Scripture has much to say about what God intended His created beings to eat. However, many consider the old Bible writings to be outdated in this modern day and age. Just what does the word of God say to us?
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3
Jesus Himself is the Creator of this world
and all the others in the universe, as well as the Creator of every being.
He created this planet to be inhabited and to be enjoyed by mankind. He
wanted him to be happy and healthy.
"Then God said - 'Let the land produce vegetation; seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds', and it was so." Genesis 1:11.
"And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:12
Everything was perfect with no weeds nor blights.
"Let us make man in Our image." "In the image of God created He him. Male and female created He them . . . to have dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 1:26
This dominion has subsequently been given up and someone else, namely the devil, now has it.
In Genesis 1:29
God said:
"I give
you every seed-bearing plant (grains, legumes and seeds) on the face
of the whole earth; and every tree that has fruit with seed in it," verse
29 (This includes nuts)
We do know that today we see only a fraction
of what was originally growing on this earth. Many varieties have become
extinct.
So, man's original
diet was seeds, grains, nuts and fruit. Man's digestive system is geared to this type
of diet! His system is very similar to that of today's fruit-eating
animals. The length of the digestive tract is a strong indicator as
to what type of food is normally eaten, and man's digestive tract is
12-14 times his trunk length (shoulder to hip), while fruit-eating animals
is about the same.
Herbivores, such as cattle, have a gut-length
some twenty times their body length, since it takes longer to digest
that sort of material, because of the fiber content. The shortest tracts
are, found in the carnivores - the meat-eaters. It does not take many thousands of years
for a change to take place in gut lengths due to changes of diet. Recent
studies have shown that this can take place over quite a short period
of time.
Satan's work is to destroy or deface God's creation whenever he can. Due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, Satan took over man's dominion of the planet, but he knows his time is short and the whole of creation has been groaning ever since. After Eve, then Adam had succumbed to Satan's temptation. God told Adam that the earth would be cursed - that it would produce thorns and thistles - and "You will eat the plants of the field." Genesis 3:18.
So,
after the Fall, mankind was also permitted to eat vegetables. This was
presumably because the original foods were not so often and readily available
as they were before. This may have been due to the seasonal changes that
took place at that time, or the diminishing levels of nutrients because
of the blighted earth.
Vegetables are very rich in elemental sulfur
and are good cleansers of the digestive tract. The tomato is very close
to a vegetable, but not to a fruit, which grows on a tree and has a
high fructose content. Vegetables also take longer to digest than the
original foods given by God; the fruits, grains and seeds. It has been
found and proved that if one eats vegetables at the same meal, with
any of the original foods, then fermentation takes place in one's gut.
This is not a healthy practice! (See Food
Combining)
This fermentation consists largely of fatty acids which have a detrimental effect on the body's immune system. Try and avoid eating vegetables and fruits at the same meal!
Fruits can be eaten with grains, seeds and nuts; and vegetables can be eaten with grains, seeds and nuts. Fruit is digested quickest, followed by grains, then seeds and then nuts. Vegetables take longer to digest than all these! (See Food-Combing Chart)
Avoid the two extremes at the same meal--fruit and vegetables.
About 80% of today's world population is near-vegetarian. Even today, everything our body requires is to be found in a grain kernel. It has the carbohydrate, the protein and the essential lipids we need; all in the correct amounts and proportions. However, man loves to separate these good foods - and sell them separately at much higher cost!
Is it man's greed for money which has caused under-nourishment in so many countries? Much of the whole food that is available is most likely bleached or treated with preserving chemicals. However, if we all ate more whole grains we would have far fewer diseases than we do.
Most of the bread we see these days is not what it could be, and often sadly lacks the basic natural ingredients.
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN - 2
Meat entered man's diet after the flood.
In Genesis 7:2, there is reference to seven pairs of each kind of clean animal, and only two pairs of each kind of unclean animal going into the ark. Thus, the concept of clean and unclean, is not a Jewish concept and has no ceremonial connotations, but emanated from the times before the flood. We are going to make a brief study of this very concept of "clean" and "unclean".
After the flood waters had receded, the earth had little vegetation for a while afterwards. Perhaps Noah had seeds with him and planted these for this first food. However, there would have been no fruit nor nuts for a number of years. So, the Lord gave this command:
"Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Genesis 9:3
"If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians - for I am the Lord who heals you." Exodus 15:26
God wants us to be healthy, and sets out specific guidelines as to what we should and should not eat.
"This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live; you must not eat any fat, or any blood." Leviticus 3:17
Today, man has come to realize, almost reluctantly, that fat is a killer.
The Israelites had become accustomed to the fleshpots of Egypt and were eating anything that moved, so God had to step in and specify which things were clean and fit to eat, and which were not.
"And
the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying unto them: 'Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, these are the beasts which
ye shall eat amongst all the beasts that are on the earth'".
Leviticus 11: 1,2
"Whatsoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud among the beasts; that shall ye eat." Verse 3
These
are the cows and goats.
All clean animals are cud-chewers; deer, buck and other game. They all have a pre-stomach, or rumen, in which the food is pre-digested. The bacteria is able to convert all the material into digestible matter. Only after this food has been thoroughly digested, does it enter the real stomach. Also, clean animals are all herbivores. They are, therefore, eaters of 'primary' material. Without exception, all other animals are unclean; those that consume secondary material; in other words, animals that eat animals!
Thus, God has specified that we are
to eat only clean animals and none of the others.
Birds that have a crop, are also clean, since their food is well- digested and there is no fermentation taking place.
Certain animals are attracted to certain plants because of specific alkaloids in that plant which are agreeable to only a few of those that fly, crawl or walk. Not every animal was to eat the same plant - for obvious reasons.
After sin, some plants died off and others underwent a change. Some were now available for only a fraction of the year instead of the whole year, as before. So what was a hungry animal to do when his favorite food was not available? Some did adopt a system of hibernation, if they were physiologically and genetically able to do so; rather like going into cold storage when there was little food around. A few may have died off, but others simply changed their diet.
Instead of being merely plant-eaters
they became carnivores. Ladybirds are carnivores, but during the
apricot season - they go for apricots! When that fruit is out of
season, they eat aphids.
When a species of Australian Parrot
could no longer get his juicy grubs from the roots of plants (something
his beak was designed for), he started attacking sheep; ripping open
their backs and eating the fat around their kidneys!
In those parts of America where the forests are being rapidly removed, the poor chipmunk (traditionally a herbivore) has had to become a scavenger - even eating those animals that have been run-over on the roads.
The
panda-bear is classified as a carnivore, but it eats mainly bamboo!
If that is not available, it will eat a rat, for example.
The koala bear, however, has a fixed
diet, eating only eucalyptus. Its digestive system just can not handle
anything else, but most animals have become quite versatile and eat
almost anything to survive.
A camel, for example, has no split or cloven hoof. It is unclean. This animal does have a similar digestive system to the clean animals; so what is the problem?
It has had to adapt to a world where there are deserts, which certainly were not there in the beginning. It has undergone a physiological adaptation to enable it to survive. Instead of sweating - and losing its body water - it allows its body temperature to rise to higher levels than before. This, unfortunately, allows the level of toxins in its body to rise to very high levels. This is its coping mechanism, but it is now unclean for human consumption.
The coney, or dassie, is unclean. He is a herbivore, but has a poor thermo-regulator. His body temperature does not remain constant throughout the changes in the weather during the year, and this causes his enzymes to be unstable, which results in intestinal fermentation being quite common. This means that the level of acid in his meat is much higher than in most other animals.
Leviticus 11:6 also states that the
rabbit is unclean. Why is this? The horse is also unclean. These
are only herbivores, so they should be clean. However, looking at
the digestive tact of the rabbit we see a very enlarged caecum. In
order for Mr. Rabbit to obtain sufficient nutrients from the plants
he eats, like the cow, he has to ferment the material, which requires
a fermentation chamber- with an alkaline environment; the bacteria,
too, need to be nurtured for this process. Since, Mr. Rabbit has
not got a pre-stomach, like the cow, he has to use his enlarged caecum.
However, his caecum is sandwiched between his gut and rectum and most of the absorption of the nutrients takes place here, so if he wants to re digest this material he has only one option. He becomes copro-phagae; in other words, he eats his own excrement.
The rabbit gets his extra nutrients he is seeking, but consequently the level of toxins in his tissues is far higher than in any of his other herbivore friends. Bile salts, fatty acids, gases, and ammonia levels are all at unacceptable levels for human consumption. He is unclean.
All rodents, the hare and even the horse, fall into the same category. They are all unclean - "and an abomination unto the Lord."
Now we turn to the swine, or pig.
Its meat has a very high intracellular fat level. That is not all.
All animal fat has a high level of toxic material.
In most modern farms, pigs are fed the worst of foods. On the biggest farms, the largest pigs are fed with non-hatched (rotten) eggs and chickens that had died from disease.
Sometimes, pigs are kept in batteries where four or five pigs have to compete for the food and only the front pigs get the food; the ones behind get the droppings. Because these materials are extremely toxic, any tissue from these animals makes them very unclean indeed!
Pigs have very high histamine levels which could create various immune reactions. The connective tissue is very rich in sulfur, leading to acidosis and osteoporosis, because of the loss of calcium along with the sulfates. It is believed that the high sulfate levels, especially in meat-rich diets, are responsible for osteoporosis.
Research is presently being done with sheep which have been developing osteoporosis due to their high protein diet, which is rich in sulfur.
At the time when pigs leave the farms, it has been found from a number of tests that 56% of all pork samples were contaminated with salmonella. When "clean" animals leave the farms, only some 15% of the meat is contaminated.
When the pig meat leaves the abattoir, it is 80% contaminated, and when it reaches the butcher, the levels are virtually 100%! The "clean" animals have only a 40% contamination level by this stage.
The pig is certainly responsible for much disease. Many people are allergic to pork (because of the high histamine levels), and it also encourages the formation of excessive amounts of mucous in our bodies. Avoid pork if you are asthmatic!
God warns us in Leviticus 11:26 not to even touch the carcass of a pig. It has high levels of contamination of bacteria such as campylobacta, salmonella, etc.
by Professor Walter J. Veith Phd.