150: What Is A Biblical Diet?
There are a lot of books and differing opinions about what a Biblical diet is. I get asked about this often - mostly regarding whether or not we should all be plant-based vegans because God put Adam and Eve in The Garden. Spoiler alert: we sinned and got kicked out of The Garden AND God gave us meat to eat (not only that, He even specified what kind - see Genesis 9:3 and Leviticus 11).
Another spoiler alert is that we don’t all live in the Middle East and so what was native to Biblical people is not necessarily “the” food list every person is meant to follow. There’s more critical thinking we need to do when it comes to being in alignment with a Biblical diet. That’s what we’re talking about in this week’s episode: the overarching Biblical concepts that best inform our approach to Biblical eating and what it means.
EPISODE 150: What Is A Biblical Diet?
Show Notes
(0:00) Intro
Hello my friend welcome back to the club how are you today?
Today we are discussing what IS a Biblical Diet?
There are a lot of books and differing opinions about what a Biblical diet is.
I get asked about it often - especially the books that say we should be vegans or vegetarians because God put Adam and Eve in The Garden and so His original intent must have been for us to only eat plants.
Spoiler alert: we got kicked out of The Garden AND God gave us meat to eat (not only that, He even specified what kind - see Genesis 9:3 and Leviticus 11).
So, no I don’t think we should just eat plants.
Doing short plant-based programs like The Daniel Plan is not a bad idea, even I do seasonal plant-based detoxes.
I also don’t think we’re only supposed to eat foods mentioned in the Bible. Another spoiler alert is that we don’t all live in the middle east where those foods grow.
(4:10) The Alpha and The Omega Concept
I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Revelation 22:13
In the beginning when we were with God and the way we will eat in the end when we are with God (when Jesus returns) are both plant-based and different from the way we eat here in the middle.
In the pristine setting of the Garden, Adam and Eve ate garden food, presumably fruit that grew on trees. There was no animal eating in the garden.
It was perfection. Heaven on earth. When man and woman were with God in the garden there was no need to kill animals for food - it was readily supplied.
When Jesus comes back we presumably will go back to a non-meat eating situation because again, there will be no death.
Left Behind series
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11
The lion - which we know as a carnivore, a meat eater will be eating straw/hay/grass like a cow. Children will play with leopards and snakes and all will be well. When Jesus returns Peace and harmony will be restored - like back in the garden days pre-fall.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4
So we have this kind of alpha and omega bookends of eating which IS a vegan diet - no animal foods.
Now the question is and the argument that is often presented is that God intended us to only eat plant foods and so that is what we should eat. Some people even argue that we should just be frutarians - eating just fruit.
But remember, we got kicked out of the garden.
It’s interesting to note that The act of sin came through food and then there was a food related consequence God said to Adam:
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Easy street is over. Food is now going to be hard to get and to grow. There will be obstacles and it will take hard, back breaking work.
Our life inside the garden and outside the garden are not the same. Sin and death had now been introduced and that changed everything including our relationship with food.
So that’s kind of the first point - this Alpha and Omega concept which are our bookends but not the story in the middle.
(13:09) Plants AND Animals:
Even though His original intention may have been for us to eat plants - maybe just fruit - He expanded His provision to include animal sources of food which. He opened up this whole other avenue of obtaining food for man to provide for his family.
When you think of having to grow food - how long it takes, how much work goes into it, all of the possible obstacles that could interfere (again that was our punishment) and to go from that to the instantaneous ability to harvest an animal to feed your family.
So for God to come back around and say now you can also have meat - now that you’re out of the garden and it’s not easy to obtain food - here my children, have this.
God gave us meat after the flood. And so perhaps there was some necessity if all the plant life had been decimated. But it was kind of this fresh start overall after the flood, right?
The fact that God gave us meat to eat is incontrovertible. There’s no question. It’s very clear.
Genesis 9:3 says: Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Episode 121: The Meat God Said to Eat and Podcast
Episode 106: Should We Eat Pork and Shellfish
You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. Leviticus 11:3
Animals that chew their cud are known as ruminants.
It includes animals like cattle, deer, sheep, goats, antelope, bison, buffalo, moose and elk.
Ruminants are unique because they have a multichambered stomach (a stomach with 4 chambers).
As for seafood God said :
Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales. Leviticus 11:9
Sadly that does not include shellfish. Shellfish have so many nutrients but many of them are bottom dwellers which means they accumulate more toxic material.
I will always refer people to the baseline of Genesis 1:29 and Genesis 9:3 when God gives us both plants and meat.
Episode 112: Reasons to Use an Animal-Based Therapeutic Diet
(20:32) Seasonal/Regional Eating:
The other huge concept that I think so many of the Bible diet “experts” miss is consideration of regionality and seasonality. We don’t all live in the middle east.
God put amazing foods all over the planet. And our microbiomes - the ecosystems of our gut - are kind of genetically imprinted based on our genetic heritage. We are genetically predisposed to handle some foods better than others based on where our people come from.
This is why there is no one perfect diet for every person.
Biblical people ate dairy - milk, cheese, butter - all the yumminess.
Maybe Biblical people could tolerate a bunch of grains and wheat bread whereas now that so many food seeds have been modified, hybridized and sprayed with pesticides.
God made certain things grow at certain times of the year all around the world.
Even the kind of animal foods would naturally be based on region. Coastal living people are going to have access to more fish. Landlocked people are going to rely more on animals like deer, goat, bison or cattle.
In modern times we can get any food from any where in the world at any time of the year. That is a blurse - a blessing and a curse - as makes us loose sense of what is regional and seasonal.
(29:48) God loves you no matter what you eat:
There is no food that can come between you and the Lord, it has no bearing on your salvation.
Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
We know that Jesus declared all foods clean
He said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) Mark 7:14-19
1 Corinthians 8:8 Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.
The bottom line and the true definition of a Biblical diet is to Eat Real Food the way God made it. Eat plants and Eat meat. Eat regionally and eat seasonally. Know that the Creator of our body made the perfect food for our body.
(32:36) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!