Pew Potatoes

A few weeks ago there was a report of a longitudinal study showing that young adults who attend church regularly have a 50%-above-normal chance of becoming obese by middle age. What better occasion, I thought, for me to return to the world of active bloggerdom? Well, here I am at last.

One of these days I’m going to learn to stop procrastinating.

But back to the story. I’ve found several bloggers and dead-tree columnists mentioning the report when it came out; the most common explanation suggested was all the eating done at church get-togethers. But hey, young people eat a lot even in secular contexts. I wonder what factors exactly the study controlled for – geography, race, socio-economic status?  It occurs to me that the Southern U.S. is well known for elevated rates of both religiosity and unhealthy eating habits; does this covariance tilt the sample?

And it is also well known that young adulthood is the period when church attendance is at its lowest. Was there any attempt to distinguish those who follow the common pattern of avoiding church in their twenties and taking it up again later? As the reports mention, other studies have shown that religion is good for health and longevity, and the reasons usually given for this all have to do with the social support that church life provides; perhaps the reverse applies to young people: 20-somethings who go to church may be more introverted, less socially connected, and if they were hanging out with their secular-minded friends instead they’d be burning more calories on things like sports and sex.

And yes I thought of this before I saw the cute Onion story about exercise and drunkenness…