We have always been concerned with what we put in our bodies (having both been raised on processed foods we feel, and see, the effects of it to this day) but for the past year we have been lead down a path to greater understanding about what God intended for us to put into our bodies. It started with a good look at the Food Laws in the Scriptures. For the first time we looked at the list of clean and unclean animals and saw what God intended for food and what He did not intend for food. Swine, shellfish, certain other fish, birds of prey and all sorts of scavenger birds, rodents, insects (except for locusts and grasshoppers), and many other specific animals like cats and dogs; these are all unclean meats. It didn't take too long to understand why God didn't intend for these animals to be food for humans. Almost all of them are the garbage eaters of the earth. Pigs will eat nearly anything including other dead pigs, cancer off of sick pigs, garbage, feces, etc. Pork was an easy animal to give up since we never really ate it anyway. The only time we ate it was when it was served at another persons house and we felt rude for pushing it away. So we ate it. Pork has always made me sick, but understanding HOW it was unclean was an eye opener as to why it may have made me sick to begin with. Pigs are really disgusting creatures. Filthy and disease ridden. Why would we want to put that into our bodies? We don't and God never intended us to. He created us. He knows exactly how our bodies work because He designed them. He knows what is good for us and what is bad for us. So, in faith, we decided to believe that, and we stopped eating biblically unclean animals.
Lobsters, muscles, shrimp and crab- these are the bottom dwelling sea animals. They, like the pig, are also the animals that clean the earth of garbage and toxins. It is interesting to know that fisherman would spot crabs swarming around boat docks soon after the boats would come in for the night. During this period of time, it was common for the fishermen to dump their toilets overboard. This was what was bringing the crabs in. They were feeding off of the feces from humans. Gross. No matter how good crab might taste, there is nothing that would make me want to eat something that eats the feces of any animal. Which is why we don't eat rabbits either, another unclean animal. Rabbits have very poorly developed digestive systems, like pigs and many other unclean animals. It doesn't take long for what they eat to travel through their bodies and out the other end. Their food travels so fast through their digestive system in fact, that many nutrients remain in the food and it is then deposited at the end of the cycle in their fecal matter. Rabbits, dogs, cats, and others then eat their feces to get more nutrients out of it.
With most biblically clean animals that God intended for food, they have very highly developed digestive systems, like the cow. Cows have several stomachs and they continue to regurgitate what they've already eaten in order to receive the most nutrients from the food and to digest it properly. This makes their meat more nutritious. We are what we eat. If we are eating things that eat garbage and toxins, we are eating garbage and toxins. If we eat animals that are eating clean vegetation, like cows, then we can be assured that we are eating clean meat that has nutrients in it.
Now, this brings us to another subject. Factory farming! Food production has become a corporation. In order to produce the most food at the quickest rate and in order to make the animals as fat as possible as soon as possible, factory farms feed their animals, like cows and chickens, corn instead of their natural diet. Cows are not meant to eat corn. It makes them sick, makes them fat and not to mention the majority of the corn in the US is genetically modified, so it's not even real food that they are consuming. So, how can we be eating real food if we eat these factory farmed animals? So, as well as abstaining from biblically unclean animals, we also abstain from factory farmed animals. This year we are purchasing half of a grass fed cow which will be our main source of meat for the year. We will also be purchasing a few lambs for the year, and a few pastured chickens each month. It's nearly impossible to find grass fed meat in the supermarket and if you do find it, it is so expensive! But, when we shop locally, from local farmers, the prices are very reasonable.
So, not only are we eating the foods that God designed for our bodies, but we are getting them locally, they are non-GMO, for the most part organic and to top it off, these animals are happily living on family farms, where they are able to live as God intended them to live. We are called to be good stewards of our bodies and all that God has given us, this includes our animals. We no longer wish to contribute to the mass production and slaughter of animals in this country just to feed our fat bellies. We want to honor God above all things, and that means honoring our bodies, our earth and the animals on our earth.
A good site for an explanation of biblical eating is here.
I encourage you all to check it out and see what the bible actually has to say about it.
Interesting stuff!
