5 Ways to Recognize a Deceptive Food (Bible Warning)

Our grocery stores are filled with deceptive foods – processed foods that appear nourishing to our bodies but are not.

Instead, these foods hijack our brain’s reward and calming systems (Dopamine, Serotonin, Beta Endorphin primarily) and we become addicted to them.

Many believers in Christ are struggling with emotional eating too. To overcome, it is important that we consider the warning in this scripture:

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; …Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food (Proverbs 23:1-3).”

Considering what we eat carefully applies to us because we control what we eat and our food choices effect our ability to exercise self control.

The Hidden Danger of Deceptive Food

Deceptive foods interfere with our ability to eat with self-control. Self-control is a fruit of God’s spirit.

One additional fact complicates the issue: Some people who are suffering from emotional issues actually want food to hijack them!

To quote an old commercial, it is their “Calgon, take me away!” substance. Food becomes their escape from emotional pain.

As a result, part of them wants to continue eating deceptive foods, even though the overeating they cause is ruining their health and quality of life.

I know this issue well. Deceptive foods hijacked my life for over 20 years!

But Proverbs 4:23 says,

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”

God showed me that my heart issue needed addressing first. If I did not allow God to heal the emotional issues in my life, I would always be tempted to run back to deceptive foods as a means of escape.

The enemy could continue to deceive me in thinking:

•  I can’t live without certain foods in my life
• I’ll die if I don’t have certain foods
• I can’t handle it if I don’t eat a particular food

The primary method the enemy uses to control God’s people is fear. Just like with Eve, the first woman, he uses the “fear of missing out” to keep you in bondage.

He had her focus on the one tree that would hurt her versus the hundreds, maybe thousands of trees that would help her.

His strategy is the same; he uses whatever means necessary to take God’s people out of their purpose. He doesn’t want us fulfilling the Great Commission.

But we have the power to stop this.

1 Corinthians 6:12 says,

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

While we can eat anything, we shouldn’t eat everything. Each of us is unique.

It is wise to focus on the foods that are truthful with us rather than deceive us: Helpful foods look good, taste good, and help us to feel good so that we can go out and do good works with energy and vitality.

We were created to do good works to glorify God!

How to Identify Deceptive Food

Here are 5 tips to identify deceptive foods that have hijacked your brain. By the way, I can write about this because I fell for every single one of these deceptions:

1.After you eat it, your mind becomes obsessed with it. It tasted good, but now your thoughts keep drifting back to where that food is. You keep thinking about when you are going to eat it again.

2. You have difficulty controlling the amount you eat of it. You aren’t satisfied with one serving; you must have several in one sitting. You may tell yourself that you are only going to have a little, but you find yourself eating a lot and are unable to stop.

3. You fear giving it up. Feelings of deprivation are just fear in disguise. Here is an easy way to tell if a food has hijacked your brain:

Imagine yourself never buying that food again. What feelings come up? If you don’t have an emotional attachment to it, then you are fine. But if you feel a sense of loss and can’t imagine life without that food, it has likely hijacked your brain.

4. You say that you are buying the food for others, but you are the one who eats it. You may have feelings of guilt buying the food, so you tell yourself that you are buying it for the kids, for your spouse, or for guests who happen to stop by. But the truth is that you are buying it for yourself because you are the one who eats most of it.

5. You got the food from the center aisles of the grocery store, in the freezer case, at the cash register, the convenience store, or at the fast food restaurant. While not every deceptive food lives in these areas, most of them do.  

In summary, each of us must decide how we are going to show up for life. Do we really want to live our whole lives in a brain fog, and miss the abundant opportunities the Lord gives us to experience daily peace and joy?

I hope starting today, you decide to take back your Spiritual strength, physical energy and emotional stability!

Be Blessed with Health, Healing, and Wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor

Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple Weight Loss Community

P.S. Do you struggle with overeating sugar? If so, you are not alone!

Overcoming sugar addiction was a key factor on my weight loss journey; I lost 85 pounds and dropped from a size 22 to an 8.

In our 14-day Sugar Detox Challenge online course (inside the Take Back Your Temple Community), you’ll get the same success strategies and support to gain peace in your eating habits and achieve lasting weight loss.

Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple Christian Weight Loss Community.