why care what we eat?

[myquestions]

why do we care about what we eat and our health.

i am confused . didn't god say something like: it's not the food that you eat but the heart is clean? i can't remember where it is from?

 

[Beastt]

why do we care about what we eat and our health.

i am confused . didn't god say something like: it's not the food that you eat but the heart is clean? i can't remember where it is from?

Thank you for asking this excellent question!

That may or may not be scripturally correct. But the plain fact of the matter is that what you eat does affect not only the "cleanliness" of your heart, but its health as well. And if you look to Genesis 9:2-3, it tells you to eat specifically that which will lead ultimately to cardiovascular disease and premature death.

Aside from your own health, there are significant considerations for the health of the planet and your fellow man. The food choices made in western cultures are the primary reason for the loss of the rain forest, account for half of the fresh water usage, (something which is in very short supply), and contributes to a perpetuation of patterns which continually leave some people with more than enough to eat while others starve to death in the tens of thousands annually.

 

[Christ Aficionado]

why do we care about what we eat and our health.

i am confused . didn't god say something like: it's not the food that you eat but the heart is clean? i can't remember where it is from?

myquestions, the passage you are looking for is the following:

Passage Mark 7:14-22:
14And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

And if you look to Genesis 9:2-3, it tells you to eat specifically that which will lead ultimately to cardiovascular disease and premature death.

Will eating fish ultimately lead to cardio vascular disease and premature death?

 

[myquestions]

Thank you for asking this excellent question!

That may or may not be scripturally correct. But the plain fact of the matter is that what you eat does affect not only the "cleanliness" of your heart, but its health as well. And if you look to Genesis 9:2-3, it tells you to eat specifically that which will lead ultimately to cardiovascular disease and premature death.

Aside from your own health, there are significant considerations for the health of the planet and your fellow man. The food choices made in western cultures are the primary reason for the loss of the rain forest, account for half of the fresh water usage, (something which is in very short supply), and contributes to a perpetuation of patterns which continually leave some people with more than enough to eat while others starve to death in the tens of thousands annually.

cleanliness" of your heart <--oh i thought the scripture said it doesn't?! i must have got it wrong???

 

[Beastt]

Will eating fish ultimately lead to cardio vascular disease and premature death?

The short answer to this question appears to be, "no".

However, as the focus should be overall health and not just cardiovascular disease, there is a bit more to it. And as I've just finished posting some related information in another thread, I ask that you forgive me for cutting and pasting the information here in an attempt to answer your question more fully.

--------------------​

Since meats, poultry and dairy are also implicated in heart disease and several forms of cancer, it seems hard to imagine that you could be doing anything but improving your health in limiting these things in your diet. And while fish is recommended by many for the Omega 3 fatty acids which are said to be healthy for the heart, it should also be noted that if you reduce or exclude the meats, poultry and dairy, it's far less likely that you'll develop a reason to be concerned about the health of your heart in the first place. All of the cholesterol in your diet comes from animal sources for the simple reason that plants are unable to produce cholesterol. The vast majority of saturated fat in your diet also comes from animal sources. Saturated fat and cholesterol are the most consistently implicated dietary factors in the development of cardiovascular disease.

You might also wish to consider that virtually all fish available today comes with a surprise package of PCBs, heavy metals, organohalogens and chloronated hydrocarbons, (pesticide residues). Since no farmer wants to pay the high cost of having his crop dusted, just to have a rain wash it all away the next day, these products are necessarily fat soluble. As such, they remain stable in sunlight and don't rinse off when crops are watered or rained on. However, they do eventually make it into the soil and then to the water table. Once they access the water table, their eventual destination will be the rivers, lakes and oceans where fish spawn, live and are caught by commercial fishing vessels. And while fish aren't considered fatty as compared to beef, fish do contain fat which means that as they swim through their watery world, these fat soluble pesticide residues become locked into the tissues of the fish.

As small fish eat aquatic insects and the insects also serve as storage facilities for these chemicals, the toxins build up within the fish with each and every meal. Eventually larger fish eat the smaller ones thereby adding concentrated levels of pesticide residues to their own tissues. These steps through the food chain continue with a rise in toxicity levels of approximately ten fold for each link in the chain until the fish eventually ends up on your plate. The flesh of shellfish has been shown to retain levels of pollutants 70,000 to 90,000 times greater than the water in which they live. They become virtual sponges for the worst of the contaminants in the water.

PCBs alone are so toxic that it is illegal to sell fish for human consumption if they contain more than 5 parts per million. If the level exceeds 50 ppm, the fish aren't even allowed to be disposed of without first being specially treated to break down the PCB compounds. But many aquatic mammals which consume fish regularly are found to contain PCB levels of 400, 600 and even 1100 ppm. While we might expect that regular inspections keep highly contaminated fish from reaching our table, in reality, only a very small quantity of fish caught are ever inspected. As an example, (and I'm not sure if this is a typical or atypical example), in 1989 the FDA tested a grand total of 1,604 fish.

While you can limit your exposure to the problem by limiting or avoiding fish in your diet, since about half of America's fish catch ends up ground into fish meal and fed to livestock, it can still find it's way into your body and will end up locked up in your fatty tissues where it can inhibit the effectiveness of your immune system to fight disease and control the cancerous cells we all develop two or three times annually. Indeed, almost 90% of the pesticide residues found in the American diet are obtained not through the plants they are applied to but through animals who ingest the products from these plants and are in turn, ingested by us.

 

[Beastt]

cleanliness" of your heart <--oh i thought the scripture said it doesn't?! i must have got it wrong???

Perhaps the confusion is caused by the fact that my references are to what has been found through the study of reality, rather than scripture. My point in commenting on the scripture is that the Bible makes some dietary recommendations which seem contrary to what nutrition and medicine show to be the case.

In speaking of the "cleanliness of your heart", I was referring to atherosclerotic plaques rather than any affect upon the soul.

 

[progressivegal]

why do we care about what we eat and our health.

i am confused . didn't god say something like: it's not the food that you eat but the heart is clean? i can't remember where it is from?

The bible says we don't HAVE to follow food laws anymore, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't (nor that we should for that matter).
I see our bodies as a gift from the Lord, and if someone gives you a gift it's showing thanks if you take good care of it. In our world today there are alot of bad, disease-causing unhelathy "foods" for us to eat that weren't around in biblical times like partially hydrogrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, etc. In my opinion it's wise to avoid foods like these. Ultimately it's the Lord who takes care of your body, but I believe that he uses knowledge he's given us and others about good nutrition to do that sometimes. We are in no way condemed for what we eat or don't eat, but some foods are most definitely healthier than others. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.

I believe that that applies to what we eat as well. It won't change our salvation, but it can have consequences in this world that we can avoid and may not benefit us phsically or spiritually.

 

[JordanF]

It's not good to be obsessed about nutrition. Just leave it at all things in moderation.
That doesn't mean we should not take care of ourselves though. The Bible is not a scientific or medical book -- it only provides guidelines for righteous living.

 

[myquestions]

Perhaps the confusion is caused by the fact that my references are to what has been found through the study of reality, rather than scripture. My point in commenting on the scripture is that the Bible makes some dietary recommendations which seem contrary to what nutrition and medicine show to be the case.

In speaking of the "cleanliness of your heart", I was referring to atherosclerotic plaques rather than any affect upon the soul.

oh ok! isee

yes the bible has had recomentdations to diet soemtimes!!!!!
what should we say about that?

 

[Beastt]

It's not good to be obsessed about nutrition. Just leave it at all things in moderation.
That doesn't mean we should not take care of ourselves though. The Bible is not a scientific or medical book -- it only provides guidelines for righteous living.

I always love the "all things in moderation" creed. Would that include arsenic and cyanide? Before deciding that all things should be ingested in moderation, one should determine what is harmful and what is not. Certainly some harmful things can be consumed at a moderate level. But most people seem to look at the standard fare of their home culture as the standard for moderation. You need to establish a firm center of what is healthy before you can decide what moderation means. If you live in a western culture, then the standard diet is quite far removed from a "moderate" diet. Using the standard diet as a baseline is a sure recipe for a health disaster.

 

[Beastt]

oh ok! isee

yes the bible has had recomentdations to diet soemtimes!!!!!
what should we say about that?

Perhaps we can observe that Genesis 1:29 shows that God intended a herbivorous diet for man. Then in Genesis 9:2-3, God permits man to consume animal based foods. What people didn't know in the time when the Bible was written is that each diet correlates to a specific physiology. A biologist can classify an animal as carnivore, omnivore or herbivore based only upon the physiology of the animal. There is no indication in the Bible that God altered man's physiology when he altered man's diet. Perhaps this is why more and more, we're finding that adhering to the latter recommendations of the Bible leads to a great many health problems.

 

[myquestions]

Perhaps we can observe that Genesis 1:29 shows that God intended a herbivorous diet for man. Then in Genesis 9:2-3, God permits man to consume animal based foods. What people didn't know in the time when the Bible was written is that each diet correlates to a specific physiology. A biologist can classify an animal as carnivore, omnivore or herbivore based only upon the physiology of the animal. There is no indication in the Bible that God altered man's physiology when he altered man's diet. Perhaps this is why more and more, we're finding that adhering to the latter recommendations of the Bible leads to a great many health problems.

how come god did that then?! change our 'rules?

 

[California Dreamin']

Ever heard the part about your body being a temple? Sorry, if someone already said this, I haven't read the other posts yet.

Anyways, we are supposed to take care of ourselves. Not smoking, no alcohol or alcohol in moderation, exercise, healthy eating, etc.

We are supposed to have a healthy lifestyle.

 

[myquestions]

what does a 'temple really mean though'' =/

 

[Beastt]

how come god did that then?! change our 'rules?

Well, certainly different people have different opinions on this. My personal opinion is that he didn't. I see no reason to accept the Bible as other than the writings of men from a long, long time ago, who believed that there was a God who saw their enemies as they did, saw justice as they did, saw the world as they did and pretty much approved of whatever they did. Many people still seem to see it that way today.

I can understand that people 2,000 years ago wouldn't know that you can't simply change what an animal eats without changing the digestive system of the animal. Of course, a dog can be put on a vegetarian diet, but I don't know that it's good for the dog. And a rabbit can be made to eat beef, but it does the same thing to the rabbit that it does to people -- leads to heart disease.

So for me, this is but one more reason to believe that the Bible was the result of some well-intending, but somewhat ignorant men, who truly believe what they wrote. They thought killing a child was an appropriate punishment for cursing the parents. They thought the death penalty was appropriate for adultery. They thought it should be okay to attack the enemy and kill, not just the soldiers, but also the women, children, infants and animals. They thought that if they wanted to consume animal flesh, their God would approve. And they probably looked for signs as people do today. I remember when I used to believe, how I would look for indications of what I wanted and take them seriously.

So my short answer is; God didn't. Men did.

But that's my answer and it probably won't work for most people here. I base it on the evidence in human physiology, and in the Bible. God would have known what the authors of the Bible didn't know -- diet isn't just a matter of choice, it's also a matter of physiology.

 

[California Dreamin']

Assuming you're a vegetarian? ^^^

Me too

 

[Beastt]

Assuming you're a vegetarian? ^^^

Me too

I used to be.

About 13-years ago I tossed out the "etari" part.

I also took up cycling and my frequency of colds has dropped from 2 or 3 a year to one every 5 or 6 years. Could be the diet, could be the cycling: might not be either one.

 

[myquestions]

Well, certainly different people have different opinions on this. My personal opinion is that he didn't. I see no reason to accept the Bible as other than the writings of men from a long, long time ago, who believed that there was a God who saw their enemies as they did, saw justice as they did, saw the world as they did and pretty much approved of whatever they did. Many people still seem to see it that way today.

I can understand that people 2,000 years ago wouldn't know that you can't simply change what an animal eats without changing the digestive system of the animal. Of course, a dog can be put on a vegetarian diet, but I don't know that it's good for the dog. And a rabbit can be made to eat beef, but it does the same thing to the rabbit that it does to people -- leads to heart disease.

So for me, this is but one more reason to believe that the Bible was the result of some well-intending, but somewhat ignorant men, who truly believe what they wrote. They thought killing a child was an appropriate punishment for cursing the parents. They thought the death penalty was appropriate for adultery. They thought it should be okay to attack the enemy and kill, not just the soldiers, but also the women, children, infants and animals. They thought that if they wanted to consume animal flesh, their God would approve. And they probably looked for signs as people do today. I remember when I used to believe, how I would look for indications of what I wanted and take them seriously.

So my short answer is; God didn't. Men did.

But that's my answer and it probably won't work for most people here. I base it on the evidence in human physiology, and in the Bible. God would have known what the authors of the Bible didn't know -- diet isn't just a matter of choice, it's also a matter of physiology.

so is the bible all wrong?! why would we read the bible then?!

 

[sallystrothers]

why do we care about what we eat and our health.

i am confused . didn't god say something like: it's not the food that you eat but the heart is clean? i can't remember where it is from?

The scripture you are referring to was spoken by Jesus to the Pharasees. Under the old covenant, certain meats such as pork were deemed "unclean" by God and it was a sin to eat of them.

Jesus spoke those words to the Pharasees to show them that God is not after religious acts, traditions, and daily ways of life (symbolized by worrying about eating an 'unclean' meat) but rather God desires what comes out of heart.

God didn't change the rules. He sent Jesus not to break down the Old Covenant but to fufill it!!!

 

[Beastt]

The scripture you are referring to was spoken by Jesus to the Pharasees. Under the old covenant, certain meats such as pork were deemed "unclean" by God and it was a sin to eat of them.

Jesus spoke those words to the Pharasees to show them that God is not after religious acts, traditions, and daily ways of life (symbolized by worrying about eating an 'unclean' meat) but rather God desires what comes out of heart.

God didn't change the rules. He sent Jesus not to break down the Old Covenant but to fufill it!!!

The point I was trying to make is that the Bible does say that men may consume meat. But it offers no warning of the consequences nor does it make any mention of physiological changes which would be necessary for a body designed to consume only plant matter, (Genesis 1:29), to switch to an omnivorous diet, (Genesis 9:2-3). Certainly you can alter the kinds of things you put in your mouth and chew. But just as a monogastric won't do well if trying to live on the same diet as a multigastric, a herbivore doesn't have the digestive system of an omnivore or carnivore. Each is specific to the kinds of foods eaten.

When you look at mouth gape, jaw hinge location, teeth, saliva, salivary pH, quantity of saliva, level of development of the salivary glands, salivary enzymes, strength of the stomach acid, stomach capacity, length of the digestive tract and the interior contour and routing of the large intestine; humans show a clear physiology indicative of the diet described in Genesis 1:29 rather than the latter diet prescribed in Genesis 9:2-3. And indeed, when we look at medical records and statistics, we find that those still adhereing to the Genesis 1:29 diet, display only 1/15th the rate of heart attack, only 40% of the cancer rate, greater longevity and a reduction in diabetes and many other common diseases.

so is the bible all wrong?! why would we read the bible then?!

No, I certainly wouldn't say that it's all wrong. Whether or not anything in the Bible comes from a divine source, I think it's self-evident that there are many good lessons to be taken from the Bible. From my point of view, the problem is that many do take the Bible to be of a divine nature and therefore utilize it to justify things which might otherwise be very difficult to find any justification for. I've seen people on this very forum use it to justify war, even "pre-emptive" war, which simply means attacking someone else first because you feel they "might" attack you later. In legal circles, that pretty well defines "assault", (or "battery", depending upon the particular statutes where you live). People justify capital punishment, acts which I can only define as cruel and consumption of that which makes them sick as well as adversely affecting the environment.

Though it's somewhat beyond the scope of this thread, I'll touch very lightly on some of the other problems with adhering to Genesis 9:2-3 rather than Genesis 1:29. Most of us are aware of the rapid destruction of the rain forests. We know they are being slashed and burned at a rate of 2.4 acres per second. In the time it took me to type this response, we lost another 1564 acres. Why? Because people in South America will gladly trade rain forest for American dollars and we will pay them to strip the rain forest lands so that cattle may graze. Our demand has outgrown our ability to supply ourselves. And in 3 to 4 years time, that new pasture land will become erroded wasteland because rain forest soil is only fertile for about 3 to 4 inches in depth. Beyond that it's mostly sterile. Pastures don't uphold the high cyclical rate of nutrients in the rain forest so the lands become unable to support plants in only a few years. Half of the fresh water used in the U.S. is used to water livestock and to grow crops fed to livestock. In areas near feedlots, the water table becomes so saturated with nitrates that the water isn't safe to drink. Eighty percent of the grain grown in the U.S. is fed, not to people, but to livestock. Meanwhile thousands of children starve to death around the world. Twenty vegetarians can eat full and healthy meals on the one acre required to feed one omnivorous human. Raising animals is simply very costly on an environmental scale. An article in Newsweek Magazine, titled, "The Browning of America", reported that the amount of water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a Naval destroyer. It takes 2,500 gallons of water and 16-pounds of grain to produce a pound of beef. It takes only 25 gallons of water and fertile soil to produce a pound of wheat.

I simply cannot conceive of a divine entity who would make such recommendations. Certainly many others don't see it as I do.