A few years ago, I moved to the Pacific Northwest, to a small farm town of Washington State. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by farms and food systems that were literally only a few miles away from where I lived. To further put into perspective, I literally knew who my farmers were and where my food came from. The farmers would personally drop off loads of produce at the co-op I worked at, and we would even party together (it’s a super small town. 5,000ish people?). They weren’t conventional farms either. They were small organic farms, grown by mostly young farmers that truly cared to be harvesting and growing with the land.
For the first time in my life, this made me think about what I was putting into my body. Back then, I was thinking about it through a worldly perspective. I started to research what a certain leafy green could add to my nutritional makeup, what kinds of proteins I should eat to help me gain muscle, what kind of foods would help me have more energy, and even what foods would help me remember more information (Lions mane!!). Now, as I thank God every day for the food, he provides me and my family, I’ve started to think about the Godly take on healthy food and what that truly means for the care and spiritual well-being of our bodies.
Food is such an essential part of our survival as human beings, but there are also health implications, cultural practices, and as I’ve learned in my walk to faith, spiritual applications. All three of these buckets of food can be intertwined into a deep contemplative study, but for now I’d like to focus on our spiritual relationship to food and make the overarching claim that, Yes- God does care about what we put into our bodies and how.
In the Old Testament there are many laws and practices given to the Jews from God about what they should and should not eat and how they should and should not eat it. As these are no longer relevant to us (thank you Jesus) the scripture that has stood out to me most is from the book of Daniel. This book tells the rollercoaster story of the ruling of King Nebuchadnezzar, who was of Babylon. During his ruling he had ordered his chief of staff to recruit strong, high value men to enter the royal service. One of the men that was recruited was Daniel. As part of their training, they were to have a strict routine, including a specific diet provided by the King.
Daniel was from the tribe of Juda, and he was accustomed to a certain diet that worked well for him, and he understood and recognized that what he ate could affect him.
“But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.” (Daniel 1: 8)
Daniel makes it clear that it is not only a diet that he does not want to eat but that the food would go as far as defile his body. The significance in this language describing the food as defile plays a large significance. Essentially what Daniel is saying is that the food provided by the king would in a sense make his body spoil or deteriorate and make his physique lose the vitality that he maintains. So, not only would the food not be nutritious, but it would do the opposite of providing him the nutrients that he needs to keep himself in shape, make him unhealthy.
Because of his confidence in his diet and the benefits that it had provided him, he makes an agreement with the chief of staff to test his diet for ten days. If the diet would show results and he would be just as physically strong, or more than the others, than he would allow him to eat his food over the kings. After the 10-day period the chief and the king were surprised to find that he was the healthiest among the other servants. I remember when I first read this, I immediately felt such a close connection to God and validation for the clean eating that I was pursuing during my early stages of my faith. Before walking with Christ or ever reading the bible, I remember thinking that scripture was just a book full of “tho shall nots” and rules that were probably not relevant to me in this day in age. Well, I was so wrong, because God did not leave out any circumstance or scenario that we would not need guidance with, including our relationship to food.
So, What Does Jesus say about what we should eat?
I know there will be some people that say, “well Jesus said that we should not worry about what we should eat and that we should bless everything and enjoy everything.” This is true! In Mark 7: 18- 19 Jesus says, “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. (By saying this he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in Gods eyes).”
However, the overall context of this passage is referencing the laws of purity and how the pharisees wanted to challenge Jesus and his Disciples for not performing the Jewish hand washing rituals. What Jesus is trying to say is that what defiles a person does not come from the outside, or things that people eat, but instead comes from the heart. So even though he makes a reference to food, he is saying this because he wants to bring light to a person’s heart over perishables. It does not mean that Jesus does not think certain foods are bad or that we should not was our hands, in this context it means that what you eat will not change you if your heart is what is rotten.
1 Corinthians 6: 12 it says “you say- I am allowed to do anything- but not everything is good for you. And even though I am allowed to anything I must not become a slave to anything.” Essentially, there is a level of common sense that we must encounter with food. Later in the same chapter, God confirms that our bodies are temples of the holy spirit. Just as we are to take care of our relationship with God, we must also take care of the vessel where his spirit lives. This application is to sexuality, and any general care that we must have to make our temples give God the glory.
Throughout the Gospels Jesus also references people’s obsession with food when he talks about the bread of life. After he fed the 5,000, many were seeking him again because they were expecting – and to a certain extent, anxious- to eat again (John 6: 22-59). He points them to his spiritual bread and tells them that he is the one that can suffice the hunger that they have. Compared to now, societies were different back then regarding food systems. Then, people did not have as many resources as we have available today, and what we see in our society today is an overwhelming amount of people that are eager and anxious to eat- often with the food security we have today in comparison.
It’s not rare for people to snack because they are bored or eat just to make their bodies feel full. According to the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Healthcare, Professor Eva Schoen states that the most common eating disorder is binge eating disorder or, BED-which is rarely talked about in relation to other eating disorders like anorexia. Even though our society is different than biblical times, as humans we continue to seek the same fullness and we have the same hunger that Jesus address after feeding the 5,000. We stop searching for his spirit and a lot of the times I think it is replaced by overeating and unfortunately, binge eating.
My takeaway after reading the Gospels and considering the story of Daniel, is that there can -and should be a healthy balance as followers of Christ. After all, Jesus did not abolish the law, but he came to fulfill it! We are not tied to the law, and it won’t bring us salvation in any way, shape, or form, but when we feel convicted to make a change, it’s because God is directing us towards that path to help us be better and more spiritually strong.
As I explore our relationship with food, I want to make it clear that it is not my intention to shame or make anyone feel bad for their personal relationships with food. There is so much available to us today, and it would make no sense to not enjoy the blessings that God has also provided us. I mean who doesn’t want to enjoy ice cream in the summer, eat cake on their birthday, or buy a large bucket of movie theatre popcorn.
Instead, my curiosities and contemplations about food come from a place of caring about people’s health, and how they spill over into our spiritual life. After all, for many of us foodies, what we eat and how we eat it is a way of life, not just for means of survival. Throughout my exploration I will consider what would Jesus eat, our food systems, food trends in today’s western culture, health and wellbeing, nutritional values, organic farming practices, and how this all ties into Gods word.
What is your relationship with food like?
As I start to explore the American Christian diet, I’d love to learn about how most Christians treat food and their overall bodies in relationship to how they nourish themselves. I’d love to hear from you and your initial take on this topic! Leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation going!
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