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).

Gillian Feeley-Harnik is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has written about religion and food and the role food played in early Judaism and Christianity.

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.

Mary Louise Bringle is chair of the humanities division of Brevard College in Brevard, N.C. She wrote of her eating disorder in “Confessions of a Glutton” in the Oct. 25, 1989, issue of The Christian Century.