God and Our Diet

An article in the New York Times reported that the Mediterranian diet is the most healthy diet for people to commit into on a long-term basis:

Decades worth of research also suggests that this way of eating is healthier. Many studies have documented reduced rates of heart disease and cancer among those adhering to a Mediterranean diet, compared to those eating more red meat and dairy-based regimens. Most of these studies have involved observations rather than actual intervention trials, however, and they have varied in size.

Now the British Medical Journal has published a systematic compilation of a dozen of the most methodologically sound of these observational studies, which included over 1.5 million people followed for up to eighteen years, analyzing cardiovascular consequences and some other important health outcomes. This large meta-analysis found decreased cardiovascular death as well as cancer mortality, as well as a lowered incidence of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, in those following the Mediterranean diet versus those on other diets.

According to the American Heart Association, the common Mediterranean dietary pattern has these characteristics (see the above chart):

- high consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread and other cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds
- olive oil is an important monounsaturated fat source
- dairy products, fish and poultry are consumed in low to moderate amounts, and little red meat is eaten
- eggs are consumed zero to four times a week
- wine is consumed in low to moderate amounts

I think Christians have an extra motivation to follow this sort of diet other than just to live a healthy life. We want to live a long, productive life so we can serve our living God throughout our lives till death stops us from doing so. Many faithful servants of God stop serving the Lord prematurely due to health reasons, many of which were attributed to or associated with unhealthy diet.

No matter how effective or talented we are as God's servants in our ministries, in the absence of a healthy body, we can only do so much for what seemingly a very short time. That's I think part of what the apostle Paul called an unwise way to live.

As someone who was born and bred in the Chinese-Indonesian context, my diet hasn't been the most healthy one. Take a look at the following pictures of some sample meals I often prefer for our, well, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make no mistake. They are extremely yummy. The mouth-watering type meals that I would go to an extra length to get back to. Take a look at them again...

Consuming this type of food as part of our routine diet over, say, 30 years will do us more damage than good to our body. It's light years away from the standard of a Mediterannean diet. Bad cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a host of other heart-related diseases are often the unintended effects.

If we believe that we owe God our life, then we should use all of it to serve him. If we want to serve him all our life, it is prudent therefore to watch what we eat.

This is not about gluttony. That's obviously wrong (It's one of the seven deadly sins).
This is not about enjoying God's good gifts in moderation and thanksgiving. Roast duck is perfectly fine.
But this is about saying NO when they all become patterns of our routine, long-term diet.
It's about saying NO to consume it in excess and often.
We are doing it for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.

For some of us, this is a small thing to do.
For the rest of us, perhaps this is a big ask.

I think it was John Wesley who once said, "Do small things as they though they were great, because of Jesus Christ. Do great things, as though they were small, because of Jesus Christ."