For some reason today, I got caught up in a historical oversight of different things, including food traditions and food habits used by different cultures and people at different times. Have you ever wondered how our food has evolved? I am not talking about processed or massed produced food, but rather the types of foods that we consume.
If you go back in the years of the Old Testament in the Bible and you pay attention at the types of foods being consumed, comparing to today’s culture you will see such a great difference. Back then as you probably know (and some of that is still existent today,) people were not allowed to eat pork along with other meats that were considered as very sinful foods for people to consume. Back then of course it had to do with religious beliefs and reality but the point is, the focus was more on vegetables and other similar types of nutrition. Whenever meat was being consumed, it was lamb or chicken or some bird. But never do you see pigs being slaughtered by the nation of Israel and being consumed by the people. In fact, if you go to the New Testament, you will see the incident where Peter had this vision of a sheet being lowered from Heaven which contained pork and other forbidden meats. He was so used to the tradition and laws of God up to that point, that he kind of questioned God about that vision and wondering how that can contradict what he’d been taught so far (about pigs being dirty and not being a worthy food to consume.)
So later in Christianity, you see that pork is consumed on larger scale with no great problems. However, if you go and have a look at those nations around the Middle East today, you will see that this tradition has been maintained both among the Jews and the Muslims. It’s actually really funny, because back when they were supposed to not eat pork, many sinned and ate. But today when theoretically (and according to God) there is no problem in eating such food, they still maintain that piece of tradition. It’s as if there is some time delay there. But of course here we respect all cultures and religions so we are not going to make fun or dishonor anything or anyone. I just find it rather interesting.
If you look at things from a perspective of economy wellness, you will notice that during world wars or civil wars because of poverty and the difficulties being created, the majority of the foods being consumed were vegetables and such that wouldn’t be too expensive to acquire. The boom in meat production and consumers, started if you think about it after the second world war. To be exact, a couple of decades later when America started re-building and other nations around the world also. When economies started thriving again, the consumers would basically stuff their faces in lots and lots of meat. Because of that, the number of cancer patients, diabetics and people with vein stenosis has increased. Aside of religious purposes, there was a reason God made pork as a forbidden food in the old testament: that was for health purposes. Pork as a meat, has a lot of hidden fat into it, clogging up your veins. So God knew something back then and was-is very sophisticated about this so that it makes sense to the medical community even today.
So the point I guess I’m trying to make, is that our food habits are influenced by such a vast majority of variables: religion, culture (those two sometimes go hand in hand) time in history, accessibility, financial wellness etc. So although we may feel as if McDonald’s is only a decision away, say God forbidden a third world war takes place, the last thing you will want to do is go out and eat at a fast food. You will probably just feed on weeds, corn and rice. So don’t take for granted what you currently have in your plate. Your grand grand parents would die for a warm bowl of hot soup with a little bit of chicken in it. Don’t go too far; down in Africa there are children that would give anything for some beans and rice (not even meat.) So don’t think you are entitled to everything you have and understand that those can be taken away from you at any point in your life. So you probably would want to give God some credit for the good situation you are in currently (assuming that you are not located in Africa or some other starving continent and group of countries.)
Do you agree or disagree with the above statements and facts? Share your thoughts with me.