How To Eat Food
Indulge me for an experiment? I am going to throw out some words and I want you to take notice of how you feel after you read them.
Here goes: Keto. Clean Eating. Whole30. Plant-Based. Vegan. Low Carb. Healthy Eating.
Now this: Bread. Sugar. Milk. Carbs. Cheese. Junk.
Anything? It’s fine if not. But maybe you felt something like a smear of guilt, being reminded again of how you should be eating? A glisten of self-satisfaction thinking of how well you’ve done lately? Perhaps it was fear that nudged you, because after-all, disease and early death are mitigated by healthy eating. Resolve? A little bit of, “Tomorrow, I’ll do better”? Maybe you felt your zeal bubbling up for the “best” way to eat. Or annoyance? Annoyance is a valid response.
This post won’t deal with the specific foods or diets I mentioned above (sorry and you’re welcome). Instead, I want to think about the attitude of the Christian in regards to food and diets. This is such a nuanced topic and I will miss lots, I’m sure. Because this is not a complete exegesis and for the sake of trying to keep this succinct, I want to just nod at three areas which followers of Jesus should be concerned about when it comes to diets and food “purity.” Fear, misplaced worship, and faith.
Fear
Meat causes cancer. But you need fish. Actually, it's grass-fed beef you need, all those CLA’S... News flash, it's carbs that cause cancer. Too much fruit is terrible for you. Fruit is good for your gut, which is good for everything. Eating vegan will heart-attack proof your ticker.
Overwhelmed?
If you are in charge of feeding yourself—let alone a family—the potential to fear is high. To feel that the food you are choosing on a daily basis is a ticket to an early grave or that you can control your loved one’s destinies with dinner is enough to make one's heart beat a little faster. If you spend five minutes googling the healthiest way to eat you will come across a lot of differing opinions from a lot of smart people and possibly a dose of fear-mongering here and there. If you spend five minutes on a word search in the Bible on “food” or “eat” you come up with very different results.
“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).
“He...gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:25).
“...foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:3–4).
Do you notice the freedom in the few verses above? The words “every” and “everything” and “He gives” speak to our Creator’s exuberant delight in providing us with a bounty of delicious choices. He gives us all this food because he loves us. We must not shut down in fear when we read that a smart doctor says the bread and the meat we have been eating all of our lives will knock on the door of our health in the form of cancer. Put simply, we should not be afraid of foods that God has said we can eat.
Of course, I am not referring to allergies or medical diets for managing health conditions such as epilepsy or diabetes, for example. I also understand that there is such a thing as individuality and many good reasons one would avoid certain foods. I am thankful for dieticians and nutritionists who can help people navigate which foods work best for them. And of course, there is such a thing as gluttony and too much honey (Proverbs 25:16, Proverbs 23:20). There is a space for responsible stewardship over the body. After all, “Bodily training is of some value,” (1 Timothy 4:8, emphasis mine).
What I am talking about is fear and control. The obsession to control your days and your body with the food you eat and don’t eat. “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life” (Luke 12:25)? Your days are lovingly numbered by your Father who will at some point, call you out of your broken body, Home. Don’t be afraid of food. In the same vein, don’t be overly ecstatic when scientists sound blast out that kale is great for you! God did, in fact, make kale as a food for our bodies to eat and as Paul says, the Lord is “for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13). Let us worship and fear the Lord who made food, not food itself.
Misplaced Worship
It is estimated that 45 million Americans a year go on a diet (bmc.org). That’s a lot of us! There is nothing wrong with going on a diet in principle. We are quite free to eat what we want, diet or not, but we are to watch out for what can master us. “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Paul is talking here to the Corinthians about the argument some made about doing whatever they pleased with their bodies. His counter-argument is that not all things are helpful and the body is for the Lord.
I am not here to tell you if a certain diet is a good or bad thing for you. I don’t care about the diet, really. I don’t care because it's your spiritual heart that the Lord is concerned about. We should never be infatuated with our diet or eating “healthy.” Our lives as Christian women should be overflowing with worship to God, not to our bodies nor our diets. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Sometimes it concerns me when I hear people talking about this verse. It seems like the emphasis stays on “your body is a temple!” As if the focus of our lives should be on glorifying this temple, you know because the Holy Spirit resides there and all. Instead, the emphasis should be on God’s grace in the giving of His Spirit and how we can in turn glorify him!
Our bodies belong to Jesus. We owe zero allegiance to sugar and we owe zero allegiance to turmeric. We are not better than our sisters when we stick to an eating plan and we are not better than our sisters if we don’t have an eating plan. “Food will not commend us to God” (1 Corinthians 8:8). Let us worship him together, regardless of the ways we eat.
Faith
“Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). This verse means that it is possible to sinfully eat a salad. Really? This seems a bit dramatic, surely. But think through this with me. It is lunchtime and you sit down to a yummy, sprouted, gluten-free, dairy-free, salad. You chose this dish because you are afraid that honey and dairy will invite disease and because you feel a little lost when you don’t “eat clean.” What are you putting your faith in right now? Sounds like some leafy greens. What are you worshipping? Your diet, your body. You could also sit down to the same yummy, sprouted, gluten-free, dairy-free salad with thanksgiving to God for the food he has made and with faith that he will provide your body with everything it needs to do his will.
The same scenario could be for a burger lunch or cheesecake with friends. We don’t need to overeat, stuffing ourselves because we believe it’ll fill up our soul. We believe instead in God, who satisfies us more than with rich food.
There is such a thing as “believing in food.” Either that it’ll fill our souls the more we eat or that it’ll deliver promises if we adhere to abstaining from certain foods. But that is not us, Christians. We believe in Jesus. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
In conclusion, diet to God's glory. Or don’t diet to God’s glory. Gluten makes you feel yucky? Go ahead and don’t eat it. But don’t be afraid of it. Fear God, not food. Worship God, not the body or food. Believe in Jesus, not your eating plan.
The drumbeat of our lives should be worshipping God and resting in the freedom Jesus bought for us. You are hidden with Christ in God and one day you will be with him in glory forever and ever and ever. And this truth holds, whether or not you eat a salad a single day in your earthly life.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).