The health industry doesn’t want you to know that contrary to popular belief, the perfect diet doesn’t exist.
Health guru’s promise flawless skin, tight abbs and everlasting energy if you just follow their hyper-specific, supposedly “science based”, fifty-dollar eBook on fasting, veganism, paleo diet—you name it. Unfortunately, most of it is misinformation.
Seeking answers from doctor google, asking friends for advice, and reading a library of different health books, will leave you with a mountain of contradictions, and more questions than answers.
So how do you decide what to eat and what to avoid?
Well, there’s one resource you’ve probably never thought to consider. It’s already sitting on your bookshelf. The book of truth; the bible.
Food in the Bible
You may not have noticed that the bible talks about food, a lot.
Sometimessymbolically...
· “Gracious words are like a honeycomb” (Proverbs 16:24).
· “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).
· “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51).
Other times in refence to significant events...
· The feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21).
· The last supper (Matthew 26:17-30).
· God giving the Israelites manna from heaven(Exodus 16:4)
Interestingly, Godalso dedicates large passages of scripture to prescribing specific dietary advicefor his people. Advice to guide and nurture the body, mind and spirit of His people.
Biblical Dietary Advice
In the Fathers’ infinite wisdom and love, He gives His people direct instruction as to the food they should eat. These requirements have both a physical and spiritual impact on the life of the consumer.
After Creation, God said to Adam,“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).God must have foreseen man’s obsession with food, to make this his second decree in history. In a world without sin, all Adam and Eve needed was the sustenance of plants and their produce (minus that ominousforbidden fruit).
However, once sin entered the world, man was condemned to eat “by the sweat of his brow” (Genesis 3:19). And after the flood, God told Noah, “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). Henceforth man was permitted to eat meat and animal products; excluding “flesh with its blood” (Genesis 9:4).
After the exodus from Egypt, the Lord instructed Mosesregarding eating“animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground”(Leviticus 11:1-46), and the people of Israel were to eat according to the law of clean and unclean foods.
When the Messiah fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17-20), he taught his disciples, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thushe declared all foods clean) (Mark 7:18-19).
Then after Christs death and resurrection, the apostle Paultold the people of Corinth, “the one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them”.
God’s dietary requirements for his people changed throughout biblical history. Alterations occurafter significant events such as creation, the flood, the coming of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. Each diet serving the people and encouraging them to keep God at the centre of their daily meals.
The Christ-Centred Diet
With the declaration that “all food is clean” (Mark 7:19), does that mean we can eat whatever we want? Is all food healthy for us?
Jesus explained that food cannot affect our relationship with Him, “food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do” (1 Corinthians 8:8).
However, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you...So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Therefore, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
God no longer has specific dietary requirements for us. He simply asks that we keep Him at the centre of all out decisions. When choosing what foods to eat ask the Holy Spirit to direct you. Keep God at the centre of your choices and do all things to bring glory to Him and not yourself.
The perfect diet is a Christ-centred one.
Chloe Acland is a health writer who is passionate about helping Christians navigate the complementary and alternative health industry with Christ-centred values and scriptural truth. Chloe has a Bachelor of Health Science in Naturopathy, identifies as Bapti-costal (I’m a happy clapper) and has a multitude of delicious fermentations on her kitchen counter.
Chloe writes for The Ginger Journal newsletter, where she discusses healthy habits, foodie topics and book reviews.