[Magdalen] Heather Cook

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Roger Stokes

>I would have thought that Christian charity and humility meant not making a big 
>thing about your dietary restrictions, and certainly not imposing them on 
>others.  Yes, provide attractive alternatives that meet those requirements but 
>don't require all people to have them.  The decaffeinated coffee imposed in 
>that way would also stop me going to coffee hour.

We have pretty much eliminated smoking in our churches -- I remember both vestry 
and coffee hours rife with smoke once upon a time.

The CDC estimates about 16.8 million Americans suffer from some level of Alcohol 
Use Disorder (AUD), and there are about 88,000 deaths each year as a result. 
OTOH, there are more than 29 million with diabetes with more than 69,000 deaths 
per year. And 78 million Americans suffer from obesity with about 300,000 deaths 
per year.

Alcoholism appears to be relatively small potatoes in the overall scheme of 
things, and it's pretty clear that it relates to Type 2 Diabetes and Diabetes 
relates to obesity -- so there's some overlap in the figures.

But all this points to a variety of bad things we do to ourselves, and maybe the 
church has a role in dealing with all of it, just as dealt with smoking and its 
480,000 deaths per year.

Cheers,
Jim