I have several friends that are utilizing the popular new diet based on the pregnancy hormone hCG. hCG is a hormone created only during pregnancy and is probably the cause of morning sickness; home pregnancy tests detect hCG. But recently another use for hCG has been "found"--weight loss. The FDA and nearly all doctors are very worried about the diet, but many people are unswayed. The idea is that by injecting hCG daily, the person is so full (read nauseous) that they don't mind eating the 500 calorie diet that is recommended by the proponents of the diet (a very unhealthy calorie restriction). You have to inject it; eating it wouldn't work as your body would digest it. Some have tried to sell a bottle of hCG as a liquid that you can put under the tongue...if you believe that works, I have some snake oil to sell you.
Why would thousands of people go against all medical advice, trust random people to sell them a fraudulent compound and then inject it under their skin all the while starving themselves? It almost sounds like worship. Dieting as worship…what??? What is worship? Worship is being fully devoted to something, even to the point of sacrificing other things in life for the “god.” If I worship a small stone statue, a so-called idol, then I devote extra time, money and influence to the idol with the hope that it will help me in some way. If I worship the Kansas City Chiefs, I wear red every Sunday (sacrificing my sense of style), spend time watching the games (sacrificing my time, rest and family), and do it all with the hope that the Chiefs will provide me with joy in a win or a Super Bowl victory (hey, some god’s require more faith than others). The devotional level of the worshiper is seen in how much they sacrifice to worship the idol-god.
Some people worship their image, or their health, or the status that a thin frame helps them achieve. Some people are so devoted to this “god” that they will sacrifice their health (using a diet that doctors consider bad for their overall health and injecting an unknown substance into their body) and their money (the cost of the hCG) just to get the possible joy from a thinner frame. The hCG diet is just a way to worship some false God.
Is there any hope? Only Jesus can give hope in this or any situation. Only by seeing the true joy offered in Jesus can someone seduced by something like body image see the hallow hope that this false god offers. Jesus, the God-man, left the glory of heaven to come and die in the place of losers like us. We deserved the punishment of death from a just God and Jesus died in our stead. For those that hope in him, he adopts them into his family, sharing his inheritance as the Son of God with common sinners. No matter what our god may have been, whether a body image or a career, Jesus rides into our life like a conquering hero. He destroys the power of the idol by providing for us true status (co-heirs of the Son of God, adopted into his family, no matter how fat or thin we are), true joy (eternal life with God, where all things are made right, no matter how much joy the world things we should have), and a perfect image (all of our sins and uncleanness washed in the blood of Jesus, no matter how sinful or unclean we are). Only he is worthy of worship and sacrifice.
The hCG diet is not hope. Even if my friends get down to the weight they were in high school, they will soon realize the real poverty of any god except Jesus. Nothing else can really give us the hope that people are seeking in fad diets. Only Jesus brings real hope.
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