Is the Raw Diet Biblical?
A question that often gets tossed around in regards to diet and health is “What Are Humans Supposed to Eat?”
Animal species all have instinctive diets. Nobody had to tell them what they eat or why. They just eat. When humans start feeding them (pets) they start to get the same degenerative diseases that we do like cancer. If left wild and to their own devices they rarely get degenerative diseases so it is easy to see that they were meant to eat certain foods and when they go outside those foods for nourishment they suffer. But what about humans? Don’t we have a diet we are meant to eat. If we were designed bya higher power than what were we designed to eat?
There is a lot of scientific evidence that humans should eat a primarily raw vegan diet. But what does the Bible teach, since Christianity is the biggest religious sect? I have heard Christians say that we were meant to eat meat because we were given dominion over animals and this implies that we get to eat them. Others say that because Christ served fish to his followers we were meant to eat meat. Yet there is a scripture in Genesis where God tells us exactly what he intended for Adam and Eve to eat. Genesis 1:29:
Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.
Some translations say herb instead of plant but the meaning is the same. One has to ask…if God meant for us to eat meat or animals products would he not have mentioned it among the items he listed as “food”. This is especially important considering the very next verse does talk about animals:
and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
So after God tells us what his human creations will eat he tells us what the animals will eat but never is it mentioned that humans will eat the animals. This seems like a kind of important omission.
So…it seems humans were not meant to eat animal products or meat. We were also not intended to cook our food…that “invention” did not arrive until much later. So why did humans start eating things they were not supposed to. Many raw Christians have come to theorize that the “fall from grace” may be linked to food.
When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden they lost their perfection. Yet how was this accomplished? Was there a perfection on/off switch that got flipped?
The fact that they and their offspring lived for many, many years longer than humans today tells us something significant. Adam lived to 930 years. Their prefect health started to deteriorate and be bred out of them as a species, almost like a degenerative disease. But why would perfect cells start to deteriorate? Could it be because humans no longer had the food they were intended to eat? Could it be that their cells were being replenished with food that did not meet their needs as a species? It is actually a logical explanation IMO. Give them food that sustains life but slowly causes it to decay and erode and perfection lost. Every new baby born would be “built” with faulty materials and the cycle would continue. Easy and logical.
Another interesting thing I learned recently was about the Essenes, who were a Jewish religious group that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. It is acknowledged that they were raw vegetarians. It is claimed by many that Jesus was an Essene, as was John the Baptizer. While I do not know if he was or he wasn’t it makes sense that Jesus would know what humans should eat. There is only one scripture in the Bible that indicates Jesus may have eaten meat. He was given fish and a honeycomb to eat and we are told he ate IT (Luke 24:41-43). Notice we are not told he ate them but he ate it. Does this mean both or just one of the two items that were given him? There is also the fact that this account does not match up to the other gospel accounts. In fact it states that Jesus’ first appearance before his disciples after resurrection was in Jerusalem where this fish eating occurred. Yet the other gospel accounts very clearly say his first appearance was in Galilee. Was Jesus in Jerusalem eating fish or was he in Galilee where he said he would be? Many think this was just an error and others think it was added later by someone else to create a forgery.
The fact that Jesus condoned his followers eating meat in the Bible is not a significant detail. If food was the mechanism by which man’s perfection was being bred out them then he would hardly tell them that.
The Hacres web site also has an interesting pdf for free on their site that goes into why raw foods are our optimal diet. It talks about how our living souls were sustained by living foods and that meat and cooked foods are both dead foods not intended for humans. It is simple logic…life supports life. Death cannot support life.
Other religions too have much to say about veganism and vegetarianism. Jews and Christians arose from the same group of people so they too have Genesis 1:29 telling them what humans were given to eat. One of the primary teachings of Buddhism is that one cannot take the life of living beings. While some many argue that buying meat is not the same thing as killing it yourself, buying is providing the monetary means for killing. Medieval Hindu manuals claim that Hindus should be eating “grains, honey, milk, ghee, butter, Indian vegetables, and pure water.”
This is just one of those deep things I was thinking about last night. It just all adds up and makes so much sense. Not that I am saying we can just go raw vegan and be perfect again. But I think there is MUCH data that we can draw from to conclude that whether were were created or designed…we were meant to eat a raw vegan diet.
2.4.09 at 7:09 am
Lauren comments:
Thanks for sharing this. I always refer to those sayings from the bible when I need to prove to someone that we aren’t suppose to eat animals. I need to forward this to a few people..hehe!
Laurens last blog post..Roses are red.. Broccoli is green..
2.4.09 at 7:30 am
Amy (chaseafterwind) comments:
God’s original instructions to Adam and Eve were to only eat vegetarian, that is true. But after the flood, God tells Noah that the animals are also now given to people to eat. Genesis 6:3-4 says: “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” Later in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) God gives greater detail in his laws about what animals should and should not be eaten, and how they should or should not be prepared. It seems to me that in the Bible God is saying that you can eat animals, but that it must be done in a clean, safe and ethical manner.
I do think Christians, Jews, everyone are free to be vegetarians or vegans if they want to be, but the Bible can’t really be used to say that we should be vegans today. Your theory about meat eating being the cause of our shorter life spans – who knows, there may be something to that! But if that is the case, then apparently God wanted our lives to be shorter if he nudged us in that direction by telling Noah to start eating meat.
Amy (chaseafterwind)s last blog post..Time Crunch = Blogging FAIL
2.6.09 at 11:13 am
Joanna RawTN comments:
Funny to run across this! My devotion was similar this morning… Same passage.
2.16.09 at 10:17 am
Rhett Renoud comments:
I agree with Amy (chaseafterwind). I try to eat as much raw as I can, however I do think that eating occasional meat is also okay if properly prepared. In today’s raw food world, people are having to go to extremes to stay healthy, meaning they are buying foods from all over the world to make sure they are covering all their needed vitamins, trace minerals, and proteins. For my body, occasional meat keeps my raw food diet in balance and I feel best when I eat meat once a week.
4.13.09 at 10:53 am
dee comments:
Honestly, I agree with you. God did create our bodies to eat as directed in Genesis 1:29. The fact that God later permitted us to eat meat does not mean that thats what our bodies were originally structured for. We must remember that God already said that our days would be limited and then let us eat meat. I mean if we were not gonna live long anyway- might as well eat some meat right? Just because you are allowed to do something does not mean that it is in your best interest to do so. I have been transitioning for a while now and just recently decided to go vegan. There is too much information and knowledge out there to continue to be blind. Life sustains life. Death brings about death.
4.30.09 at 10:21 am
Katie Collett comments:
I was looking for some Biblical answers about WHICH meats weren’t we supposed to eat. I’ve been changing my diet drastically, and of a similar outlook as you.
I know that I want to stay away from pork (though I do greatly enjoy its flavor!)
And I do know the effects of Beef… VERY poor!! Our bodies act like it just ingested poison, and it takes at least 3 days to digest! ;(
But fish… I know that in the Bible days, people ate fish, and Jesus ate fish, and that we are not suppose to eat shellfish (metal-eating bottom dwellers)… but what fish CAN we eat???
If you even KNOW where to point me I’d appreciate it. I study the Bible, but that doesn’t give me clear pictures or names of fish, being as fish from the store doesn’t have scales or fins to tell it by, according to God’s word.
Thanks for your site!!
I think it was in Leveticus or so, that he said about “w/ such and such hooves, you may eat, but not….” and such a such fish w/out scales..” or such…
But goodness- when I buy fish, I don’t know what kind of scales or fins it DID have before I purchased it. ;(
5.4.09 at 1:30 am
LittleBill comments:
I’m not a big Bible Scholar or anything but I know it says, thou shalt not kill. I don’t remember it specifying only humans. Of course in the South where I live, a lot of “Christians” tend to cherry-pick things from the Bible and interpret it in a way to support their argument instead of taking it at its word.
I know many of them will hunt deer just so they can brag about killing a buck with however many points on it. Then they feed their fat bellies until they’re fully engorged while sitting around talking about how the country has gotten so immoral because of homosexuality and whatever else THEY don’t do.(supposedly) Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Bible also says something about pride and gluttony along with the whole ‘don’t kill’ and ‘don’t lie down with another man’ thing.
Anyway, I think we’re probably allowed to eat animals but only if they’ve already died on their own or have been killed by another animal. And I think maybe it’s only as a last resort if nothing else is available. Something about the second highlighted passage on here is interesting though. It says God gave every green plant for food to the beasts and birds. But obviously many of them are carnivores. Anybody have a theory on that?
8.13.09 at 4:57 pm
Mandy Mom comments:
Little Bill, I dont think this applies to animals based on this point: God called for sacrifices of MEAT, so if the law included animals, then each person who gave a sacrifice for his sin would sin again on that issue. Make any sense?
But, the bible does say this:
Proverbs 12:10(NIV):
A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.
This clearly says that we should be kind to and care for our animals- whether its a cow or a puppy dog. And, when we look at how livestock and such are treated today, it’s definitely not bible-abiding!
11.8.09 at 1:35 am
Wandi comments:
The first statement still remain; humans were never meant to eat meat!
5.1.10 at 8:33 pm
Amanda comments:
I believe the Bible (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth…
to be a literal tool for all humans, and I agree with the information presented in this blog.
Although, I do have one addition:
We were, in fact, created with the instruction to eat plants, and that’s fact.
The most important thing, though, is that God did not give Man the isntruction to eat meat until AFTER the Flood.
“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon
every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes
of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving
thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green
herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”
Genesis 9:2-4, KJV
This also means that man and animals were companions compared to today, where animals live in fear of human dominance.
Assuming that food was now harder to come by since Life as they knew it had been destroyed on Earth, Noah and his family were probably told they had dominion over animals and were allowed to eat meat to survive.
Whatever reasons God had, it’s told in the bible as well that it is not a sin. Romans states that neither meat eaters nor vegetarians shall judge eachother.
Romans 14:2-3 (English-NIV)
2
One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
3
The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
Although many readers now know the health problems with eating meat (and Dairy!!!), according to the Bible, man has the choice, and neither should tell eachother what to do.
I believe the healthiest thing to do is eliminate meat from the human diet, but again it’s a personal choice.
For people who have ethical problems with meat eating (I hear ya!) take comfort in God’s promise – he states that one day everything shall be restored…
This means that people will walk with animals, with no fear, and the earth will return to it’s natural state – where everything eats plants! Indeed, the lion shall lay down with the lamb – because the latter will no longer wish to eat prey such as innocent livestock.
The world’s definitely not perfect, but just stick to what you know is right in your heart. Change will come, and the best thing you can do is just try to openly show God’s initial plan for humankind, and when people are ready, they will accept it.
I’d recommend taking a look at this site if you want to look farther into it. It has some good points.. —>
http://www.heaven.net.nz/answers/answer16.htm
11.3.11 at 1:21 pm
Steve comments:
This was a fun article to find and ponder over.
I’m a member of the LDS faith, and we are also told in our ‘restored gospel’ to eat fruits and herbs as our primal diet. We believe the Bible also to be the Word of God, but we have additional advise from our leaders today that tells us meat (animal flesh) is to be used as a secondary food – to eat it sparingly – only for times of famine, winter, and starvation.
Perhaps this is why God told Noah’s family to eat the meat – there were no trees with fruit, and no plants and vegetables to eat after the great flood. Maybe it is better to eat an animal in extenuating circumstances rather than starve to death. What do you think?
Anyway, God is our Creator and I think we all know that the best and most nutritious food is fresh fruit and wonderful raw, vegetables foods. Cooking makes food taste really great sometimes (mom’s apple pie), but heat also destroys many of the nutrients, ruins the oils, and kills all the enzymes. And of course, Life Force is no longer present in the food.
Our best food is food right from the garden in its perfect state – raw, just as God made it and revealed in Genesis 1:29. When we serve our body with awesome fruits, veggies, and the wonderful whole grains, then we are able to serve our fellowmen and serve our Savior with strength and health, and hopefully long life.
Thanks for your site.
Steve
11.22.11 at 2:59 am
Gen comments:
I like Steve’s thinking. It is possible that after the flood there was vegetation or fruit readily available. The animals in the ark must have produced offspring (considering one male and one female were brought in). So, it would make sense. Perhaps God didn’t want us to live longer, therefore introduced meat into our diet. A sense of population control considering what took place prior to the flood.