Nutritional Quantity

Nutrition Matters

How we eat is the foundation of our physical health. More important than exercise or genetics, our diets largely determine the quality of our well-being. Unfortunately, nutrition has become as divisive and political a subject as anything else. My intention is not to steer anyone towards a particular diet but to point out the foundations of healthy eating, match those to an individual’s needs, and then show how the same ideas carry over to our spiritual well-being. 

There is no shortage of diets or approaches to eating. Most of what we consider fad diets have been around for quite some time and have gained new life with the rise of the internet and social media. Others are repackaged and given new names to make them seem innovative. 

With all the noise and competing opinions, it can be hard to determine what qualifies as healthy eating. Eating healthy does not need to be confusing or dramatic. Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables of as many colors as possible. Eat lean protein and complex carbohydrates more often than fatty meats or simple carbs. Minimize drinking empty calories and highly caloric and nutritionally poor foods like sweets or ice cream. Drink alcohol and caffeine in moderation. Move daily.

That is all. There are no hard and fast rules regarding what foods to include. There is a great deal of flexibility and latitude about what it means to eat healthily. This can be personalized to any individual’s tastes, preferences, and needs. 

Several factors influence a person’s daily nutritional needs. Age, gender, occupation, family history, faith, race, and ethnicity play a part in the person’s goals and reasons for eating a certain way. Each of these needs to be considered, making it impossible to prescribe a cookie-cutter approach to healthy eating. 

On top of the unique aspects of each individual genetically are the specific demands of the person’s lifestyle. How active or sedentary is their occupation? How often do they exercise, and at what intensity? What are their fitness goals? Are they more interested in gaining strength, building endurance, or combining the two? 

A good coach will consider all this information before developing any nutrition program. Attempting to program a person’s diet without considering all their individual needs and goals is like putting together a puzzle without the end picture. 

Once all the data has been collected and goals are written down, two main components go into building an individual program. Quality and quantity. How much food, or energy, does a person need to function, and what can be done to make that as high a quality as possible? Two thousand calories from ice cream will not help the body the same as 2000 calories from lean protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. 

There are two main ideas to consider when considering nutrition and healthy food choices. Quality and quantity. Let’s look at these individually, focusing here on food quantity. 

Quantity

Eating the right amount of food is just as important as a high-quality diet. Our bodies need the proper nutrition in the right amounts to be healthy. Finding the right balance of nutrients and a good amount of total calories is the key to long-term health.

Finding the right amount of food doesn’t need to be complicated. There are a lot of resources online that can help you get started by inputting some basic info and desired outcomes. These are a great place to start, but you will have to evaluate for the first few weeks to ensure you are getting enough energy to fuel you without overeating.

The two extremes on either side of the target are malnutrition and gluttony. Malnutrition is the lack of proper nutrition. This condition is most common in areas with limited access to food. However, we can cause malnutrition with restrictive diets or disordered eating. Regardless of the cause, the consistent problem is denying our body what it needs to function correctly. Malnutrition manifests itself in starvation, extreme weight loss, and in some cases, death. 

Gluttony is on the other side of the spectrum. Whereas malnutrition has to do with limited access, gluttony is the overconsumption of energy. Food at its most basic level is measured in calories, a unit of energy. The more energy we use during the day, either through exercise or our typical activity, the higher our energy need will be. When we regularly consume more energy than we burn, our bodies store that energy in the form of fat because it is the most efficient and dense way to do so. When this becomes a regular habit, we see gluttony produce obesity, weight-related health issues, and in some cases, death. 

Spiritual Nutrition

Spiritually our diet matters as well. Just like what we eat is broken down into the two categories of quality and quantity, what we consume for our soul can be thought of the same way. We can talk about the quality of our diet another time, but for now, we will focus on quantity. 

Spiritual Quantity

I don’t have a good answer for how much time we need to spend reading the Bible or in activities such as studying or meditation. I think that changes with the seasons of life we are in and the moment’s needs. Sometimes, God asks us to do something difficult, and we need to intentionally lean into his word and promises to keep us from being knocked off track. Other times, we can relax a bit more and reflect on what He has taught us in the past or use our mental energy elsewhere. Before that gets taken out of context, I want to say a couple of things. 

Most of our lives will be spent balancing the extremes of malnutrition and gluttony. We tend to lean in one of the two directions and must recognize that and adjust accordingly. 

Malnutrition

The two extremes of gluttony and malnutrition can play out in a spiritual sense. Malnutrition occurs when we deprive the body of what it needs to function and operate. We need a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients to be healthy. Protein helps rebuild muscle, is the primary building block in our body, and supports our immune system. Fats are needed for hormone production, and carbohydrates provide our bodies with immediate energy. Fiber is also a byproduct typically found in carbs and aids digestion and keeps everything moving. 

This is, of course, an oversimplified example. If you want to read more, I suggest the article below in the footnotes. We can not rely on simply one food or group to give us all we need. Spiritually this can occur if we disconnect from the community and attempt to live like a disciple on our own. We can cut ourselves off from Jesus and make ourselves the branch, not the vine.

Spiritual starvation can also occur if we attempt to live the life of faith without having any source of provision. We risk suffering adverse side effects when we neglect the daily disciplines of hearing from God, prayer, meditation, worship, fellowship, confession, study, and celebration.

Gluttony

Gluttony is overconsumption. Physically it means we are taking in more calories than our body requires. Because our body wants to be as efficient as possible, these extra calories are stored as fat, and we gain weight. 

Carrying extra weight makes life more difficult. Obesity is related to many health risks and diseases and negatively impacts people’s quality of life. 

Spiritual gluttony occurs when we consume information without applying it to our lives. Reading books on prayer is much easier than praying. Reading about evangelism or church planting is far easier than doing the work of getting to know our neighbors or being involved in our communities. 

Like consuming calories without burning them, we can gain information or knowledge without applying what we are learning. 

First, I firmly believe there is a time to research and prepare for what God is asking us to do. Rushing into action or being busy is not the same as being obedient. Sometimes, God wants us to wait and spend time listening to him. For some people, this is easy; for others who are more driven to produce or do, this can be a real challenge. 

The preparation time needs to be deliberate and focused, just like when we decide to act. Listening or doing this can be done with a sense of eager anticipation and a readiness to respond. We hear in faith, trusting that God will speak and direct us. We respond in faith, believing that God is leading us and that we don’t have to be perfect or have everything figured out before taking our first step. Faith often requires us to act before we are ready or feel comfortable. 

Far too many people faithfully attend church on Sundays but live just like everyone else during the week. Their culture has drowned their leaders and the voice of God. Either we live in fear of failure and pretend that more time in preparation will solve it, or we fear the consequences of faithfully doing whatever God is saying. Either way, we procrastinate and continue consuming without exercising our faith.

Too Much Bible Study?

Is it possible then to study or spend too much time in prayer? I believe it is. We can use spiritual activities to mask our fear or doubts. We will never know everything we want to know. 

James tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. It is possible to go through the motions of bible study, prayer, and even fasting without faith. We can do these things because we want to appear a certain way or impress people. We can study the Bible in an attempt to gain knowledge or wisdom without ever considering how we will apply it. 

We need to be informed by scripture to follow Jesus and live well. We must pray to hear from God and express our souls to him in conversation. We need to fast to gain control over our appetites and learn to be satisfied in God alone and not what he gives us. All of these are necessary disciplines, but they are empty without faith. The Pharisees did all these and were attacked more than any other group by Jesus for their open religion. 

How Are We Changing?

The point of these activities is in Jesus’s response to a pharisee who questioned him about the greatest commandment. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. 

Does your time in study and prayer stir your affection for God? Does it cause you to love Jesus more than before? Does this love of God cause you to have more compassion and love for your neighbor? How has your life changed due to your disciplines expanding your faith and pushing you out of your comfort zone?

Going back to the reference from James, I believe that our faith should mark our lives. It can be easy to fall into the rhythm of the culture and live just like everyone else and then tack on Jesus at the end. We can go to work, raise our kids, stay busy and then go to church on Sundays and assume that we live by faith. 

In reality, we are living just like everyone else, practically no matter how much we may believe or say we’re different. Faith has to be practiced to have value. There should be a few areas in our lives that are impossible to explain apart from Jesus. If our time in bible study isn’t leading us in that direction, we may as well be watching a documentary on Netflix. It’s interesting, and we are learning some cool stuff, but it’s not impactful enough to reorder our lives. 

What’s the Point?

Our time in study and learning should push us to grow in the love of God. Not the lesson we are learning or the feeling of pride that accompanies a new revelation from the Holy Spirit, but to grow in the love of God. 

As we love God more, our vision of the world is reshaped, and we begin to see through his eyes. We view our families, jobs, and community more similar to the way God sees them. 

This new perspective allows us to love our neighbor more authentically and honestly. We love others because we see them as men and women created by God and made in his image. The new outlook shapes how we treat others and makes us more like Jesus.  

This is the point of our nutrition. What we eat spiritually needs to fuel us properly to take action and to grow into the image of Jesus. 

So How Much Do We Need?

First, I am hesitant to make any amount of time the hard and fast rule of what it means to seek after God or follow Jesus well sincerely. That will profit nobody and will only lead to judgment and legalism.

Secondly, all truth belongs to God, who speaks to us in various ways. The most successful and intimate relationship with God will not be the one in which an individual has to spend endless hours locked away reading the Bible to feel close to God or hear from Him. The best relationship will be when we hear from God and see him at work in the everyday mundane occurrences of daily life. Cooking, cleaning, gardening, exercising, and drinking coffee with friends are all opportunities for God to work and communicate with us. 

Hearing from God ceases to be something we do and becomes a part of who we are. The reality of God’s presence becomes as natural to us as the air we breathe and the food we eat. As long as we try to “eat healthier” to become a specific type of person or look a certain way, it will always be a challenge. When our identity shifts and we begin to see ourselves as the type of person who eats healthy or exercises, those actions are internalized, and the habits are easier to maintain. 

Spiritually our lives need to take on this added dimension. We can not live off of someone else’s experience or second-hand information. Our goal can not be to live someone else’s faith.

We eat roughly twenty-one meals during the week. Why do we expect to live well spiritually when we only hear from God once or twice? It makes no sense. Most of us live in a spiritually fasted state and wonder why we don’t have the energy or strength to do what God is asking. 

We have to eat well. Jesus models this for us in how he lived. Jesus feasted on God’s presence during his life. At 12, he stays behind in Jerusalem so he can be about his father’s business. Maybe he should give Mary a heads-up next time, but the issue was evident to him.

Jesus sits at the well to meet with the Samaritan woman and tells his disciples that doing God’s will sustains him. Jesus’s life reveals the ongoing conversation between him and God, just as real and audible as between him and the disciples. 

Our spiritual diets need balance. We need to hear from God and spend time with him to avoid suffering malnutrition. We must practice our faith and actively cooperate with God to prevent obesity. The solution to both is found by enjoying the same intimate, ongoing conversation that Jesus had with the Father. He is sufficient to provide us with all we need and lead us exactly where we need to go.