There’s no place we’d rather conclude our interview with Dave Kotter and Jeffrey Trimark than the hope of the gospel. Gentlemen, can you please tell us again how the gospel empowers us to eat for the glory of God?
As with all the efforts to please God, it is beyond our natural strength to always eat for the glory of God. Even the desire to please God or eat for the glory of God does not naturally occur in our hearts (Romans 3:21). More common is the desire to eat in the service of other “gods” or idols, such as gluttony, fitness, beauty or long life.
As believers, we are saved by the power of the gospel; our desires are transformed by the power of the gospel and we are empowered by the gospel to obey the will of God, even in the area of eating. Every action of our lives must flow from the gospel, and we eat three times a day. How do we bring the power of the gospel to bear on this aspect of our lives?
We must first understand the gospel thoroughly before we can apply it to what we eat. Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life and died on a cross to take the place of sinners in bearing the just wrath of God. This is the good news that in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself. As we are justified through the blood of Jesus, we are enabled for the first time to eat for the glory of Someone besides ourselves. As we are sanctified and are progressively made more like Jesus, the way we eat should change over time to bring more and more glory to God.
Thank you for this encouraging reminder! And thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us over these past two weeks. We have been blessed by your practical instruction and gospel encouragement.
As we conclude our interview we want to request that you, our readers, pray for David Kotter and Dr. Trimark as they finish writing Eat and Be Content. Please pray that God would bless them with wisdom and clarity as they write, and that their wives and children would continue to experience God’s grace during this project. Ultimately, may the fruit of this book be changed lives for the glory of God!
And please join us next week for our interview with Elyse Fitzpatrick. Friday Funnies coming your way before the day is out…
Dr. Trimark, while you believe that exercise is essential for a healthy lifestyle, it must not be done in isolation of good eating habits. Tell us a little more about why this is so important.
Doctors heartily encourage regular exercise for strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health. Proper perspective can help people pursue fitness without making exercise an alternate idol in life. Increasing medical evidence is leading physicians away from recommending intermittent sessions of high intensity exercise and instead recommending frequent walking, whether in the park, at work, or at home. Ideally, we should all strive to achieve 3 hours of continuous walking every week. For example, this would look like 45 minutes of walking at a brisk pace (4 miles each hour), 4 times per week. Additionally, we would encourage individuals to walk as much as possible throughout daily life—park farther away from the door and use the stairs as much as possible. Walking is inexpensive and risks few of the activity-associated injuries that are often seen in high intensity athletes.
While physical activity is good in its own right, many people overestimate the amount of calories consumed by a specific exercise and underestimate the value of making wise food choices. The energy consumed by regular exercise can be dwarfed by the energy easily eaten at a local restaurant. In order to expend the energy contained in a typical hamburger, fries and diet soda, an average person would need to walk about 10 miles at a brisk pace. Not choosing a diet soda would add an additional three miles to the journey. After walking such a distance, many people would be tempted to stop for a quick bite at a convenient fast food franchise. This illustrates that self-control in eating is much more important than drastically increasing exercise.
Daily decisions are also very important. A 12 ounce can of soda contains about 100 calories. The energy in one pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. In this light, drinking one can of soda a day with no corresponding increase in exercise would add about one pound of weight every month. A 20 ounce bottle of soda would add weight faster. On the other hand, an overweight person would expect a similar decline in weight following a simple switch from a habitual soda to a bottle of water each day. In other words, small decisions add up to considerable effects over time. Through our choices in eating, we can bring glory to God in a noteworthy way.
In summary, exercise should be for its own merits and weight reduction, if needed, should be accomplished by implementing godly eating habits.
Please join us tomorrow for the conclusion of our interview with Dr. Trimark and David Kotter.
Today we talk more with Dr. Trimark about how to apply the gospel and avoid idolatrous and foolish overeating. Dr. Trimark, you offer two simples “rules of thumb” for healthy eating. What are they?
The first rule of thumb is to not eat fewer than 30 grams of fiber each day. Why concentrate on this measure? Highly processed foods tend to be low in fiber while fruits, vegetables and whole grains are high in fiber. Eating enough fiber in a day naturally leads one to fill up first with healthier foods.
The second rule of thumb is to not eat more than enough grams of fat for your gender, height and frame size (for most people this is around 40 grams). For most people keeping track of fat grams is the simplest way to ensure that their energy intake is appropriate. Fat contains more energy per gram than any other components of food. A lot more energy: about twice as much as protein or carbohydrates and nine times more than fiber. This rule of thumb leads people to eat a satisfying amount of food, while consuming less energy. Dieticians call this lowering the “energy density,” and can be accomplished without the starvation feelings of a crash diet.
Tracking two numbers—fat grams and fiber grams—is sufficient to help people wisely avoid idolatrous or foolish behavior. The standards are easily remembered, and the information is readily available on certified government labels and in reliable Internet databases.
In our book we will help people to establish a maximum daily budget for fat grams based on their gender, height and weight. No matter how much weight needs to be gained or lost, eating the right amount of energy will lead over time to a “sanctified weight.” Nonetheless, the goal is not weight loss in isolation, but to eat in a way that glorifies God.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk with Dr. Trimark on the importance of exercise…
Under the umbrella of discontent, you identify two biblical categories of sinful eating. One is idolatry, which we discussed yesterday, and the other is foolishness. What does foolish eating look like and how can we avoid it?
Unfortunately, some Christians believe they are eating for God’s glory, but are foolishly unaware that they are overeating. In the Bible, foolishness is more than immaturity associated with youth. Biblical foolishness is morally wrong, just as the fool says in his heart, “There is no God,” (Psalm 14:1). In contrast, the sanctification of believers can be considered as a journey from foolishness to wisdom in all areas of life, including eating. One of our obligations as Christians is to have a biblically correct understanding of what we are eating so that we increasingly can make wise choices.
In addition, our wisdom must be informed by medically correct information. This does not mean we should be tossed about by every sensational diet headline or be slaves to a method of categorizing and counting every calorie we consume. Rather we should be familiar with the best medical evidence that is increasingly available. Understanding a few key principles is one of the responsibilities that we inherit along with the incredible abundance of food that we now enjoy.
You talk about the concept of a “sanctified weight.” What do you mean? Eat and Be Content will claim that a specific sanctified weight is given by God to every believer just like eye color or height. This is the weight that would result over time if a believer were to turn from sinful eating and make wise food and exercise choices. This weight can be medically estimated to within a few pounds based on gender, height, frame size and activity level. A specific amount of energy is required to maintain this sanctified weight, and this defines for each individual how much food is “just enough” (Proverbs 25:16). In our book we are able to give a more complete explanation of how to define what is eating “just enough” for the glory of God. We also provide believers with scientific but sensible ways to utilize these measures in daily life.
Idolatrous eating or gluttony can be defined as regularly and knowingly eating more food than is required to maintain this sanctified weight. Unknowingly eating beyond this requirement is defined as foolishness. Both are morally wrong and over time make believers overweight. Turning from these sins cannot be accomplished through sheer dint of will, embarking on the latest diet plan or following the latest eating guru. Fundamental changes in eating can only flow from the power of the gospel.
Please join us tomorrow for some practical advice from Dr. Trimark on how to maintain a “sanctified weight.”
This week we continue an interview with David Kotter and Dr. Jeffrey Trimark on the topic of eating for the glory of God. These two men are the authors of Eat and Be Content, which is due to be published by Crossway in 2008.
David, last week we learned about both the physical cause and the spiritual root of overeating. You described the sin of “discontent” as the primary culprit. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Thank you, Nicole. Yes, our book Eat and Be Content will help believers identify discontent in eating using two biblical categories: idolatry and foolishness. Idolatry in this context means turning to food to indulge lusts of the flesh rather than satisfy bodily hunger. Eating to comfort anxiety, relieve guilt, or gratify desires apart from God are ways of making an idol out of food. Alternatively, it is no more pleasing to God to remain thin by making an idol of physical fitness or personal attractiveness. Foolish eating goes beyond ignorance or immaturity and refers to the ethical transgressions ascribed to the fool of Proverbs. The blessing of an abundant variety of foods also carries a moral responsibility for understanding and eating “just enough” (Proverbs 25:16). Unlike other sins of the heart, discontent with food is a sin that has long lasting and cumulative physical effects like obesity, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.
Let’s talk about idolatry first. What is idolatry and how does it affect the way we eat?
Idols are more than the wood or metal statues condemned in the Old Testament. New Testament believers were exhorted to “Flee idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). Calvin referred to our hearts as “idol factories” always producing substitutes for the one true God. An idol can be anything, even a good thing that attracts our affections and attention away from the living God. By its very nature, food can make an especially attractive idol for comfort, encouragement and even greedy enjoyment. This can lead unsuspecting Christians to worship God’s good gift of food.
Idols expressed in eating include fear, greed, anger, self-pity, and many others. The scenarios are common. A person in the grip of anxiety mulls over a personal problem and automatically reaches for a bag of chips. Chip after chip provides a momentary relief from worry until the bag is empty. Rather than turning to God with anxious thoughts (Phil. 4:6), food becomes an idol of comfort replacing the living God. For another person, mint chocolate chip ice cream can deliver a temporary feeling of relief from guilt, and thus becomes an idolatrous substitute for the forgiving Savior. Even apart from anxiety and guilt, there are many other ways to make an idol of eating. Since idols are never satisfied, idolatrous eating draws people again and again to food. Sadly, this particular sin has a cumulative physical effect and unchecked will result in obesity.
On the other hand, idolatry can lead people to eat too much or too little. Some people successfully lose hundreds of pounds, only by turning to the alternative idol of health and attractiveness. In this case, rigorous dieting and strenuous exercise become a consuming focus of life, much like an idol. Fleeing from idolatry of any kind is one of the ways that Christians will eat and drink differently than nonbelievers, and one of the primary ways that we can glorify God as we eat. The gospel can break the power of this sin and enable people to eat for the glory of God.
More about eating for the glory of God as we continue our interview tomorrow…
While you believe it is important for people to understand the relationship between food and energy, you both take care to stress that there is a deeper problem here than simple thermodynamics…
Quite true. At its heart, overeating is not an issue of thermodynamics or economics but is primarily the result of a spiritual problem. Food is a gift from God to be enjoyed, but only with His purposes in mind. Paul exhorted believers, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” The Bible is a guide for eating to God’s glory and by design this is intended for our well-being. We are not restricted to specific foods only found in the book of Genesis or the clean animals of Leviticus. Rather, the Bible addresses the fundamental problem of sin in the human heart and its effect on how we eat.
Eat and Be Content will argue that obesity is primarily a symptom of the spiritual problem of discontentment, and therefore governmental, sociological, or economic solutions in isolation will necessarily fall short. Contentment results from either having all that is desired or not desiring all that could be obtained. Since food is required to survive, hungering and eating to contentment is part of the necessary rhythm of life. In the past, the primary challenge for most people was to obtain enough food to avoid famine and possibly even to satisfy hunger. Eating to excess was reserved for kings and the wealthy who could afford all the food they desired. Since then, dramatic improvements in agricultural technology have made an enticing variety of foods widely available. Rather than gnawing hunger, most people today face the spiritual problem of abundant food and unbounded desires. God’s original design is for people to enjoy and be sustained by food. The challenge is to understand how to limit desire in a way that is consistent with God’s good design. Like the apostle Paul, we must learn to eat and be content (Philippians 4:11, 12).
And the good news is that we can learn to eat and be content…
Yes, while people will never be content with the gift of food apart from the gospel, the simple truth that the death of Jesus Christ has broken the dominion of sin and accomplished reconciliation with a holy God for all those who believe. The power of the gospel brings salvation to believers, transforms desires through sanctification, and empowers obedience to the will of God even in the area of eating. Thus the only long-term solution to eating problems consists not of simply dieting and taking more exercise, but in repentance, fleeing temptation, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit for self-control, praying for wisdom, searching the scriptures for direction, and caring more for God’s glory than our own satisfaction in eating. Only by hungering for God Himself will we ever be able to eat and be content (1 Timothy 6:8).
Thank you David and Jeff for your helpful perspective on both the problem of overeating and it’s ultimate solution in the power of the gospel. We look forward to continuing this interview next week.
Welcome back for day three of our interview with David Kotter and Dr. Jeff Trimark…
Dr. Trimark, while over-eating is primarily a spiritual problem and thus has a biblical solution, what are the physical causes behind excess weight gain?
In its simplest sense, obesity can be understood as a thermodynamic problem. Food contains energy, and all the energy that is eaten is either burned by metabolic functions like exercise or is stored in fat cells in anticipation of future use. (A third option, discarding energy with laxatives or vomiting is clearly not part of a healthy solution.) Simple thermodynamics explains that as people exercise less and eat more, more energy is stored. Despite marketing claims to the contrary, we are sad to report that medical science has yet to discover any revolutionary herb, dietary supplement, miracle food, ancient remedy, pharmaceutical drug, or mechanical device that can change this simple principle of thermodynamics. In a direct way, obesity is caused by overeating and under-exercising.
Nevertheless, something unprecedented has happened in the past few decades to cause a broad change in eating and exercise. What is this? Why are we experiencing an “epidemic” of obesity all around the world for the first time in history?
The simple economics of supply and demand speak to these changes. Relentless advances in agricultural technology have greatly reduced the real cost of food and its energy content. For example, a 3 lb. frying chicken cost two hours of wages for the average laborer in 1920, but only 12 minutes of labor in 1970. This represents a 90% reduction in real prices, even though inflation has increased both nominal wages and prices over time. (While the number you see on the price tag, the nominal price, increases every year, wages have increased much faster over time. Even though it’s still hard to make ends meet because of the cost of food, it is dramatically easier than a hundred years ago because the real cost of food is lower.)
As the real price of food decreases, economists agree that more food and energy will be consumed. For example, supersizing a fast food meal costs only slightly more, but also can increase the caloric energy by as much as one third. As a result of trends like this, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that the poorest 20% of the people now have the highest rates of obesity. Instead of subsisting on the edge of starvation, for the first time in history the poorest people are among the heaviest.
Technological advances have also decreased the need for physical exertion to obtain food. At the turn of the last century, more than 80% of the workforce was employed in agriculture. For the vast majority, obtaining daily bread was a lot of work. They expended a lot of energy plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, transporting, grinding, kneading, baking, and finally slicing their bread. The energy in bread was generally equal to the effort of obtaining it, and therefore little was ever stored as fat. In contrast, it is not uncommon today for a restaurant to supply all the bread you can eat along with a meal. The bread is not served alone; butter, jam or honey can double or triple the energy at no extra charge.
The human body carefully stockpiles all of this extra energy for the future. The stockpiled energy remains in fat cells and weighs heavily both on the bathroom scale and the national statistics. Thank you, Dr. Trimark for this helpful explanation. Please join us tomorrow for the conclusion of week one of our interview.
Today we continue our interview with David Kotter and Dr. Jeff Trimark about their upcoming book, Eat and Be Content.
David, as you learned healthy eating habits from Dr. Trimark you also prepared a sermon on this topic, and you were somewhat surprised at what you discovered, correct?
Yes, that’s true. Preparing that sermon over the next several weeks showed me a whole new spiritual side to eating. I learned for the first time that Proverbs discussed food in many verses, and that these were consistent with the rest of the Bible’s considerable material on eating. Although I hadn’t noticed before, God seemed to care a lot about what and how I ate.
Not only did I learn a lot in preparation, the sermon struck a chord with many people in the congregation. The response showed that I was not the only one who was interested in what God had to say about eating. I also discovered people who felt condemned and dominated by sin in this area of their life. Many people seemed to struggle because they did not understand the spiritual implications of eating.
It was clear that the Bible didn’t provide a menu for every day, or restrict people to only foods mentioned in the Bible for health. Nor was there a requirement for believers to be a certain size, shape or weight. But the Bible did speak to the heart of the issue. The focus was not on food but on the act of eating. Eating for ungodly reasons, such as reducing anxiety or masking feelings of guilt, is really a form of idolatry in the heart. I learned that overeating was a moral problem. Believers were exhorted to eat for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Only through the gospel can believers hope to eat this way. Only the gospel empowers believers to overcome these sins and gain discerning wisdom. All other diet plans and good intentions by themselves were bound to fail.
Tomorrow we’ll get a medical perspective on the effects of overeating from Dr. Trimark…
To kick off our foodtalk series, we are pleased to welcome David Kotter and Dr. Jeffrey Trimark, authors of the forthcoming book, Eat and Be Content. First, let me introduce them to you:
Dr. Jeff Trimark is the President of the Medical Staff of the United Hospital System in Kenosha, Wisconsin. For five years Jeff has served as an elder on the leadership team of CrossWay Community Church.
Together, Jeff and David have developed and taught the workshop “Eat and Be Content” over the last three years. (Download this extended bio to learn more about their background and qualifications.)
Thank you both for being our guests here at girltalk and thank you for being willing to share with our readers the combined insight God has given you about eating to the glory of God.
Because you are a pastor and a medical doctor respectively, your book offers a unique perspective. There is humble, caring, and straight-shooting counsel that is rooted in God’s Word. But you also provide sensible advice for healthy eating that is based on sound medical research. We know our readers will greatly benefit from your book—which is due out by the end of 2008.
To begin with, David Kotter, can you give us a short summary of what your book is about, and also what it is not?
Thank you, Nicole. We are glad to have this opportunity to speak with the girltalk readers. First of all, let me clarify that Eat and Be Content is not a diet book. This book is not about the stomach, but the human heart—not the cardiac muscle, but the biblical seat of the mind, will and emotions. It is not about losing weight in a Christian way, but about understanding eating as a moral act and learning to eat for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). The ultimate goal is not to be trim and attractive but to be content with the good gift of food, grow in sanctification, and increasingly hunger for God Himself. The purpose of Eat and Be Content is to enable Christians to turn from sinful to godly eating through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. David, the genesis of this book began, as you say, “with a gripping headline from a local paper.” Tell us about it:
Yes, I picked up the morning newspaper one day and the headlines stated that the rates of obesity in the country were at unhealthy and unprecedented levels. But that was not all; a chart showed that the state where I lived was above the national average. Specifically the chart revealed my county was above the state average. Slowly my brain assimilated the information: I was living in one of the heaviest communities of one of the heaviest states ever in the history of man.
My own bathroom scale mechanically declared the rest of the story: I was heavier than I had ever been in my life. Heavier than I wanted to be. Both the national and personal realities vaguely bothered me in the back of my mind, but never enough to make any significant changes. I tried to ignore these annoying thoughts. Even if I had wanted to make a change, I didn’t really know what to do. I ate and exercised just about the same as everyone else I knew. Yet every year I gained weight, and apparently from the newspaper, so did just about everyone else.
Soon after that, you had breakfast with your good friend, and medical doctor, Jeff Trimark. What happened at that breakfast?
As I settled in to talk, I ordered “the usual”: eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns. But God had something unusual in mind for us: Jeff asked to substitute Canadian bacon for the regular bacon in his breakfast. I don’t normally analyze what people order, but this was different and for some reason it stuck in my brain. To me, bacon was bacon, sausage was sausage, and I always ordered what looked good and was affordable. In fact, bigger was often better, by my reckoning.
When the steaming food, arrived I asked about the substitution. Jeff answered that Canadian bacon tasted just as good to him, but had several fewer grams of saturated fat per slice. I glanced down and realized that I really had no idea what was on my plate. It was affordable (it was a daily special), and it would taste good (I had eaten that breakfast many times before), but in four decades of life I had never stopped to seriously consider the nutritional content of anything that I ate.
Over the next several months, under Dr. Trimark’s patient tutelage, I realized how many foolish choices I had been making at mealtimes, and that it was no surprise that I was heavier than ever. I also learned that I did not need to hire a professional dietician, carry a little scale around to weigh out meager portions of food, or track the latest medical research trumpeted in headlines and echoed in advertisements. Just a few simple “rules of thumb” based on well-established medical research could guide a typical guy like me through a typical day. I was actually enjoying eating more.
That’s a great place to stop…tomorrow we’ll pick up with more of our interview with David Kotter and Dr. Jeffrey Trimark.
Thank you for this encouraging reminder! And thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us over these past two weeks. We have been blessed by your practical instruction and gospel encouragement. 
As we conclude our interview we want to request that you, our readers, pray for David Kotter and Dr. Trimark as they finish writing Eat and Be Content. Please pray that God would bless them with wisdom and clarity as they write, and that their wives and children would continue to experience God’s grace during this project. Ultimately, may the fruit of this book be changed lives for the glory of God! 
