I (Jamey) am struck by the incredible proliferation of food prohibitions that I have been bombarded with recently. I see pronouncements regarding the "unclean" nature of foods that spans the spectrum from simple sugars, to more complex food-stuffs like grains, meats and fats.
Pretty much anything we can stick in our gob has been labelled off-limits by some documentary or website.
Now, I could spend (waste??) countless hours trying to refute or debate the wide variety of claims that I hear or read about, literally every day, in both my professional and personal life.
However, in an effort to remain focused and keep this relatively short, I am going to briefly explore this topic from what I believe is by far the most important perspective, namely a Biblical one.
I do recognize this is very much a hot button issue for many, and please believe me that it is not my intent to offend anyone or belittle anyone's dietary choices. We all have different tastes and preferences and it is certainly true that different people have a range of tolerance for various foods, as well as for many other environmental exposures in this world (pollen, bees, etc). What I am expressing here is not a commentary about those specific circumstances.
I operate under the assumption that all who proclaim to be followers of Christ would agree that we should endeavor to think in a way that is honoring to God.
This thinking should not be limited to simply what are typically considered "church" related activities. Instead, it is absolutely critical that a Christian develop the practice of viewing ALL things, and all movements, through the lens of scripture.
In short we should endeavor to develop a comprehensive biblical worldview. This must apply to every aspect of our daily living.
In considering this topic, several verses are instructive in building our food choices on a biblical foundation (the highlights are mine):
Genesis 9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
Acts 10:9-15 Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Romans 14:2,3 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Timothy 4:1-4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
My purpose behind quoting these verses is not to try and characterize some as "weak" or "demonic" but more simply highlight the fact that all things are permissible in God's sight. More than that, His entire creation is good!
If all of us were meant to fully abstain for purposes of health and godliness from certain foods, this would certainly be more clearly stated in God's word, would it not?
A biblical worldview does not support the wholesale rejection of entire food groups in the lives of individual Christians. The Bible certainly calls us to moderation in all things, and this includes our foods, in addition to numerous other excesses we are prone to. That said, there is not a blanket prohibition in the Bible that keep us from enjoying the bountiful diversity within God's creation.
So many of the documentaries and articles I have seen develop what is known as a "straw man" argument and then go on to paint our options as the choice between two extremes only.
We see tearful confessionals from people who used to be confined to their living room couches, watching endless repeats of the Maury Povich Show, while helplessly stuffing their faces with donuts, gravy, and Mountain Dew.
But then! Deliverance! They gave up everything but cashews and spinach, and now they are healthier than ever and we are supposed to believe that they are on track to live forever.
Really? The contrast is like Solomon saying, "I lived for years with 700 women and was miserable, but then I tried celibacy, and now I can't stop smiling." Are those really the only two choices?
I contend that most people would be healthier by simply living with Biblical concepts of moderation in their dietary choices.
At the risk of giving anecdotes as evidence, I have lost about 50 pounds over the two years by following what Sandra has dubbed the "taste-based diet". It involves eating a wide variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, breads, and deserts that taste good, until I am no longer hungry.
I have called it, "the eat whatever I want, but less of it" diet.
Once I am no longer hungry, I stop eating. Period.
With this "diet" plan, I also added regular doses of physical work, exercise, or some other exertion each day, whether I feel like it or not. By doing so, and have been able to attain my ideal weight, can now run 5K's, and feel better than I have since my teens.
I am not trying to sound braggadocios, but am pointing out that I was not fat because I was eating animals, or soy, or milk, or gluten, or any specific item per se, but because I was living unbiblically--too often in gluttony and lethargy.
As I have considered this topic, I have asked myself, would there be entire groups of
foods that God made (and called good) that He intended us humans to absolutely avoid?
Is it
really reasonable to think that God created certain foods to be completely incompatible with our physiology--and then not tell us which ones they are? Is He really that capricious?
Did He just throw in the Scripture verses about "all foods being good" to add to the confusion? Did He tell Noah after the ark to eat meat so that He could kill the human race off slowly?
And then are we to believe that to complete the fun, He would sit back and watch through thousands of years of human history as his humans scramble around attempting through trial and error to discover which foods will bring health and which foods are the equivalent of rat poison?
What a horrible idea! And I think some of these strange new ways of thinking about food come from too small a vision of the greatness of God--or from a dismissal of Him altogether.
For consideration, think about the crises that was all the rage in the 1970's. We were told, in essence, that our God showed a disturbing lack of foresight in the design of the planet, and that unless we signed on to the environmental panic (including sharply limiting the production of children--creatures He had mistakenly labelled as "blessings") we would all be swept away in the global cooling.
Thank goodness we took matters into our own hands, or we would be living in an ice age as we speak! We should definitely trust our own wisdom and pseudo science in this area as well!
Or perhaps we could listen to what has God said about His
creation in His Word, and then derive from that our conclusions about the ability of our bodies to
adapt to various inputs.
As I said, I don't want to debate all the science and statistical irregularity of some of the claims I see. Let's just say that the issues are far from settled science and leave it at that. I would also add, that many of the claims and deductions are based on evolutionary presuppositions that make me further doubt their reliability (even if the proponents claim to be Christian)
Based on what I have learned about God through His word, his creation, and from my study of science and medicine, I am convinced that He has made his creatures with incredible adaptability. It is this resiliency that enables humans to enjoy such a vast diversity of
foods in kind and quantity, and to derive from those foods the nutrients necessary for abundant life.
God, in His love, has equipped us to live in times of scarcity and plenty, in incredibly diverse climates, and sometimes with remarkably narrow choices, and yet in general to remain
quite healthy. (As an aside, I also believe God made this planet with
incredible resiliency and adaptability, which is why I am not a radical
environmentalist. I think the planet can adjust to incredible change
and we are similarly flexible.)
None of this is to be taken as justification for poor
stewardship of the planet or of our bodies--we are to do our best to
care for what God has entrusted to us.
And as usual, he has left instructions for how to do so--rejoice in His lavish abundance, but do so in moderation.
I definitely recommend and try to adhere to a more healthy diet than most Americans regularly ingest (In fact, I recommend avoiding the excesses most Americans partake of in EVERY area of their lives).
I want to re-emphasize that I understand there are certain individuals who struggle with some specific foods. There are clearly described cases where it is appropriate for people to fully abstain from certain food types (gluten for those with Celiac disease, milk for the lactose intolerant, etc), but these specific cases do not support or justify the creation of pronouncements against entire foods, for all people.
This brings me back to the verse from Romans, as quoted above. I have seen too much strain--and flat out breaking of fellowship--in churches and among professing Christians based on food choices. In this we must be exceedingly cautious.
Are we truly "being one" in purpose and motivation as Christ called us to if we let something as peripheral as food choices interfere with the unity of the body of Christ? There are people willing to lunge across the table at a potluck to rescue a child from a chocolate chip cookie which may contain gluten or refined sugar, but they remain oblivious to the hurt they have caused in the person who worked to make and share those items.
I have seen a hostess trying to practice Biblical hospitality basically be told that there was nothing she made which met the nutritional standards of her guests. How does that show the love of Christ or a concern for unity?
How many missionaries would have lost their chance to share the gospel or ruined their Christian witness if they had been unwilling to eat meal worms or pre-chewed cassava? Much less a simple beef stew with wheat bread?
I have read too many blogs and articles from authors who pridefully assert that the reason their fellow Christians are struggling with health issues, or behavior issues in their children, or depression, or insomnia, or arthritis, or infertility (etc., etc.) is that they haven't signed on to this or that hidden food formula for perfect health.
Well, the bad news is that the fundamental reason that we get sick or that kids misbehave has nothing to do with soy (or other foods). It is because of sin. And the reason that there is sickness and death is because we are all pushing against the effects of the fall.
None of us has EVER seen food the way it was intended be. Everything has within it the withering effects of thousands of years of sin, as do all of us. The effect of the fall on foods (which I suspect has impacted wheat,
dairy, meats, etc to an equal extent) has been to make them less nutritive, less beautiful, less beneficial than they were intended to be.
This is actually one of the reasons I consider human ingenuity in things such as cross-breeding and other forms of creative cultivation to be tools we have been given to use under the dominion
mandate.
Isn't it amazing that we have been able to help create cultivars of fruits and vegetables which contain varying degrees of protein content, or sugar content, or drought tolerance, or cold-hardiness so that people who are not blessed to live in the land of plenty can have hope of feeding their children?
Don't you think that it is the particular privilege of those of us in the abundant West to make pronouncements that only foods that are ancient of origin or unmodified are worthy to be eaten?
How does this attitude line up with Biblical thinking, especially when it could mean sending masses of starving people into a Christless eternity rather than offer them a genetically modified food that will actually grow where they live?
I suspect that if we ever come to the point of subsistence living in this country, many of the phobias, intolerances, allergies, and itches we have developed will magically disappear in our search to survive, and that we might be grateful for the invention of a technology that allows for gene manipulation and the extension of the growing season of our food--but I digress!
My point here was that no matter how many heirloom vegetables they eat, no matter how many hamburgers they avoid, T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Joel Fuhrman, Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Max Gerson and any other health guru you can think of will eventually buy a pine box like the rest of us.
Now that I have probably alienated or lost half of my friends, I will point to this as my final caution: I think we need to be very careful how much effort is spent on this issue within the Christian community.
How much time and energy is spent on food paranoia rather than the development of a vibrant relationship with Christ and a passion to share the Gospel with the lost?
How about adopting this simple rule, "Do not spend more time talking about food than you spend talking about Christ."
We need to be careful that our energy is focused on what will last into eternity, rather than what is passing away.
Matthew 6:27 "Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?"
Good nutrition is not and can never be our Savior, and ultimately, God is sovereign over our health.
Some people who eat junk live long lives. Some people who are health-nuts will die young.
No matter what, Christ is our only hope in this life and the next,
and we need to be careful that we do not spend more time proselytizing
about our food than we do our FAITH, especially if diet becomes a
dividing factor among us.
Romans 14:15-17 For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
