We tend to spend a large part of our day focusing on food, and our culture seems to be obsessed with finding quick fixes to our health issues with new diet and workout fads hitting the market every week. All this has really done though is helped to create billion dollar industries that have left us with more questions than answers. So where do we look for answers? Instead of turning to the countless health and diet books on the market we need to turn to the one book that will give us the truth: The Bible.
In the Book of Genesis, on the sixth day of creation, 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 ESV).” In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve every seed bearing plant and tree as their food source. In Genesis 1:30 God goes on to say that He has given to all creatures “every green plant for food.” These scriptures make it clear that God did not create mankind or any animal species to be meat eaters. God created us as vegetarians. Given this information, I think that it goes without saying that a large part of our diet should be from seed bearing plants and trees.
After the fall of man, as Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, the diets of both mankind and animals changed. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah and in this He said, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything (Genesis 9:3).” At this point, God gave Noah and his offspring the right to eat both plants and animals (as long as the animal’s blood was drained – Genesis 9:4). So, this is what God has given mankind to eat: every seed bearing plant and tree and every creature. Under the Law of Moses there were certain foods that were considered unclean for consumption, but these have now become obsolete through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. God showed this to Peter in a vision that can be found in Acts 10:9-16. In this vision God told Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean (Acts 10:15).” Through Jesus, God has made all food that He created pure and clean for mankind to eat.
So what does this mean for us today? What should we eat given the vast array of food and diet plans at our disposal? The answer is so simple; we eat the foods that God created for mankind to eat. These foods should be in their natural, whole food, state – not the refined processed form we commonly see on our supermarket shelves. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, 100% whole grain products, and humanely raised animals were all created for our consumption. When we stick to eating the foods God created for us, then we won’t have to worry about counting calories, fat grams, sugar grams, or anything else. We can know we are eating God’s best for our bodies because it is what He created for us. The enemy is doing a good job trying to destroy us through the highly addictive, processed, and sugar laden foods we find in our grocery stores today. In fact, studies have shown that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. We need to get back to eating the way God intended for mankind to eat with whole, natural foods. We can then stop focusing so much on what we are eating and start focusing more on God and His Word.
The Truth in Action: Processed foods are a leading contributor to the astounding rise in childhood obesity and in the rise of children with Type 2 Diabetes in this country. We can curb this rise by eating the way God intended: eating foods in their whole food form the way God created them for us. Try to eliminate processed foods from your diet over time and replace those foods with the whole foods God created for us. Whole foods are considered foods with less than five ingredients. When shopping in a supermarket ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your food choices. Ultimately we should be eating to the glory of God and what we put in our bodies should reflect this. If a food is highly refined, processed, and/or manmade it is not a food that glorifies God. These foods are the most addictive and we all need God’s help to eliminate them from our diets, otherwise these changes will be short lived. Bring God into your food choices and ask Him to be your strength.
Remember the “WWJD” motto that became popular in the 1990s? Instead of asking what would Jesus do, ask yourself what would Jesus eat when making food choices.
Meditate on Scripture:
I Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) – So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
I Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV) – Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?