I think today I’ll make a first entry about the relationship between food and faith. First of all, I want to say I saw a book at Sam’s the caught my attention: Women Food and God. I didn’t buy it, but the title spoke to me, so I read the back summary, and it’s apparently about the relationship between how you eat and what you believe, because if you say you believe one thing about your body, your appearance, your health, and God’s intention for your body and what is beautiful, you will eat in a way consistent with those beliefs. If I say I believe I am the way God wants me to be and that I am beautiful to him no matter my weight, height, BMI or whatever, then I will eat in a way consistent with that belief, meaning I won’t worry about whether the food will make me gain weight but will eat with the concern of if it is good for my body, if it honors God’s creation, and if it will give me pleasure—if I will enjoy God’s gift of food and the senses of taste, touch, and smell.
That is the first step I think: to believe that everything is God’s creation, and if we love God, we will honor His creation, including our own bodies, the lives of other creatures and the environment. Being a conscious vegan can do that: consuming plants avoids all the unhealthy junk found in animal products, and besides, the idea of eating the fat, muscle, and bloody carcass of animals is just sickening. I could never eat mean again without feeling like I was eating my own arm. And dairy and eggs are no better: they still have all sorts of icky bodily junk in them. Then there is the argument that humans are the only being that tries to consume the milk of another species. I don’t want to get into the biology of it all, for me it’s enough to just think about carving up the body of a dead animal to make me want to throw up, without getting into any of the ethical issues of how animals are treated while they’re alive in order to supply these “luxuries.” And I also won’t get into the statistics of how converting the whole world to veganism could solve world hunger, because those numbers are out there and I will leave it to experts to argue their claim.
Personally, having been vegan for what seems like forever, I see no reason to not be vegan. It’s easy to have delicious, satisfying foods that don’t hurt animals or the environment and that happen to nourish your body and give it the good nutrition it needs to be healthy, the way God designed it. It just makes sense to be vegan since I love God and want to honor Him. Veganism is just another sign of love and compassion, just like donating to charity, volunteering, offering a ride to someone who needs it, and just daily acts of kindness. It fits into a Christian life so seamlessly. When God gave Noah animals to eat, it wasn’t a command. We are not forced to eat meat or dairy, it is an option that we can refuse for the greater good, with the original peaceful, pain-free Eden in mind and heart.
“Giving up” meat and dairy doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the things you eat, just like “giving up” sin doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy your life anymore. When you live a life dedicated to Jesus Christ you realize that sin only causes problems, and when you go vegan you realize that eating a diet with animal products only causes problems. Sin and animal products only seem natural to human life because it’s been going on for so long and the nasty nature of humanity enjoys it, but the better soul of humans find true joy in godly life and a healthy diet. It may take some work or effort to break away from the nature a person is used to, mired in sin, meat and junk food, but the results from the effort are priceless.
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