Why don't you ever see fat witches? It might have something to do with pagan diet spells, green candles, crystals, and waning moons.

Recent reports have pegged churches as breeding grounds for obesity, largely because of the large amounts of fatty foods often served at church social events.

Baptists and fundamentalist Protestants have been found to be the most likely to be obese, while Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jews and other non-Christians tended to have healthier weights. It's thought that because those religions put more of an emphasis on health (Adventists, for example, are vegetarian) their congregations tend to be healthier.

All this got CalorieLab Calorie Counter News writer Sarah White to wondering on this Halloween's eve: what about people with more unconventional beliefs? Is there, for example, a wiccan diet? Turns out, not too surprisingly, that there are people who have written about the preferred diet for wiccans, or, more accurately, pagans.

As paganism is normally associated with connection to nature and reverence of the earth, it makes sense that these would be the guiding principles in a wiccan or pagan diet. An archived website that was selling a book described the wiccan diet as a way to boost energy and think more clearly, as well as lose weight. The site does not offer any details and has since been closed.

The emphasis in a pagan or wiccan diet is acknowledging where food comes from. Some people eat meat, some do not, but all are mindful of the origin of their food and eating appropriately for the season. In a way eating is a spiritual practice and it's likely there are more vegetarians and vegans (or even just people who eat organic foods) among pagans than are in the general population, though a special diet is far from required.

But can eating a wiccan diet actually help you lose weight? Sarah says, "I'm sure if you went from eating a normal Western diet to an all organic or vegetarian diet, you would probably lose weight because of the decrease in sugar and processed foods in your diet"

But if diet isn't enough, you can cast a weight loss spell or take a weight loss bath to help you along. You can even get someone to cast a weight loss spell for you.

Before you start thinking that casting a little spell will make weight loss easy, you can check out the weight loss spell at the Pagan/Wiccan site at About.com. You'll need a green candle and a crystal, and should perform the ceremony outside during a waning moon, on a Saturday if possible. And you're supposed to carry the crystal around with you and take it out every time you sit down to eat something. This is to remind you to ask yourself if you really need to eat.

Also, because "the Goddess helps those who help themselves," the site recommends you eat sensibly and exercise while the spell is working.

CalorieLab president Mark Schrimsher observes, "This just sounds like a regular diet to me, except you've got to carry around a crystal all the time"

A version of this release with live web links to sources can be seen at:

calorielab.com/news/2006/10/30/faith-based-diet-wiccan-style/

CalorieLab, Inc., operates a diet and weight loss resource and information web site at calorielab.com, with a nutrition and obesity news blog at calorielab.com/news.