FoodTalk with Kotter and Trimark, Day 8

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.