Wise Counsel and Diet

When it comes to food, what is the right answer?

I have run into this kind of discussion more than once lately and had a few things I wanted to add. There are so many different opinions on what we should be eating and they can easily become overwhelming. So how do we figure it out?

We can all agree that the OT has explicit lists of things to eat and not to eat, correct? Whether you believe that has been done away with or not, you agree it's there. It was either OK, or it was not. There wasn't a grey area when it came to the scriptures and food. Now to a specific topic I have seen lately- milk. Double Nickel had a post about it (and I'm not picking on her here, it just happened to be at her place that I found the best link to the discussion). The premise of it being whether or not we should be drinking milk from other animals.

Aside from the debate about organic/non-organic, or hormone free versus milk factory products, it was stated that humans are the only animal that consume another animal's breast milk. I have heard that argument several times before, that it is not meant for us, and consuming it causes a host of problems (and again, I'm not picking on anybody here, just using that example).

I agree that what is done to our foods, and specifically milk, is not only crazy but has lasting and dire consequences. But I also know that God designed our bodies to process milk and He gave it to us as a food source:

He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Genesis 18:8

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey..Exodus 3:8

...Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk. Exodus 23:19

He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats...Deuteronomy 32:13-14

They also brought wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from cows' milk for David and his people to eat. For they said, "The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert. 2 Samuel 17:28-29

You will have plenty of goats' milk to feed you and your family and to nourish your servant girls. Proverbs 27:27

....and there are many more- just find a Bible concordance and look up the word milk.

These aren't even the implied kinds of instructions in the Bible- it is explicitly stated that milk and its byproducts are for our consumption.

Now, I understand and completely agree that there is a huge increase in the number of people who are either lactose intolerant or completely dairy allergic (I am one of them). But I see that as a result of the fall and continual corruption of everything on earth (which is why even the ground cries out for deliverance). There is also a great increase in wheat allergies and gluten intolerance, but that doesn't mean God did not intend for us to eat grains. Sin causes everything to deteriorate, including our bodies and their ability to gain nourishment from foods. What might be a perfectly tolerable food source for someone else might cause us to become ill. THAT is what I believe is meant by verses like:

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 1 Corinthians 10:23

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink...Colossians 2:16

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3

Every one is certainly entitled to skip the dairy if they so chose. There are also people who cannot eat meat because of stomach issues. What bothers me is the attitude that we were never meant to consume it. Clearly the scriptures say otherwise. Mankind has made up many 'traditions' that are taught as 'doctrine' when it comes to our diets. I remember liking the diet guru of the day, Susan Powter, because she promoted legumes and whole foods. But because her sons were severely allergic to milk, she agreed with the evolutionists that we have only started to consume other animals' milk in very recent times. Completely contrary to scriptures.

Then there is the issue of eating Biblically kosher. I understand that some read the verses in the NT to mean we can eat whatever we want now, and I'm not going to get into that again here, but it confounds me that the same people who promote the freedom to eat pork and shellfish are condemning others for consuming milk and cheese. Completely confounds me (again, not the attitude taken by the ladies in this discussion, but elsewhere).

Too many people who call themselves Christians are totally ignoring the Bible and following what man has determined is right. Just as the Spirit prophesied.