played in school – someone whispers a phrase to the next person in line and by the time it is passed on to the last person in line, it bears no resemblance to what was originally said!
The bible says of God in Proverbs 22:21: “That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, That you may answer words of truth To those who send to you?” So I feed my mind with God’s word every day – even if it is just a scripture or two from biblegateway.com or listening to an audio teaching.
Like you said Valerie, you have to be able to discern truth from falsehood in a world in which ‘up is down’ ‘down is up’ and of course when ‘wrong is right’ and ‘right is wrong’! None of us are immune to that influence – no matter what position we hold in the church.
Thank you so much for your comments. They really encourage me. I love the Lord too and am so grateful to him for saving me.
What a wonderful response to the book. I pray that I can have your level of faith one day. God bless.
Thank you so much for your review. My son just gave me this book. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but when I read that it was featured on the Oprah’s show, red flags came up. I wanted to read reviews from the Christian perspective and thank God I found your website.
Keep up the good work and may God bless you.
I decided to watch Oprah today and heard the title of this book and got really excited. Until I heard Oprah and the author describing what “god” meant in the title. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach and felt the Holy Spirit tell me to turn off the t.v. I turned off the t.v. and got on line to do some more research on this book. I am so glad I found this review. I am saddened that she has so much power and exposure right now because although finding out why we over eat is very important she is only going to further damage women who are seeking and hurt.
I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit and will be praying for all the women who come across this book.
God Bless you for your wisdom and willingness to speak out on this.
I was looking for a review such as yours because I really would like to read the book. I am an English major and have been looking into the publishing word quite a bit. I continue to wonder if her publisher asked her to change the sentence to appeal to a worldly view of who God is. I was just talking to my boy friend after I realized that the most comfortable with myself I have been has been the times when my faith life was flourishing. When I am in a spiritual low that is when I struggle the most. In reading this book we just need to remember that in no matter what we read the ultimate goal is to stay strong with what we believe and for us is it the incredible love and comfort from Jesus. God calls us to love him and only him, for this we know. I believe there a message within this book in that we must really focus on what WE believe and live our lives according to that! That is the most important aspect to loving ourselves. God provides us with guidelines in which to love by but he also gives is free will so it is a true and honest yearning and love for him.
Thanks for your review and all that back you up and left comments!
God Bless
Stacy
Heard about the book “Women FOod and God” and saw your review and am thankful for the Christian and Biblical perspective.
I read some of the sample chapters of the book, and in the epilogue the author’s last line of the book is about we ourselves being divine, being God. That is disturbing, especially since I am a poor God for myself, and anyone else for that matter. Thank you for pointing us to God of the Bible!
Thank you Thank you Thank you. I wanted to purchase this book because I am a binge eater. I remembered seeing the author on Oprah and hearing the title and knew I had to have the book. Something to told me to google the title and Christian view and I came across your page. Your page has blessed me so much I shared it with a friend. Thank you once again.
Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. I appreciate you for sharing your thoughts. At first, I was hesitant to post this review but your comments encouraged me that it was the right thing to do. I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to share what he has been teaching me about health and overcoming emotional eating. God bless you all!
Kim