Real Food and Religion series: Wrapping it up

Our real food and religion series is over. I have really enjoyed reading and learning from so many different perspectives. I found it interesting that even though some of the writers had similar religious beliefs, they translated to very different things in practice.

It's interesting to understand why people do what they do. There are many motivating factors regarding what we eat and feed our families, and religion is just one of those. But it seems to be one that people are passionate about.

For me, there are certain things I will never drink, like coffee, tea or alcohol. Science is sometimes ambiguous on all three of these (I've read good and bad about all of them), but God knows more than science, and it's not something I spend a lot of time worrying about. My beliefs in my faith matter a lot more to me than whatever new science may come out.

Here are links to all the posts in case you missed any:

Christianity

Southern Baptist

Lutheran meets Seventh-day Adventist

Latter Day Saint (Mormon)

Christ Follower

The Levitical Diet

Chrisitan

Fundamental Christianity


      
I wanted to say thanks to all the bloggers who participated in the series. They all have great blogs and you can visit them by clicking on the links below.

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/

http://traditionalsimplicity.com/

http://megdickey.wordpress.com/

http://www.dietwithkris.blogspot.com/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/misskris

http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/

http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/

http://www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com/

Real Food and Religion series: Christianity

Our guest post today comes from Cara Faus. Cara lives in Montana with her husband and two young children. She loves learning about nutrition and God's natural remedies through food, herbs, and holistic medicine. She writes at Health, Home and Happiness.

Real Food and Religion: Christianity

Christianity, being more of a relationship with God than a religion with strict rules, presents itself in many different ways. I am here to share how my relationship with God affects how I feed my family, how I am learning and growing in how I believe God wants us to deal with food, and personal convictions that I hold. Everything I share is going to be from my personal perspective, open to changing as I grow and change as a Christian and as I learn about health and nutrition. Further, I believe that God calls different people to focus on different things at different times; I don't think that my way is best for everyone in every situation. 

Our convictions about food are to eat food naturally as God designed it. We believe that before the fall of man everyone ate a raw vegan diet from the garden, not requiring any work. After the fall, and subsequent flood, we believe that humans have needed to do a little more work for their food (till, plant, harvest, hunt, cook- Genesis 3:19) and that God did give us the knowledge of how to properly prepare foods, along with specific dietary laws. While we know that following the food-related laws is not necessary for salvation (Romans 14:20) and we have no desire to be legalistic with them, we do think that they are good guidelines as a general way to eat, and that's why God gave them in the first place. 

We don't want to drive anyone away from God because of our eating habits, so if our general 'eating rules' are going to be an actual hindrance to helping someone's relationship with God, then we will gladly eat whatever is appropriate at the time.

Our food convictions as of now:

We stay away from pork, bear, or any animal that doesn't have cloven hooves or fish that don't have fins and scales. The pork issue is what comes up most often, and I will happily eat a BLT at someone else's house, though I just keep in mind that 'unclean meats' aren't the best thing to serve my family and we choose not to buy and serve pork. For me it's more of, "God said this- if I don't have a good reason to go against it, I'll go ahead and just do what He said in the Bible."

We eat whole foods that have been traditionally prepared. I believe that God either directly told people how to prepare food (such as soaking grains), or He gave earlier generations intuition on how to make food in a fallen world most nutritious. 

We seek medical help naturally first, in most cases. We're doing the GAPS diet, which doesn't allow grains although there are many mentions of grains as acceptable food in the diet. I believe that God gives us understanding of the body, and oftentimes gentle solutions to chronic problems through diet. I also believe that a diet with too many non-food items (preservatives, food dye,etc) in it will cause problems, though it will be different degrees for different people. While it may sound extreme to some, I felt God was leading me to get rid of a root canal I had, and a variety of health problems went away that were associated with it.

We strive to balance doing what we believe to be best for our physical bodies with what is realistic and best for us and others spiritually.  This is constantly changing for our family; you can see in our 'journey to real food' that we are constantly taking baby steps to eat how we think God would like us to. We also are constantly checking ourselves to try to make sure we're not being over the top and trusting in food rather than God for our health. 

We want to make sure we're not focusing on food to the point that we neglect other parts of our lives- so our meals aren't always perfectly balanced if it was more important to rock a cranky baby to sleep or help a friend move. Sometimes we do order pizza (for hubby and me), and sometimes the kids eat date-nut balls for dinner ~smile~. We try to think of what is the best thing I could be doing at this particular time- and that isn't always going to be preparing a fresh balanced meal three times a day; though I believe that as I get better at planning and family management, it will be possible to eat 'God's best' just about all the time. 

With the kids, because we feel that as parents it's our duty to give our kids the best start reasonably possible, we do avoid letting them have food that we know will harm them. As a result, I do end up saying 'no' to french fries or Coke for the 9-month-old, or gold fish crackers for my 3-year-old who is on a diet to help with some developmental issues. While this could be too legalistic for some, it's what are convictions are regarding balancing the physical needs of our young children (especially since we can see a difference in them, so we know it affects them) and the feelings of those who are around our kids and may offer food. My husband and I don't mind eating a little junk food every once in a while to better 'fit in' with others, but we  can handle stuff better since we're adults without health issues.

We have friends that we fellowship with that eat how we do, but as a general rule our church still eats the typical American diet. We usually just try to not focus on food, but focus on the Lord and everything seems to work out just fine!

More:

My thoughts on the book The Maker's Diet. I think this book is great for any Christian who is interested in changing their diet, whether it is to loose weight or for a health issue like diabetes. 

How God has lead us to look into different child-related issues including birth, breastfeeding, and vaccinations.

Real Food and Religion series: Southern Baptist

Our guest post today comes from Michelle Brumgard. She has a blog called Traditional Simplicity where you will find her blogging about real food, time management and Miessence.

Real food and religion is very interesting. "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin is the book I recommend to everyone in describing my religious beliefs about real food. If you wish, skip everything else in the book, just read the sections referencing the bible. Why does the Genesis diet not work? He tells us and shares the bible verses that confirm these beliefs. Real food is how my two Great Grandmothers, who both recently passed away at 98 and 103, ate every day. Realizing the way they ate and lived had something to do with their fabulous health into golden years, I began to think about real food. After reading "The Maker's Diet," I was convinced real food was the way for me to eat. I am a Southern Baptist, if I were to "label" my religion. Southern Baptists view the bible as the ultimate authority in shaping their lives. We believe in only one God, who is revealed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. A heaven and hell is very real. The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, believing God sent his only Son to earth to die on the cross to forgive us from all our sins. By faith, asking God to forgive us of our sins and acknowledging our belief in his son dying for those sins, gains us entrance into salvation; eternal life in heaven. This is the only way to heaven. We remember God's grace in sending Jesus to earth through the Lord's Supper. After receiving God into our lives and accepting him as our savior, we believe in baptism of the new believer. We do not believe in infant baptism. Baptism is meant to be a symbolic act, picturing what Jesus Christ did for the new believer through death, burial, and resurrection. It is only done by believers and as a testimony of their new faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is also a symbolic act of washing away the past life, resurrecting in the new life, as a new believer in Jesus Christ. In all my life, I cannot recall learning about any specific teaching of how a believer in Christ should eat. I recall many of potlucks and even my church today, holds an annual Chili cook off. So food is very much a part of our fellowship. In my personal quest to live the best life God has created for me, I am continually seeking to glorify his name. I do believe that when Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden, it became mandatory for them to consume flesh for protein. They needed the meat protein to sustain their lives in the new, hard, manual work they were now required to do. I have also become to believe we should try to eat foods as close to the way God created them, hence my belief in real food. I am often asked what I mean by real food. The simplest explanation I can give is, how did God give it to us? I believe he gave us wood to create fire and that the food was meant to be cooked. He did not give us the chemical equations that now create much of what fills out grocers. God gave us beef cows, dairy cows, deer, elk, bear, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and so much more. He did not give us high fructose corn syrup, MSG, red dye, etc. Eating as close to the way God created, I hope to continually strive to feed my family this way. If you have any questions or want to join with me in this journey, stop by my site "Traditional Simplicity."

Real Food and Religion series: Lutheran meets Seventh-day Adventist

Our guest blogger for today is Meg Dickey. Her blog is about Godly living, health/ nutrition and children.
      
My name is Meg Dickey.  I am the wife and helpmeet to my husband, Brian.  We are the proud parents of three beautiful children, aged 4, 2, and 3 months.  I am happy to stay at home and minister to our family.   I blog at Cracking an Egg with One Hand. You are welcome to browse our family’s menu plans, and my Titus 2 Thursday posts, where I pass along articles that give encouragement to wives and mothers.
            When my husband and I first began dating, my parents expressed the belief that our married religious experience was going to end up like a bad joke – “A Lutheran marries a Seventh-day Adventist…” Exactly where do you go with that?  As the years of our marriage have passed, we’ve navigated our way through with much prayer, fasting, and sincere desire to worship our Lord.  We attend the children’s service on Saturday mornings at the Adventist church, and then attend the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran church for services on Sunday morning.  It’s convoluted, but it works, and gives us a completely different mindset for the entire weekend, rather than just “church time”.
            One of the biggest differences we first noticed in our respective religions is the Seventh-day Adventist approach to food & eating.  It is a predominantly vegetarian/vegan lifestyle (which I was raised on).  After our marriage, in attempt to conjoin the bacon-loving Lutheran and the soy-loving vegetarian, we began actively seeking God’s guidance for our eating habits/choices.  Through our study of the Scriptures, we felt that there was no real command, or even suggestion that vegetarianism was “best”.  We did find, however, that there are specific commands for what types of meat are “best” for God’s people – a way to set themselves apart from the world in all things, be it eating, drinking, or manner of dress.  We also began to delve deeper into how we wanted to approach health in light of a soy allergy (in our oldest son), a dairy allergy (in our second son and myself), and a genuine desire to eat, live, and feel better.
            We chose to eliminate all pork products, soy, and most pasteurized dairy products.  We were blessed enough to discover that raw dairy does not affect our son or myself, so we drink plenty of raw goat’s milk from our own goats. 
            I find it slightly amusing that the other two things we chose to eliminate from our diets (pork/soy) are hardest to avoid in the respective churches – when we attend potlucks at the Adventist church we are greatly limited by the soy products, while at the Lutheran church, we are usually hard pressed to find something that does not contain pork.  Food is such an integral part of fellowshipping with other believers – potlucks are the most definitive example of this, although there is also a “coffee break” after service at the Lutheran church, which usually contains several items of the “high sugar” variety… something else we strive to limit in our children.  My husband and I try to be vigilant with our family’s food goals, but we are careful to never allow it to become a stumbling block, in either our lives or those around us. 
            We have learned over the years to base our choices in life, whether it be regarding food, dress, raising children, or any other thing, to base our decisions on the Word of God, and not on what the “latest research” might say.  My husband is fond of quoting Isaiah 40:8 [“the word of the LORD endures forever”] to me when I’m showing him an article on a new fad, or new approach to something – a constant reminder that I should balance everything with the word of God before considering how to apply it to our family.  It keeps not only myself in check, but it inspires me to dig deeper into the Word.  And really, isn’t that what our greatest aspiration should be? :)

Real Food and Religion series: Latter Day Saint

Our post today comes from Kris Godak. She blogs at dietwithkris, all about eating whole foods. She includes lots of recipes and thoughts on food and diet.  

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Most of you probably know us as the Mormons.  We prefer to be called "Latter Day Saints."  Saints in this phrase means that we are followers of Christ.  As such, we follow the teachings of the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We also count as scripture, the Book of Mormon, which was written at about the same time as the New Testament, but its audience was the people on the American Continent.  It is referred to as "another testament of Jesus Christ."  It does not contradict the teachings of the Bible, but gives us another perspective.  In addition, we have a record of modern revelation received through our living prophets, beginning in the early 1800's.  This doctrine is where our code of health is found.  Joseph Smith, through revelation from God, presented to the Saints what we refer to as "The Word of Wisdom."

The Word of Wisdom, in its entirety can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 89.  If you would like to read it, here is the link: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/89/17#17.  I'll paraphrase it for you here.

First, there is a list of things we should not consume.  The Word of Wisdom tells us that drinking wine is not good, and isn't pleasing to God.  It tells us that it would only be appropriate when giving sacraments (communion).  And if we use it for that purpose, this wine should be homemade.  We are told that strong drinks are not to be taken internally but can be used for washing the body.   Tobacco is not to be used for the body nor taken internally, but can be used for bruises or sick cattle.    We are also told not to consume "hot drinks." 

The best part tells us what we should consume.  We are taught that all wholesome herbs are ordained by God for the use of man.  Every herb and fruit should be eaten in its season with prudence and thanksgiving.  Meat of both land animals and birds are also ordained by God to be used but we are to use them sparingly, and only in times of winter, cold, or famine.  All grain is to be used for man and animal and is to be the staff of life.  It is repeated that meat should be used sparingly, and repeated that wheat, particularly, is the grain for man.

In the last part of the Word of Wisdom, we are promised blessings for following this code of health.  We are told that we we'll receive health in our navels and marrow in our bones. We will find wisdom and treasures of knowledge.  We shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. 

You can tell this was written a long time ago.  As modern Latter-day Saints, we have to interpret what must have been meant by such doctrine.  For instance, we have adopted the idea that "wine" and "strong drink" refer to alcoholic beverages.  Devout Latter-day Saints do not partake of these at all.  Even our sacrament meetings (communion) no longer include wine or even grape juice.  We use water which has been blessed with a special prayer for this purpose.  As for tobacco, we take the Word of Wisdom to mean that we shouldn't chew or smoke it.  "Hot drinks" have been interpreted to mean coffee and tea.  Science has shown us that these items aren't healthy for various reasons, particularly the addictive stimulant caffeine.  Many Latter-day Saints do consume caffeine, though, in soda or chocolate.  Since the law doesn't use the word "caffeine,"  many choose not to interpret it to mean that.

Mormon culture embraces the Word of Wisdom, for the most part.  We certainly are a wheat-eating people.  Most LDS have a good supply of stored whole wheat berries.  We know that in the event of a disaster, we could live on this wheat for a long time.  We truly believe that it is the "staff of life" and it is the #1 item purchased for emergency preparedness.  Most LDS families are gardeners.  We even have a song in our Children's Songbook called, "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden."  Here are the lyrics:

The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.
For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.
And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,
Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family.

We’ll plant the seeds to fill our needs, then plant a few to spare,
And show we love our neighbors with the harvest that we share.
Oh, won’t you plant a garden, too, and share the many joys
A garden brings in health and love to happy girls and boys!

From an early age, we teach our children the importance of growing our own produce.  We teach them this so they can be healthy and self-sufficient.  I think the Word of Wisdom and Mormon culture part company, however, when it comes to meat.  Most LDS women, when planning their meals, start with a list of what meat will be served for dinner each night, and then plan an entree around that meat.  I know many LDS women who would like to better follow the council to "eat meat sparingly" but have heard them complain that "my husband would never go for it."  I struggle with this in my own home, too.  American culture puts meat in every meal, and it is hard to break from this.  I serve one vegetarian dinner in my home each week, and try to make my meat go further in my other dinners by using less meat than a recipe calls for and supplementing with extra grain (like 1/2 lb of ground meat and 1/2 lb cooked barley in my tacos).  I think I'm the exception though.  Most Mormon dinners include a large portion of meat.

Though this does not break any rule in the Word of Wisdom per se, I must mention that there are some classic LDS recipes that are just not healthy.  If you stay in an LDS home long enough, you will most likely eat:

a potato casserole using frozen hashbrowns, cream of chicken soup, and velveeta cheese
tater tot casserole with cream of something soup, hamburger, canned corn, and tater tots on top
a salad containing jello, cool whip, and marshmallows
chocolate chip cookies made with butter flavor crisco (the secret ingredient) and white flour
homemade white bread with margarine and sugar sweetened homemade jam
home-canned peaches or pears in sugar syrup
some super-yummy cinnamon rolls with powdered sugar icing
Tang or Kool-aid

It is hard to be LDS and not partake of these things.  These foods mean comfort and love.  Sigh....
 

Real Food and Religion series: Christ Follower

Kris Mays is a Christ Follower, wife of 18 years to David and mother to five children ages 11-1, whom she home schools in rural Oregon.  Beyond that, her passions are writing, raising food, cooking, and nutrition.  You can find her on the web at www.homeschoolblogger.com/misskris

I don't care much for the word "religion."  It's always grated.  To me, the word religion implies living by a set of rules and regulations.  Now I know that is not necessarily the dictionary definition of the word "religion," but I think it's the idea most people get when they hear the word.  I also think it's one reason many don't seek a more "spiritual life."

 

For me, my faith isn't about following a set of rules, it's about pleasing God.  It's a relationship with my Maker.  Matthew 22:37-39 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (KJV)  Those two commandments pretty much cover it all.  If I do these things, I am pleasing God.  If I do these things, I am automatically following the Ten Commandments.

 

The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is full of the many laws and dietary restrictions God set forth for his people.  I don't pretend to know all God's reasons for these.  But I do believe the dietary restrictions were to help set God's people apart from the world, and to help protect their health for future generations.  Today, I don't live under Old Testament law.  I live under God's grace and my freedom in Christ.  Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."  (KJV)  This means there is nothing I can do to save myself, only God can do that through His son, Jesus.  He did that.

 

According to Romans 14, I have full freedom in Christ to choose what to eat and what to drink.  However, if what I eat or drink offends others, then that is sin, as I would be breaking the Second Commandment to love others more than myself.  So obviously, if I should serve forbidden foods to my Jewish friend, this would cause offense.  If I serve sausage to my family in my home when no one who would be offended was present, to me that is okay.  However, if I am personally convicted to follow an Old Testament diet, then I should do that.

 

We have for several years tried to avoid pork and we seriously limit shellfish (which I personally don't eat at all).  This is because we feel that health is a big reason God gave these restrictions in the Old Testament.  We have also read about the parasites in swine, etc., that we'd really rather not have anything to do with.  That said, we do eat bacon on occasion (from responsibly raised swine), because it's not about rules.  Remember, we live in freedom.  It's about balance and health.  And sometimes we just really feel like eating some bacon!

 

In our church, I think most people eat just about anything.  I don't see many abstaining from items because they are "unclean" and I know there are folks in our church that drink alcohol (we personally don't because of the Second Commandment).  Food is definitely an important part of fellowship in many churches.   Church potlucks, in general, are famous for their good food.  Our church is quite large, so we meet in home groups during the week and those meetings generally include a shared meal.  We are home group leaders, so we can steer the direction of the meals ourselves or decide to forego it.

 

As a mother of five children, I take seriously my job of feeding them nutritious foods and guarding their health.  Just recently, I came to the realization that taking care of our bodies IS loving God.  We should respect and be good stewards of His creation, and our bodies are a part of that creation.  Although food and health has been an interest for years, this was a real light bulb moment for me.  In the past year, we have been making some real changes in our diet and the way we prepare our meals.  As I master one new concept, I move on to another.  Like most who are on this healthy eating journey, I read and learn everyday.  I pray and ask for wisdom.  I talk to my husband, and then we do what we feel God would have us do for our family.

 

Some web sites that have been very helpful to me in my nourishing food journey are:

 

www.heavenlyhomemakers.com

www.thenourishinggourmet.com

www.passionatehomemaking.com

www.azurestandard.com

 

Real Food and Religion series: The Levitical Diet

Today our guest blogger is Hallee who blogs at HalleetheHomemaker. She blogs about family, food, homemaking and her religious beliefs. We'll take a break from the Real Food and Religion series and I'll cover some of your questions over the weekend, and then we have some more great guest bloggers coming up next week. Enjoy!
    
I am a Christian. I am a devout, set-myself-apart, Bible believing Christian who strives to make everything I am and all that I can be for God, to God, or about God. My beliefs are not tied to any specific religion. As a family, we choose to worship God in and work for God through and with the My family and I chose to worship God in a the Church of God (formerly called the "First Church of God of Anderson Indiana") for a few reasons:

• They are a holiness church, and choose to use the Bible as a guideline for what to believe rather than a written doctrine.
• We have a strong family background within the Church of God that goes back several generations.
• They have a strong focus on missions, and this is extremely important to our family.
• The area in which we live and the surrounding areas have many different Church of God churches, providing opportunities for inter-church fellowship and meeting.

This specific article is supposed to talk about our religion and what it teaches about food and abstaining from certain foods. I did some research, because I couldn't find anything readily available to me about foods within the Church of God, and had never heard or seen anything specifically taught about it. It seems that without a written doctrine, and using the Bible as a guideline for belief, that there would be something taught about food or abstaining from foods, but there is not. They do believe in abstaining from all alcohol. Other than that, and since there is no written doctrine, the abstaining from alcohol is simply an understood and traditional practice, there is nothing else other than a regular observance of the Communion that is done with bread or crackers and grape juice.
Apart from having any specific rules about food or abstaining from food, our church body definitely has a food culture. In nearly every instance of fellowship with the church body, there is food. Be it a "Soup-er" Bowl party on Super Bowl Sunday night with different soups and chili's being enjoyed together after evening worship, Valentine Dinners, Corn Husking picnics in the early fall when the corn comes in, or just a potluck supper "Linger Longer" after morning worship. Food is a way to bring people together, a chance to sit at a different table and chat with a brother or sister in Christ and enjoy the company of fellow believers.
Our church does some sort of fellowship something at least once a month, if not more often. It is definitely one of the benefits of being part of our congregation.
Our family, however, apart from the organized religion that we choose as a worship and works platform, follows a Levitical diet. We believe that the restrictions God gave pertaining to food in Leviticus are there for health reasons.

What is the Levitical Diet?

There may be some confusion between what defines a Levitical Diet -- sometimes also called a Levitican Diet -- and how it is different from a Kosher diet. The principles of keeping Kosher go far beyond the principles of a Levitical Diet. Without writing a book to explain the differences, there are 3 principles to the Levitical Diet and they are:

1. Eat only substances that God created for food.  Avoid what is not designed for food.
2. As much as possible, eat foods as they were created - before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better
3. Avoid food addictions.  Don't let any food or drink become your god.

The reasons our family follows these principles are easy to explain.   The bottom line is that the Levitical Diet is healthier than alternative eating lifestyles (III John 1:2).  However, the diet we choose for our family does not reflect judgment of what others eat or how they prepare their food. When we are guests at another person's table, we eat whatever is offered in the spirit of hospitality and are blessed by their generosity (Romans 14:2-17).  While we realize that following this diet is NOT the key to our salvation, we follow the guidelines offered in God's word as an act of worship and faithfulness.

The Principles

1) In brief, the first principle allows for eating what the Bible calls  "Clean" foods and avoiding foods that the Bible deems "Unclean."
Clean foods include herbivorous animals that have divided hooves and chew cud, such as cattle, sheep, and goats (Leviticus 11:3); all fish that have fins and scales, either fresh or salt water fish, such as perch, trout, tuna, and salmon (Leviticus 11:9); birds that do not eat carrion such as chicken, pheasant, goose, duck, and turkey (Leviticus 11:13-19); a few insects (so we have something to complain about, I guess) like locusts and grasshoppers (Leviticus 11:21-22)-  dried locust is nearly 75% protein which could explain how John the Baptist remained in such good health; milk (Exodus 3:8); all seed-bearing fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables (Genesis 1:29); and honey - we purchase our honey from a local beekeeper and we try to get the comb as well. If you don't have a source of local honey, try your best to purchase "pure honey" (Exodus 3:8).
Unclean foods include pork, kangaroo, rabbit, anything without a divided hoof and chews the cud (Leviticus 11:4-8, 26-28); fat (Leviticus 7:23); blood (Leviticus 7:26); kidneys; (Leviticus 3:4 ) bottom feeders such as catfish, oyster, shrimp, crab, lobster, shark, octopus, squid, clams, coral, and any fish that doesn't have scales and fins; any plant that grows in water, whether salt or fresh water, such as spirulina (algae), sea weed, kelp, and food additives such as carrageenan (Leviticus 11:10-12); birds that eat carrion such as the eagle, osprey, hawk, kite, vulture, raven, ostrich (including eggs), goat sucker, seagull, buzzard, swan, pelican, owl, carrion eagle, stork, heron, crane, hoopoe; bats (Leviticus 11:13-20); any insects that crawl, as opposed to hopping like locust and grasshopper, which makes nearly every insect off limits (Leviticus 11:23-25); rodents such as the mole, mouse, rat, and shrew; any animal torn, mangled or worried (painful death such as roadkill);  any cattle dying of disease (Leviticus 11:29-43); all reptiles including turtles, lizards, alligators, and snakes (Leviticus 11:4, 10, 29, 42); and any food that has touched anything unclean, such as a mouse chewed on it (Leviticus 7:23).
The health reasons for the distinctions between clean and unclean are fairly apparent. Avoiding unclean foods means avoiding harmful toxins and possible disease. For example, unhealthy toxins are stored in the fat and removed by the kidneys of every animal. Bottom feeders were created to remove toxins from the seas and their flesh is full of unhealthy toxins and metals. There are many, many reasons to avoid pork. Pigs will literally eat anything, and pork can contain up to 30 times more toxins than beef or venison.
Conversely, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, milk, and scaled fish are healthy foods in so many, many ways. The benefits of each are so plentiful, I won't attempt to list them all, but they include: good proteins and amino acids, healthy omega-3's and 6's, healthy carbohydrates, and balanced measures of beneficial and soluble minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
2) As much as possible, eat foods as they were created - before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better. There are some excellent examples of this and more and more research is showing that the further we remove ourselves from our food sources, the unhealthier we become as a result.
Consider margarine: Leviticus 7:23 prohibits eating any of the fat of even clean cattle.  God noted in Leviticus 3:17that this would be a "perpetual statute" prohibiting the eating of fat.  Back in the nineteenth century, a Frenchman learned how to turn vegetable oil into an artificial animal fat substitute we know as margarine in direct conflict with the Levitical dietary law.  In the last 200 years, we have changed our diets and our lifestyles so much that we have caused an epidemic of cancer, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Angina pectoris has only been described in the English medical literature for the last 200 years. Two hundred years before, NONE of these diseases or conditions existed at all or in any appreciable numbers.
Consider unfermented soy. In recent studies, even the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has listed unfermented soy as an Endocrine Disrupting Chemical (EDC) meaning it contains natural hormones that emulate human hormones, the consumption of which can lead to obesity, infertility, genital malformation, reduced male birth rates, precocious puberty, miscarriage, behavior problems, brain abnormalities, impaired immune function, various cancers, and cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently withdrew support for any definitive health claims related to soy protein and coronary conditions.
Consider genetically modified or engineered foods (GMOs or GEOs) many of which are sterile and thus are not "seed-producing" which has been linked to a variety of health concerns including many of the same problems with unfermented soy.
Consider high fructose corn syrup, added to literally everything from ketchup to cough syrup, which shuts down the human metabolism and has been linked to high blood pressure. Consider enriched bleached, white flour" which contains none of the healthy oils or nutrients of whole grains and is enriched with industrial grade chemicals.
Consider that it is highly unlikely that you will ever encounter any health problems as a result of preparing and eating unmodified "real" foods. You won't live forever, but you will certainly live longer and better as a result.
3) The final principle, that of not making any food or drink or any diet or eating lifestyle into an idol, is a bit subjective but also not difficult to integrate into our eating lifestyle.  Some things which can become too important include alcohol, caffeine, and sweets (Ecclesiastes 10:17).  Devoting too much energy or too much of your finances to purchase exclusively this or that kind of food is also a danger, especially if you place more financial importance on that practice than on, for instance, offering a tithe (1 Corinthians 10:31).  If rich delicacies or rarities rank high on your dietary priority list, this can also present a risk (Proverbs 23:1-3).
One way to break food addictions or binge cycles, a method which also has definite health benefits, is fasting. According to recent studies, Americans in particular rarely if ever experience real hunger anymore. Essentially, we have not yet digested our last meal before we have already eaten our next meal.  Therefore, we never feel hungry. A short fast, such as a "daylight" fast can offer time for prayer and meditation and alert you to certain unhealthy cravings or food attachments. If you take no food or drink, or else only allow for drinking pure water, during the hours of daylight, coupled with prayer, your body can send you signals of certain foods which have become too important. This is particularly true of caffeine and alcohol.
A prolonged fast, such as the Daniel's Fast, also offers time for prayer and meditation while weaning your body of possibly dangerous addictions to any but "clean" foods.

Real Food and Religion series: A Christian Perspective

Todays guest post is from Kate Tietje. She blogs at modernalternativemama. She blogs about real food and describes herself as "Living the non-mainstream life: Jesus-loving, debt-free living, home birthing, extended breastfeeding, cloth diapering, non-vaccinating, organic gardening and real-food cooking mama!"

I am a Christian.  Currently I attend a non-denominational church that has Baptist roots.  I grew up Catholic and my husband grew up Church of God.  But now we basically focus on the fact that we follow Jesus.

            The biggest thing we take about food from our religion is that sacrifices and ceremony are not necessary.  We’ve studied this issue indepth in our Bible studies with friends, and Jesus teaches that the “Ways of Old,” like animal sacrifice or avoiding certain foods, are not necessary, because they are just for show and are not as important as loving people and celebrating with them.  This is what we follow – we don’t worry about celebrating with anything in particular, or avoiding anything in particular because we don’t believe that the rituals are as important as the spirit.

            However, we strive to eat what is natural and created by God.  We try to avoid food that isn’t the way God created it – which is anything that is processed, like store-bought prepared meals, canned foods, etc.  We try to be good stewards of the resources God has provided, by doing things like sourcing local foods, picking things wild, etc.  It is important to us to eat naturally.  Although not as important as not offending our hosts should we be fellowshipping with others who don’t share our passion!

            Our church highly encourages us to get together with a small group on a regular basis and share a meal.  There is no specific menu, it changes every time (we eat together about once a month).  The idea is to sit down and “break bread” together, as Jesus did with many people during His lifetime.  Our focus is on togetherness and sharing.

            We don’t have much of a problem between science and religion.  It’s funny, but I’ve done a lot of research on diet and have come to various conclusions based on my research and my religion, but the “mainstream scientists” don’t agree.  Then, within a few weeks or months, a new mainstream study will come out basically proving what I said all along!  I have a friend who frequently sends me articles she finds, saying, “There’s that thing you were talking about!”  So science vs. religion isn’t really a problem for me.

            We do take this seriously!  Following God’s design for food and the world (looking for food that is in season, prepared the way it was designed to be, eating things as minimally processed as possible) is very important to us.

Real Food and Religion series: Fundamental Christianity

The Real Food and Religion Series starts today with this post by Steve and Paula Runyan. They have two blogs, sustainablefirstfruits and steveandpaularunyan. 


We attend a home fellowship, which practices fundamental Christianity, as taught by Jesus Christ, recorded in the 4 Gospels and the epistles. We believe in a real Heaven and real Hell, that Satan is a real, living being who opposes God and attempts to win people away from following God. The only way to Heaven is through the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Salvation is a free gift given to any who is willing to repent of their sins and accept the gift.
Our “religion” teaches nothing about food. No foods are forbidden by our fellowship, nor are any required. The body of Christians we fellowship with also has no set standard for food. What we personally believe about food comes from the Bible. Romans 14 is both a literal and allegorical chapter about eating, which we do take literally. We do not observe Old Testament food laws, because of the New Covenant established in the New Testament. We believe the vision of Peter was a literal as well as allegorical event, and that God, as He told Peter, has given us every creeping, swimming, flying and crawling thing for our food. We also find no prohibition against alcohol in the Bible, in fact, the opposite, as when Paul tells Timothy to drink wine for his stomach. The Bible does command us not to drink in excess; “be not drunk with wine, but the Spirit.”
Personally, we have begun to take a very critical look at today’s food culture in the US. Tied to this is also modern medicine. When God created the earth, after each event He looked at it and declared, “This is good.” Now in many instances our government and food safety agencies are telling us that many of God’s created foods are not good, unless they are modified before use. One of the biggest of these cases is milk. Our government tells us milk is dangerous and unhealthy for us, unless it is altered through pasteurization. Yet, it comes from cows, which God created, with big udders that fit perfectly in a human hand. When he made cows, they were declared to be good. Throughout the Bible, the phrase “milk and honey” is used to denote good, desirable land, or good things. As in Canaan was a land “flowing with milk and honey.” Breast feeding is also frowned upon by many local governments and agencies, though that is God’s design for rearing an infant. We are told that man made formulas are better for our infant children. God didn’t cause milk to flow from a mother for any other reason. So we drink raw milk now, and have seen improvements in our health. We believe many if not all medical conditions in the US are deeply tied to what we eat.
We eat a vast amount of fish and wild game. We believe this is part of our good stewardship of the earth. We also raise chickens for eggs and meat, raise a garden, and pick wild berries. We attempt to feed the chickens an organic diet, as frugally as possible. God’s directive for good animal husbandry takes us away from the industrial meat mills and toward smaller, sustainable farms when we do need to purchase meat. God mandated a 7 year cycle to His people, in resting their fields every 7 years, which helps the land regenerate and should still be practiced today by rotating crops.
Food is a part of our fellowship. We have a large family meal (potluck) after each Sunday meeting, and often meet with families within the congregation for dinner. Food also is used in one of our most important traditions, Breaking of Bread. We use grape juice and crackers or bread, to celebrate communion each Sunday, and remember Christ’s ministry and sacrifice here on earth. We also hunt and fish together sometimes to put up food for the winter. Fish and game often makes up a part of the potluck dinner on Sunday, as well.
Blessings,
Steve and Paula Runyan

www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com
www.sustainablefirstfruits.blogspot.com