The New Year has come and gone and once again we are hearing about diets and gym memberships. After Thanksgiving and Christmas cookies, many people get concerned about those few extra pounds. Many people also struggle with diets and we all know from experience that the advice to just cut calories and exercise is over simplistic. The Biggest Loser TV series never has a bring-back-the-winners show. Why? Because almost all the contestants gain all the weight back and then some. Even babies these days are over weight. However, most people who are over 40 remember when the majority of people were not fat. Just look at older pictures! Ancient advice was simply to avoid starches and sugars to lose weight and nobody really exercised or counted calories.
So the "heart healthy" diet authored by Ancel Keys in his flawed low-fat, unscientific plan has been in place since the 1960s and has basically spurred the billion dollar diet industry. Man'’s solutions are all these diet plans that many of us have experienced: Jenny Craig, Noom, Mediterranean (low fat), Keto (high fat, low carb), Carnivore (meat only), vegetarian (vegetables only), and meal skipping. If you think about it, the traditional Japanese are pretty much vegetarian AND are long lived. The Eskimos eat only meat and they are NOT short lived. The difference is that our traditional cultures mostly ate food that God created and not food processed in some factory somewhere.
What is God's solution?
2 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
All things pertaining to life and godliness refers to diet as much as other things, right? Let's look at the Bible. The lion didn't eat the lamb in the Paradise administration; all were vegetarians. All that changed when Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden. In the final administration the lion and the lamb will once again lie together safely. You can be a vegetarian now if you want to be. We see that Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abdenigo ate only pulse (vegetables) in Babylon rather than eat the special food provided them by the king. See, the Old Testament laws included very strict dietary laws they had to follow.
Levitius 7:6 And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. 27 Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people.
This is one example of many dietary laws. There also were laws for particular kinds of animals that could be eaten and you also couldn't eat meat offered to idols.
Now the rules are changed. In this administration, the Grace administration, we are free from the law, including dietary law. Remember Peter's rooftop experience?
Acts 10:9-15 10On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Now, obviously the context is all about Gentiles in the church, but can this really apply to food as well?
Food was addressed in the book of Acts.
Acts 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: 20But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
This is further expounded in Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 10:25-31 25Whatsoever is sold in the shambles (NIV meat market), that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: 26For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 27If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof: 29Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? 30For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? 31Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
So now we can freely eat ham, bacon, and clams, right? In the Gospels the disciples are instructed to eat whatever was put in front of them when they went from house to house. Now, obviously they weren't going to Gentile's houses to eat pork at this point in time. Nonetheless, it is proper for us to prayerfully eat what is set before us when we visit someone (unless, of course, you are allergic). Prayer sanctifies what you are about to eat.
I Timothy 4:1-5 1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith… 3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
In fact, Matthew 6 tells us not to worry about food.
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
So, there is nothing wrong with exercise or eating a particular way. Our focus should be on God and not all worried about the latest fashion trend or what diet is going to melt off 30 pounds in 5 days. When your granny wanted to lose a few pounds she stopped eating sweet and starchy things. It still works. Meal skipping works too, if you want to lose weight faster. (Notice I didn't call it some kind of fasting. Abstaining from food (or sex) for the purpose of spiritual warfare and prayer is a different kind of discipline). We shouldn't be focused on the things the world is focused on. Practice moderation in all things, and if you want to lose a few pounds, practice a little abstinence but don't get obsessive about it. God bless you.!