The latest statistics are out and Mexico is the number one nation for obesity in the world. The USA is second. The change, the newscaster pointed out, was that Mexico’s economy was up.

There is an underlying question though that has plagued me since this statistic came out and that is:

How do we overcome the poverty mindset?

While obesity is often seen as overindulgence, and it is on the surface, it’s sometimes about a sense of lack. Not always, there are some who have health issues but mindset is our topic today. We supersize meals because more is better, we eat from the .99 cent menu because it’s such a deal. Never mind that the food is bad for you, it’s cheap and we can load up, but it’s way too much food.

When I’d come home from the grocery store and the kids would see the cereal boxes. Lauren would grab a bowl of cereal because if not, Charles would consume the whole box and she’d miss out on tasting it. It didn’t matter if she was hungry or not, nor did it matter to Charles that other people may enjoy a bite. They were children and had to be taught to prefer others and that there would be more.

Once we had a fruit giveaway at the store. A local produce vendor had a whole vegetable stand of produce that needed to go and donated it to us. People arrived on the scene and formed a line. We told everyone, one bag per person. This one lady was irate! She wanted four bags. I told her that we had to share because there were many of us. She was livid and yelling at me about her son being in the war. My sarcastic self wanted to answer but instead I told her that the fruit was ripe and that there was really no way she could eat it all before it went bad. None of that mattered, she wanted four bags. She believed I was robbing her of something she was entitled to.

Then there were those in the line who truly lacked but didn’t think from a mindset of lack, “May I take two of these? They are so expensive in the grocery store and I haven’t bought any. You see, my husband has been out of work.” “Ma’am, you may take a bag full of whatever you’d like”, I replied. “Oh no! We couldn’t possibly eat them and I’d hate to waste.” She went about picking one or two of each type of produce.

Poverty mindset. The mindset of never enough. The mindset of lack. The mindset that someone is getting more than me. Can you see the difference?

“Eating healthy is expensive”, is the cry I hear from so many. Really? How much are you worth? How much does it cost to treat a heart attack, diabetes, joint pain, weight reduction surgeries?

Then there is the question of what obesity does to your self esteem. When you go into a fitting room and nothing fits and you come out feeling depressed and defeated? How much does that cost in terms of self worth?

A poverty mindset believes there is not going to be enough, so rather than share, they are going to take. In the mind of poverty, it is an honor to be able to afford to buy 16 hamburgers at .99 cents, so let’s splurge! In a poverty mindset they are continually reminding themselves of what things costs, never valuing quality. It’s gluttony yes, but often it comes from a poverty mindset.

I wish that we could get a revelation of who and whose we are. We are children of a King with whom there is no lack other that what you can’t visualize. Then we’d leave behind the consumer mentality and all of the issues that go along with that and we’d come to realize that health would follow as a natural progression. Health. Body, Mind, and Spirit.

Let’s pray for North America!