The Bible Is (NOT) A Diet Book – Part I

Would it destroy your faith to learn that the Bible doesn’t have an answer for everything? Our Bible, our handbook for holiness, does just that… teaches us how to be holy, set apart for the work of God. And although it covers much, it does not answer many of our questions today because that simply was not the intention of its writing. What does it mean to live a life of truth? And what does it mean to allow the truth to permeate every ounce of your being so that every action, every thought is an act of worship? How would that affect the way you sleep, eat, treat other people? This article is an attempt to answer those questions and offer one gal’s perspective on the secret to life. It’s pretty long, so it will stretch out over two or three posts. Make sure to post a comment below, too, because I really want to hear your perspective!

The moment I released the pressure valve and allowed the truth of the memories of my sexual abuse by three family members to surface for the first time, I knew I could never again live a lie. I committed my life to seeking truth and sharing it with the world so that no one would have to live years and years of deceptive lies ever again. Why? Because the relief, freedom, happiness, joy, life, and growth I have experienced through the process in no way compares to the fake, plastic, surface-y life I lived before. I want more in life than to know current weather conditions. I want to know what makes you tick, what your deepest fears, hopes, and dreams are, your failures and triumphs. I want to get to the meat of life and to get there quickly, for I have already wasted twenty years. You see, we are in the trenches together. I made my decision to seek truth in late fall of 2006 and my life will never be the same. Although I do not have all the answers, I guarantee that God will bless you in your quest for truth if you simply take a step.

My love for personal growth and mental health quickly transformed into my quest for the healthiest way to live. I noticed that when I ate certain foods I felt sluggish, puffy, icky, oily, and disgusting, but when I ate others I felt no guilt, experienced increased energy levels, and felt alive. This must affect my growth, I thought. So if I want to grow as much as possible mentally, I should eat in a way to support that so I feel my best in every situation and can serve God to the best of my ability.

To obtain the answer to my burning question, I did what any person would do with a difficult question and a deep desire to find the answer. I took my question to the oracle called Google. She provided several options and, of course, no clear direction.

Wait, I thought. God gives me life. He saved me from my depths of despair. He pulled me out of the disgusting pit I lived in for twenty years and lead me to freedom. How did God tell his people to eat? He would never harm them in dietary recommendations, but would want them to live the healthiest way possible, so I will find the answer to my burning question in the Bible.

In my excitement I quickly opened my Old Testament. The pages fell open to Leviticus where God instructs the people to sacrifice all the fat to him. God wanted them to sacrifice all of the fat, I thought. Therefore, fat must be bad and God wanted the Israelites to sacrifice it to him so they wouldn’t eat it and riddle their bodies with heart disease, high cholesterol, and hypertension. We know this stuff now, but God was obviously helping the Israelites out way back when with his dietary requirements.

But wait. The Israelites were a few thousand years into the story. How did God originally intend for his creation to eat? That is where I will find the answer to my quest for the healthiest way to live, going back to the beginning and moving forward in time. For that story we must flip back a few pages in our Bibles, but several thousand years in time, all the way back to the beginning. To Genesis 1.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”  -Genesis 1:29

Oh, wow. God did not even intend for people to eat meat at all! Clearly Adam and Eve were vegetarians, perhaps raw vegan or fruititarians! THAT must be the healthiest way to live!

Then I looked for other evidence in scripture. When did people begin eating meat? According to Genesis, not until after the flood.

Every moving thing that lives shall be for food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. –Genesis 9:3

Since it was not God’s original intention for people to eat meat, he must have given in to the people because of their obstinacy, but from the beginning it was not so. What else?

I remembered the story in Daniel, when Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refused the king’s rich food and wine in favor of vegetables and water.

“Test your servants for ten days: let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” … At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. -Daniel 1:12, 15

Wow! Daniel and friends refused the rich delicacies of the king’s table, the meat and the wine, in favor of vegetables and water AND they looked better because of it! This is good stuff, I thought. Obviously skin clears and people look healthier when they eat vegetables and drink water instead of meat and wine.

Further in Daniel, we learn that when Daniel wants to draw close to God, he fasts. And when he fasts, he abstains from meat.

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for three full weeks. -Daniel 10:2,3

So when Daniel wanted to get closer to God, he did not eat meat. Therefore, if I want to get close to God and live the healthiest way possible, I should not eat meat either.

At that moment in life, I developed my basis for the healthiest way to live. Besides wanting mental health and clarity, I was fat, sluggish, and tired (See the photo on the right for proof! If you want MORE proof, sign up for ThriveHer here to download my free ebook PaleoMadeSimple: 30 Days to the New You for ALL the juicy details AND the most recent before/after photos!). In my opinion, the healthiest way to live should clear skin, increase energy levels, normalize weight, lessen occurrences of sicknesses, and reverse disease. If I could remove these persistent, constant struggles from my life through the way I ate and lived, then I could better live the Christian life, reach my full potential, and glorify God with my entire being.

• My original conclusions in the fall of 2007 amounted to this: Clearly from these passages in scripture, God never intended for his creation to eat meat. We would do well to follow that original example and eat only plants and fruit.

And that is exactly what I resolved to do.

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Stay tuned for Part II of The Bible is (NOT) a Diet Book! In the meantime, what do you think??? Agree? Disagree? Comments? Conclusions? Post them all below and go ahead and share this with your friends and family that you know this could help. Never underestimate your power of influence!

Be a blessing!