Diets And Such

Diets And Such

Is it just me or have you noticed it too? You talk to someone for a few minutes and the subject turns to food. Not only food, but the ingredients that the food possess; like how much sodium, calories, protein, cholesterol, and does it have saturated or trans fat. From there it goes to diets. What diet are you on? Is it working for you? I tried that one once and gained weight so I gave it up. Is this what you hear?

It is amazing to me how people allow food to control their lives. There seem to be three popular reasons why people deprive themselves of the foods that they love. One reason for avoiding certain foods is their doctor has forbidden eating it. Another is when they have decided on a diet they will defend it passionately and suffer the loss of favorite foods. The third group believe that some foods can turn against them. For instance one person says they can’t drink coffee after 6 PM or they stay awake all night, while someone else says, “Don’t even think of speaking to me in the morning until I have had my coffee.” Food is important but is it our master?

I guess where you live determines what you like to eat. In other parts of the world people eat and enjoy difference things. In Japan they love raw fish, we call it sushi; Eskimos eat whale blubber, The French find escargot a fancy dish, we call them snails. Africans, in the bush, are fond of ants and termites, people enjoy octopus, snake and eel, which seem strange to us, but they would find hamburgers and hot dogs weird eating.

Even in the USA our location has a lot to do with our choice of cuisine. In the south they eat a lot of rice, Boston is noted for baked beans, Texas for chili, New York for Rubin sandwiches and so it goes.

Perhaps we have acquired our fear of food from the Old Testament? The Bible set some very rigid rules on what meat the Jewish people were allowed to eat. Beef and lamb were fine, pork was absolutely forbidden. But do you know there is a place, also in the Bible, that gives us authority to eat whatever we please?

Peter is the disciple who understood that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God. The story takes place after Jesus has left this earth. It is not a safe time to be a Christian. Peter is hiding in a friends home, he is tired, hungry, and waiting on supper to be served. He falls into a trance where he watches a sheet descending from heaven, full of all matter of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. Peter was told to rise, kill and eat. Peter refused, “Not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” Peter felt certain that he was being righteous by not eating what, according to the Jewish religion, was forbidden to eat.

The voice answered Peter, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” Good advice don’t you think? Read for yourself Acts 10:10-16 Thrice this happened.

Now I have to admit that the passage is not actually about food. It is to inform Peter that although it is unlawful for a Jew to keep company with anyone from another nation, this is not God‘s law. God showed Peter not to call any man common or unclean. Acts 10:27-28. Does it matter if we are talking about food or humanity? If God created it, and He created everything, then it wasn’t created to harm another of His creations. I take this to mean we can eat wherever, whenever, and whatever, without worry about how the food will react on our health or weight. That is if we eat when we are hungry and stop when we are satisfied. Our tendency is to eat because it is there, it looks good, tastes delicious, and we were taught to clean our plates. This might annul the promise of eating worry free.

Does it make you wonder, as it does me, why the change in the law? God is the same today as He was the day He said, “Let there be..” Could it be the misinterpretation of the leaders of religion so that they could control those who didn’t know any better? A law of the church doesn’t necessarily mean it came from God now does it?

One more thing. I think our taste in food will change drastically when we see the lion laying down with the lamb. The thought of killing anything that has life to sustain our own life will be abhorrent to us. It will be God’s pleasure to supply us spiritually with everything we want for our happiness and that includes delicious food.

818 words Loretta Ellen Edwards