Some influential ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato, viewed the body as a prison for the soul. In order to attain true knowledge, they believed a person must detach themselves from the body and its physical concerns. Plato himself was ambivalent about the extent to which people must detach themselves from physical pleasure. However, his framing of the body as a problem influenced later thinkers — including the Stoics, the Gnostics and to an extent, St. Augustine of Hippo — to do the same. 

During the late Middle Ages, this conception of the body gave rise to self-starvation movements — sometimes referred to anorexia mirabilis — within the Catholic Church. In 1380, St. Catherine of Siena, a Catholic theologian and saint, died of self-starvation from extreme religious fasting. While overtly religious motives for disordered eating are not as common as they used to be, overly-moralized messages about bodies –– especially women’s bodies –– are pervasive in American culture and contribute to unhealthy attitudes about food and eating. 

In modern American culture, being thin, dieting and trying to lose weight are praised as signs of discipline. Not meeting standards in any of these categories is taken as a sign of laziness. For instance, fat people who use motorized shopping carts are often mocked in memes and in real life as lazy, ignoring the reality that many people need to use mobility aids for a variety of reasons. In addition to being straight-up cruel, this phenomenon links weight with moral character and motivation. 

The assumption that weight and eating habits directly reflect moral character contribute to fears of being fat or of gaining weight, a major factor in the development of eating disorders. However, these fears also negatively affect those without eating disorders. As a young high school student, I, along with many of my peers, struggled with anxiety over eating in public because I was afraid of being perceived as both unfeminine and self-indulgent for liking food. 

This points to the ethical problems with encouraging a rigidly moralized view of food. Historically, we have criticized people whose eating habits lead to harm to themselves or other people. Often, overconsumption of food is assumed to be the sole form of harmful attitudes about eating. However, viewing food as immoral, as discussed above, is harmful to those with eating disorders and food-related anxiety, and therefore should be reconsidered on the basis of human flourishing. 

Moreover, there is no real theological reason for this view of eating. Other than dietary restrictions in the Law, most scriptural references to eating are positive, such as food being used to show hospitality or as a metaphor for satisfaction and plenty. Eating and liking food is not a sign of moral weakness, as both some medieval saints and modern dieting ads would have you believe. Instead, everyone “should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all [their] labor — it is the gift of God,” Ecclesiastes 3:13 (KJV).