God’s plan for healthy eating

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Live long, live well”

Our Bible verse for today: “God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you.” Genesis 1:29 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God’s plan for healthy eating”

God provides good food for us so that we can live a healthy lifestyle. That’s especially true for those of us who live in the USA. Few societies in the history of the world have had as much access to food, and as many choices, as Americans do in our day.

Initially, Adam and Eve were vegetarians. As we read in Genesis 1:29, God gave them plants and fruit that was healthy, delicious, and good for them. Later, He would allow humans to become carnivores, and our diet would then include animal meat. But even then, God limited humans to the best and healthiest of meats. Through the Levitical dietary laws, He forbid them to eat less healthy foods like bottom-feeding shellfish and the meat of scavenger birds.

The point is that God intended for the human diet to be nutritious and healthy, not filled with lots of unhealthy and processed foods. The entire body of Biblical literature regarding food choices encourages us to make healthy choices, and it portrays excessive eating and unhealthy choices as being contrary to the will of God for us.

In his interesting and helpful book, “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity”, Dr. Peter Attia and his team did extensive research regarding nutrition. After exercise, the quality of a person’s nutritional habits over the long-term is the second most important determining factor for health, fitness, and longevity. However, in our society today good nutrition has become complicated and challenging.

Perhaps our biggest challenge is that a lot of the food in our food chain is highly processed and not very good for us. Second, Americans eat entirely too much fast food and restaurant meals, which are often high in calorie content and relatively low in nutritional value.

Dr. Attia’s team also did a deep dive into the most popular diet plans and schemes. They discovered that most of them don’t work long-term. Many of them do successfully help people to lose weight initially, but most of them are unsuccessful at helping us to keep it off long-term. In the final analysis, a simple, basic, balanced diet is the best: Dr. Attia reported, “Nutrition is relatively simple, actually. It boils down to a few basic rules: don’t eat too many calories, or too few; consume sufficient protein and essential fats; obtain the vitamins and minerals you need; and avoid pathogens like E. coli, and toxins like mercury or lead (contaminated food).” That’s it. Just eat a moderate amount of reasonably healthy food; burn more calories than you consume (a little less is better than too much); and get some exercise every day.

God’s plan is for us to stay as healthy as we can for as long as we can. Eating right is a key element to achieving that. A healthy diet, maintained over years and decades, goes a long way towards helping us to live long and to live well.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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