Article May 15, 1995 Issue

Hunger for health

Barbara Jean White

A public demand to know more about the content of food has resulted in a law in the United States intended to make nutrition information on food labels clearer to consumers. Numerous dietary studies seek to inform people about which foods are healthful and which, even among the old staples, are considered injurious. Specialists also offer various views on whether certain foods can help us to live longer.

What appears to be a hunger for information about food and health is, however, best fed by the truth of Christ Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall .... Is not the life more than meat ...?" (Matt. 6:25).

Was Jesus indifferent to people's need for food? No! He showed his compassion in many ways—including the feeding of a crowd of five thousand by multiplying what had been but a few loaves and fishes (see John 6:3–14). What, then, was his message in those comforting words from his sermon? Was he quieting anxious thought-taking, unduly focused on food as though it were the sustaining factor in man's life?

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