In the first chapter of the Book of Daniel, we read:
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days (Daniel 1:11-14 NIV).
This passage from Daniel is taken from the New International Version, one of a dozen translations of the Bible into modern English. Because “vegetables” is the favored present-day translation of the Hebrew word for “pulse”—a translation not quite correct, as I mentioned earlier—many people think Daniel and his friends were vegetarians.
I don’t think that was the case at all.
First off, the Hebrew people weren’t vegetarians 2,600 years ago. Sure, there were periods when they undoubtedly went without meat, but feasting and celebratory times always called for the “fatted calf.” I’m positive that Daniel participated in the festivals prescribed in the Law of Moses, including the consumption of the Passover lamb. He had studied the Torah, which recounted meat being eaten by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
Even though the science of Daniel’s time hadn’t identified protein—or fats or carbohydrates—they deduced that meat does a body good. Perhaps they felt healthier, stronger, or could stay on task longer after consuming meat. Whatever the reason, I believe Daniel, Hananiah, Misha-el, and Azariah loved a good New York (or Jerusalem) strip steak as much as anyone else.
But when offered a “daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table,” the four freshmen were resolute: they wanted to stand up for the God of heaven whom they faithfully served. I believe the reason they wanted no part of this fare was because they regarded the meats gracing the king’s table as “detestable” or “unclean.” I touched on this in the Introduction when I described how the Hebrew people were forbidden from consuming foods considered detestable in Leviticus 11. They were also told in explicit terms what meats they could eat.
God, in His infinite wisdom, didn’t beat around the burning bush when He directed Moses to tell the Israelites, “Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud” (Leviticus 11:2-3 NIV). Examples of these types of animals are cows, goats, sheep, oxen, deer, buffalo, and other wild game.
Here are some other points that the Lord made in Leviticus:
◼ The camel, though it chewed the cud, did not have a split hoof, making it unclean to eat.
◼ Badgers, rabbits, and pigs fit the same description. “You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you,” the Lord said in Leviticus 11:8.
◼ Birds or fowl that ate flesh, such as vultures, were unclean, but birds that pecked on insects and grains for food—such as quail or doves—were clean.
◼ Hard-shelled crustaceans such as lobster, crabs, or clams were to be avoided, as well as some smooth-skinned species, such as catfish and eel.
◼ Fish that could be eaten were ones with fins and scales, such as trout, salmon, snapper, and grouper.
Of all the animals listed as detestable, pigs were probably Public Enemy Number 1 for the Hebrew people. There’s something about these barnyard animals that make them inconceivable to eat for those following God’s commandments. I know that’s far different in our culture, where pork is marketed as the “other white meat,” bacon strips are routinely laced across fast-food cheeseburgers, and pork barbecue is revered throughout the Deep South.
But let’s talk about swine for a moment. (Doesn’t the word swine sound a lot worse than pigs?)
These mobile trash compactors love nothing better than to stand in knee-deep muck and dip their dirty snouts into mounds of garbage and leftovers. They’ll eat any swill thrown their way. Besides feasting on slop, they’ll even dig into the carcasses and body parts of other pigs. I often recount the story that comes from the excellent book, God’s Key to Health and Happiness by Rev. Elmer Josephson, about a pig farmer who stacked ten pigs in individual wire cages on top of one another. He fed the pig in the penthouse cage a normal diet and let the rest of the pigs eat the droppings from the pig above. Everyone survived just fine, except maybe those who ate the resulting pork chops!
When Daniel was being educated in the Torah, he undoubtedly learned that the Hebrew word used to describe “unclean meats” could also be translated as “detestable,” “foul,” “polluted,” and “putrid,” the same terms used to describe human waste. He understood well that God was quite serious when He directed him to keep unclean meats at arm’s length.
Daniel was also quite serious about obeying God. We learn this in Daniel 1:
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself (Daniel 1:8).
Defile is the operative word here. No way would Daniel damage his relationship with God by eating unclean meats that he had never eaten before. While the Bible isn’t exactly clear which meats from which animals were on the king’s table that day, I believe that in addition to being “detestable,” or “unclean,” the king’s delicacies fell into one of three biblically prohibited categories:
1. The meats were likely ceremonially sacrificed to Babylonian idols.
“Appeasing” the gods of Nebuchadnezzar’s day meant sacrificing something of great worth. In those days, that was livestock. When meat was slaughtered on the altar of a pagan god, then it was sacrificed in that god’s honor.
2. The meats were unclean because the animals had been strangled and/ or their blood had not been drained.
Leviticus 17 says that meat should not be eaten if the animal was not “bled out” during slaughter, which was always performed with a sharp knife that was generally twice as long as the diameter of the animal’s neck. The shochet (the person performing the slaughter) was instructed to sever with one motion the trachea, esophagus, and blood vessels of the neck, which minimized suffering and resulted in the animal dying within seconds and then bleeding out.
Leviticus 17:11 says, “The life of the flesh is in the blood,” which underscores the importance of removing as much blood as possible. Most non-kosher meat companies—even organic and grass-fed producers—slaughter cattle with trauma to the head, which may result in pooling of the blood and an increase in adrenaline, which impacts the quality of the meat.
3. The meats were contaminated with fat.
There are several references in Leviticus about removing all the fat around the internal organs, lungs, and kidneys before consuming the meat. The small streaks of fat found within and on the muscle—what we call “marbling” today—were okay to eat.
Was there fish served at the King’s table? We don’t know, but Daniel and his friends would have turned their backs on hard-shelled crustaceans such as lobster, crabs, and clams, as well as catfish and eel.
Like hogs in a pigpen, these scavengers of the oceans and lakes are bottom-feeders that troll along the seabed or lakebed, slurping up fish droppings, for lack of a better term. The good news is they purify the water; the bad news is that their diet consists of gulping you-know-what. Whatever they consume goes straight into their systems, which explains why today scientists measure pollution in the water by checking the flesh of scallops, oysters, crabs, clams, and lobsters for toxin levels—and why Daniel and his friends refused to eat these foods.
Protein-rich foods such as meat, poultry, and fish are important to good health, which is why I do not advocate a strictly vegetarian diet. Responsible for building and repairing tissue, protein ranks as the most important nutrient that your body needs—even more important than fats and much more essential than carbohydrates. If you don’t consume enough protein, your body will wither and become very weak. Protein is that important.
Besides driving the engine of growth and development within your body, protein accomplishes the following tasks:
◼ manufactures hormones, antibodies, enzymes, and tissues
◼ helps maintain the proper acid-alkaline balance in your body
Most muscles, organs, and hormones are comprised of protein. Since the human body simply does not store proteins for later use, as it does with carbohydrates and to a greater extent fats, you have to continually replenish the body’s stores by consuming protein-rich foods.
What are the best, most “complete” sources of protein for the body? They are:
◼ organically raised, pasture-fed beef, lamb, goat, buffalo, and venison
◼ wild-caught fish with scales and fins from oceans and rivers
◼ pastured poultry and eggs
◼ cultured dairy products derived from cow’s milk (free of A1 beta-casein, as you’ll learn in the next chapter), goat’s milk, and sheep’s milk
What are the worst sources of protein that are commonly eaten today? The answer is pork and shellfish, which I urge you to strike from your diet as well as imitation meat products made from processed and often genetically modified soy.
I realize this advice will be controversial in your household, but I believe that following it will result in the betterment of your family’s health. What was unclean for Daniel and his friends thousands of years ago is still unclean today.
Does that mean we’re supposed to follow this advice from the Old Testament? While I agree that the atoning sacrifice of Jesus paid the price for us and we are justified by His grace, I believe it is the freedom we have in Christ that empowers us to honor His commandments. So if you’re asking me, “Can I eat biblically detestable meats such as pork and shellfish and still get to heaven?” my answer is simple: “Yes, but you’ll likely get there a lot sooner.”
That said, I still believe God’s dietary commandments from Leviticus and Deuteronomy are relevant and important to us today and should be observed for our own good.
Let me use an example to explain why. Imagine that you were invited to the biggest church potluck ever, one where the buffet table ringed the perimeter of the fellowship hall. Just about every food known has been set out—thick sirloins fresh off the barbeque, sweet corn on the cob, robust salads, and homemade desserts. At the same time, some folks brought their favorite scampi and pasta dishes, while another family went all out and brought a pot of steaming lobster. Some harried couples didn’t have time to cook, so they stopped by the supermarket and purchased fried chicken and chocolate chip cookies for the dessert table.
You’re free to pick and choose what you want to eat from those buffet tables; that’s called God’s grace. But what would be the healthiest items to put on your plate? I don’t think lobster, scampi with pasta, fried chicken, and store-bought chocolate chip cookies would be the wise choices.
Where the rubber meets the road for me is that God called pork products and shellfish “unclean” and “detestable” thousands of years ago, so how has that changed? Furthermore, why would I want to introduce unclean meats into my body, which is called God’s temple in I Corinthians 3:16?
“Clean,” biblically correct examples of red meats would be organically raised cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, and venison; “clean” poultry and fowl would be pasture-raised chicken and quail; and “clean” fish would be wild-caught fish such as sockeye salmon, halibut, walleye, and lake trout.
Pasture-raised beef is leaner and lower in calories than conventionally produced grain-fed beef. Pastured beef is higher in heart-friendly omega-3 fatty acids and important vitamins such as vitamins B12 and E, and, in my opinion, is much healthier for you than meat from hormone-injected cattle eating pesticide-sprayed feed laced with antibiotics. Pasture-fed beef is high in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that appears to modestly reduce body fat while preserving muscle tissue, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. Pasture-raised animals can have up to three to five times more CLA than grain-fed animals.
What If I’m a Vegetarian?
If you’ve made a choice to live life as a vegetarian or a vegan, I respect that decision. What vegetarians must do— especially the strict ones—is exercise constant vigilance. While nuts, seeds, legumes, cereal grains, and fermented soy products are decent protein sources, vegetarians have to be careful to give their bodies enough protein to provide essential amino acids such as methionine, cysteine, and cystine, which are crucial to the brain and nervous system. Lacto-ovo vegetarians have an easier time of it because they can consume high-quality protein sources such as eggs and cultured dairy.
The bottom line is that it’s crucial for vegetarians and vegans to be proactive about what they choose to eat—and careful to consume several top-quality vegetable proteins and healthy fats from sources that include sprouted nuts and seeds, avocados, and coconut products.
Now there’s something about beef that you need to know: not all organic or grass-fed beef is the same, which is one reason I decided to create a new standard of beef called “Beyond Organic.”
If you’re seeking to produce beef that will receive the U.S. Department of Agriculture “organic” stamp of approval, the rules are complex. The USDA says cows on organic farms should have “access to pasture.” If the weather doesn’t allow that, then their diets can be made up of dried grass or hay, which is still a good food for cows.
The phrase “access to pasture” can be subject to interpretation. The rules state that cattle must be on pasture for at least 120 days a year, or four months, but that doesn’t have to be continuous. The rest of the time, at least 30 percent of “dry matter” of their diet must come from grass. The other 70 percent? That can be grain-based feed.
But the real difference is how the cattle “finish” before they go the slaughter floor. In the conventional world, cattle go to the feedlot for 90 to 180 days before they’re processed, where they are fed—almost exclusively—grain that’s been laced with growth-promoting chemicals as well as other byproducts you don’t want to hear about. This growth-spurt formula is the backbone of the U.S. beef industry and represents roughly 90 percent of all available beef produced in America. A feedlot steer can grow to slaughter weight up to a year faster than a cow fed only green forage such as grass and hay.
In the organic world, though, there’s some wiggle room.
According to USDA organic standards, producers of organic beef can put their animals in “organic feedlots” for the last four months of their lives. In other words, cattle can be bunched up in pens and fed organic grain (no GMOs, hormones, or antibiotics) while they stand in one place, packing on the pounds before their date with destiny. It’s anyone’s guess as to how many organic beef producers are taking advantage of this rule.
At Beyond Organic, we have a different finishing program for our cattle that is, essentially, the “anti-feedlot.” We start our animals and finish them on organic greens in our open pastures. During our finishing process, the cattle are offered a three-day, specially designed bovine detox program, if they need it. The bovine detox program is comprised of a combination of minerals and other compounds that help remove toxins from the body.
In addition to our unique GreenFinishing program, we employ biblical slaughter methods in our beef processing. Our processing procedures adhere to animal kindness standards developed by famed agricultural scientist Dr. Temple Grandin.
We go to all this effort so that we can produce one of the best sources of protein on the planet. Our GreenFinished Beef contains:
◼ vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C
◼ vitamin B12, iron, and zinc
◼ a healthy ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)
One of the greatest benefits of our GreenFinished Beef is its great taste, and taste is important. In fact, I’ve had plenty of people over the years approach me at my seminars and say, “I want to eat grass-fed beef, but it’s tough and tastes like cardboard.”
I understand where they are coming from, and I enjoy the taste of a good steak myself. I’m learning to appreciate real food and understand that good health is the greatest taste of all.
While I place a strong emphasis on the health benefits of the foods I consume, I must say that our Beyond Organic steaks, ranch roasts, cheddar sausage grillers, and even our BarBQ beef jerky are top notch!
Let me close this chapter with a few words about the other two meats commonly consumed in American diets—fish and chicken.
There’s a disturbing way that fish and chicken are raised and produced for common consumption. The “Atlantic salmon” served in restaurants and on display in supermarket cases has been grown on fish farms, where the salmon spend their days cooped up in concrete tanks, fattening up on pellets of dubious man-made chow, not streaking through the ocean gobbling up small marine life as they’re supposed to. There’s no way these “feedlot salmon” or farm-raised tilapia and trout measure up to their cold-water cousins in terms of taste or nutritional value.
Wild-caught fish are always going to be an absolutely incredible food and should be consumed liberally. Fish caught in the wild provide a richer source of omega-3 fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
As for chicken, everything can be summed by this statement: chicken is cheap, tastes good, and adapts well to sauces and spices. No wonder it’s the country’s most popular meat.
It’s no secret that commercial chickens are raised in horrible and inhumane conditions—stuffed into floor-to-ceiling cages inside stuffy enclosed barns. They do not go outside for the duration of their short dreary lives, and their “living space” is the size of a standard sheet of printing paper. They are raised to gain weight as quickly as possible, fed antibiotics to fend off illness, and live no more than three months before ending up in a refrigerator case.
The Egg-ceptional Egg
I’ve heard the voices in the popular culture say that eggs are bad for you because they’re high in cholesterol.
Don’t listen to them because God created a nearly perfect protein source in the humble egg.
Within the thin shell is a nutrient-dense food that packs six grams of protein, as well as vitamin B-12, vitamin E, lutein, riboflavin, folic acid, calcium, zinc, iron, essential fatty acids, and all eight essential amino acids. All this in a nifty sixty-eight calorie package.
Pastured eggs are unsung heroes that provide outstanding nutrition and are great to add to smoothies.
While commercially produced chickens are raised entirely indoors with tens of thousands of other chickens in close quarters, never seeing the sun or pasture, organic or “free range” chickens may have a life only marginally better. I say that because there’s no standard definition or industry guidelines on how long chickens need to be outdoors in pasture.
In addition, the USDA definition of “free-range” is in the eyes of the beholder. Some poultry producers interpret “access to pasture” as a small “doggie door” at the end of a hundred-foot shed filled with uncaged birds moving around the litter-covered floor. Many never bother to push through the door and go outside.
Others feel as though the spirit of the rules means that the birds have to get outside in the open air and sunshine, but their “free range” extends no further than a dirt patch, where some sort of feed has been set out for them to pluck on. Meanwhile, consumers have certain expectations for what a “certified organic” sticker on the whole fryer packaging means, and they would be surprised to learn that their organic chicken was cooped up most of the day, pecking at grain.
So do some homework to make sure that chicken you’re buying—and eggs for that matter—carry the designation “pastured.” While pastured poultry and eggs are premium products carrying a hefty price tag, I believe they are worth every penny.