Taste & See: New programme gets to root of eating guilt
The lives of a lot of people in our churches are secretly ruled by food.
So says Professor Deborah Lycett of Taste & See, a unique blend of fact and faith helping to bring freedom to lives ruled by food, dieting and emotional eating.
‘Many of us feel guilty and ashamed whenever we eat or step on the scales,’ said Deborah (pictured below), who teaches in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences at Coventry University. ‘This unhappiness makes them want to eat more and they find themselves in an endless cycle of dieting, overeating and feeling miserable. But God wants to set them free! He wants them to taste and see that he is good and that food is good, too!’
Designed with and for churches and developed out of research at the university, Taste & See, exhibiting for the first time at CRE Midlands, is a 10-session audio-video, small-group programme that anyone can run!
‘The programme is not about dieting but learning to eat in response to our body’s natural signals of hunger and fullness, rather than in response to our emotions and what we see or smell!’ said Deborah. ‘The Christian principles of love, acceptance and freedom with responsibility fit well with this and are included in the programme.’
Scientific evidence suggests that for many people, diets are unsustainable in the long-term and yo-yo dieting is associated with a sense of failure which impacts on quality of life. Evidence also suggests that programmes which help us to become spiritually healthy, as well as physically and emotionally healthy, may play an important role in helping with eating or weight problems.
‘Lots of the evidence so far comes from America,’ said Deborah. ‘We want to find out whether this type of programme could potentially be helpful to people in the UK.
• Taste and See are on stand C14 at CRE Midlands
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