Jill Dubisch is a professor of anthropology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She has written about religious aspects of the health food movement in a journal about magic, witchcraft and the supernatural.

Marleen Williams is a clinical professor of counseling psychology at Brigham Young University, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints school in Provo, Utah. She specializes in women’s mental health and focuses her research on eating disorders, depression, trauma and spirituality in women. She says religious beliefs that see the body as a God-given gift […]

Stacey Kole Shetler is a former Miss Arizona USA (1998) who speaks to young people about how her relationship with Jesus Christ helped her battle an eating disorder. She says anorexia is not uncommon in Christian households because it is the “good girl’s syndrome.” It does not involve a taboo substance, such as alcohol or drugs, […]

Daniel Sack is a program officer at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest in Chicago and author of Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001).

Claire Cloninger is co-author of Faithfully Fit: A 40-Day Devotional Plan to End the Yo-Yo Lifestyle of Chronic Dieting (W Publishing, 1991). She lives in Baldwin County, Ala.

Julie Morris is the founder of the Step Forward Diet, a Christian weight loss program. She lives in Hoover, Ala.

John R. Ballew is a licensed professional counselor and writer at the website bodymindsoul.org, which focuses on spirituality and mental health for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. He lives in Atlanta. He says that too often religion makes it difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people to accept themselves — a situation that can […]

Dr. Don Colbert is a Christian nutritionist and dietitian who wrote What Would Jesus Eat?: The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great and Living Longer and The What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook (both from Thomas Nelson, 2002). He says that following a Mediterranean diet – full of the grains and vegetables known in Jesus’ time – can eliminate obesity. He […]

The Rev. George Malkmus is the founder of the Hallelujah Diet and Hallelujah Acres, a Shelby, N.C.-based Christian vegetarian and health ministry that promotes Bible-based diet and nutrition.