Creationist Diet -- Nutrition and God-given Food According to the Bible

A popular diet program being promoted today, especially on the Internet, is the 'Paleolithic Diet.' The idea of the diet is to eat like a 'Paleo-man' i.e., a caveman. The theory behind the diet is that the healthiest way to eat is the way our ancestors ate from when we first evolved into Homo sapiens about two million years ago, until our diets changed a few thousand years ago. Such a diet would be how evolution 'intended' us to eat.

Such a diet does have plausibility, if one believes in the theory of evolution. I for one do not. But this 'Paleolithic Diet' got me thinking as to what a diet based on the theory of creation would look like. But before looking at what a 'Creationist Diet' would involve, some of the basic points of the creationist position need to be summarized.

Summary of Creation Theory

According to the theory of creation, God 'created the heavens and the earth' (Gen 1:1) about 10,000 years ago. This creation was accomplished in six, 24 hour days. On day six, God created the man (Adam) and the woman (Eve) and placed them in the Garden of Eden.

After an unspecified amount of time, Adam and Eve sinned against God and were cast out of the Garden of Eden. It was at this time that suffering and death entered the world (Rom 5:12). Adam and Eve proceeded to have 'sons and daughters' (Gen 5:4). These children populated the world.

But over time, humanity became increasing wicked, and God punished the world with a worldwide flood (Gen 6-9). But first he told righteous Noah to build an ark for himself, his family, and sets of animals. This Flood destroyed all humans and animals, except for those kept safely on the ark. After the Flood, the world began to be re-populated by Noah and his family, and the animals from the ark.

However, rather than scattering over the earth as they were supposed to, these humans built a tower that was to reach into the heavens (Gen 11:4). God judged this project by confusing the languages of the people. Then 'the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the earth' (Gen 11:7-9). It was this scattering of people that was the origin of the different human races.

Implications of Creation Scenario

This creation scenario has several implications that will bear on the question of diet. First off, all human beings are descendents of Adam and Eve. As such, any dietary directives God gave to Adam and Eve would apply to and have been passed on to all human beings. Furthermore, these were the only God-given dietary directives for human beings during the entire antediluvian (before the Flood) era.

Second, all human beings alive today are descendents of Noah and his family. So again, any dietary directives God gave to Noah would apply to and have been passed on to all human beings. However, it should be noted that any such dietary directives would have been given much later in human history than the ones given to Adam and Eve.

Third, the Tower of Babel is a turning point in human history. With the scattering of humans over the planet, and the division into races, no longer could dietary directives be given to the entire human race. Each people group would begin to develop their own, unique dietary habits.

The import of these three points is this: any dietary directives given to Adam and Eve would constitute the most 'basic' or original diet for humans. Dietary directives given to Noah and his family would still be important for all peoples, but they would be later, less basic, and less original directives. And information about diet in the Bible after the time of the Tower of Babel would be even later, and even less basic, and in no sense original.

So the thesis of the Creationist Diet is that the earlier a dietary directive is given, the more basic and applicable it is to all peoples. Or to put it another way, the earlier a food entered into the human diet, the more likely it is that it is a healthy food for all peoples. Whereas, the later a food entered into the human diet, the less likely it is to be a healthy food for all people.

So with that background, this book will now try to ascertain from Scripture when different kinds of foods entered into the human diet. And most of all, this book will try to discern what are 'God-given foods' based on dietary directives given in the Bible.

What this means is Genesis chapters 1-11 will receive the most emphasis in developing a Creationist Diet, which is appropriate as it is from these chapters that the creation theory is developed. However, since 'All Scripture [is] God-breathed and [is] beneficial' (2Tim 3:16; ALT), other parts of Scripture will be taken into account at appropriate points.

In addition, throughout this book, numerous scientific studies will be cited which demonstrate science is finally catching up with the Biblical teachings on diet.