Shannon Costello

According to Ellyn Satter in Chapter 2 (”You and Your Eating”) of her book, Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family, good motivators for eating well are “optimism, pleasure, and self-trust”, while poor ones are “fear, control, and dreariness.” She feels that the emphasis on dietary guidelines falls too much on rules and on what should be avoided, taking all the pleasure out of eating. To be fair, she works with people that have serious eating issues (and I mean serious).

I read an article on Christian counseling not too long ago that suggested we spend way too much time on things like psychology for our answers and not enough time going to the Bible. How does one reflect Christ in one’s eating?

I agree that dreariness and slavish devotion to rules are not good motivators. But there is something to be said for self-control. And I don’t think there is much in the Bible about self-trust, or trusting in people at all. Some OT king was told he was relying on I think a king of Egypt- that splintered reed. That’s what I think of when I think of self-trust.

This is not to say there is nothing good in what she says. But I don’t think I’ll read much more of the book. I already get lots and lots of pleasure out of eating, or even thinking about it. I know it is ok to have chocolate and peanut-butter occasionally, but it is better for me not to be reminded very often that it is ok.