Book review: Why Diets Don't Work....food is not the problem

Why Diets Don't Work

Joyce Tilney
Voice of Grace and Truth
125 pp.
Christian Living

  I appreciated the vision behind this simple book; so often food is not our problem. Idolization is! Oftentimes food has a hold on us because it gives us comfort. Instead of turning to the true Comforter, we idolize temporal things. It sounds harsh, but if we are held captive by anything, and can not go without it for very long, then we are definitely idolizing it! (of course I am not speaking of crucial foods that may necessarily comprise part of your specialized, meager diet!)

   I know, because it took me years of fighting against the knowledge that sugar and such were bad for me...it was only a couple of years ago that I finally gave my body to the Lord and since then it has been almost too easy to avoid the foods that would damage the body God has given me to use for His glory! Of course, even in a healthy living diet, there are addictions! Once I found myself deriving comfort from nuts, another time it was cream, another time sourdough bread with butter! (and I'm not against delighting in the delicious flavours God has blessed us with....that I know how to do, and I agree that there are times for feasting, times for comforting fellowship meals and such....but I know when I get hooked on something. And that is the time to let go for a little while. :)) 

As for this book, I do wish the author could have impressed the reader with more ideas of healthy living eating styles...but I don't think she and I are on the exact same page eating-wise, and besides, her goal wasn't to give the reader another diet to follow.

This is not another diet plan, it is a battle plan! There is an epidemic in America today and it is obesity. How do we stop this? When we see the truth from God’s Word. Food is not the problem. Like Eve we have been given a free will to make choices for ourselves. After spending years in the struggle of weight issue, this book shares how Joyce overcame the shame and anger of the battle of the bulge. There is a power greater than your taste buds! You don’t have to be held captive in your body. Why Diet’s Don’t work goes to the core of the problem.