More About Kal Halal

What is the Levitical Diet?

There may be some confusion between what defines a Levitical Diet — sometimes also called a Levitican Diet — and how it is different from a Kosher diet. The principles of keeping Kosher go far beyond the principles of a Levitical Diet. Without writing a book to explain the differences (and I recommend some books at the end of this page), there are 3 principles to the Levitical Diet and they are:

1. Eat only substances that God created for food.  Avoid what is not designed for food.

2. eat foods as they were created – before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better

3. Avoid food addictions.  Don’t let any food or drink become your god.

The bottom line is that the Levitical Diet is healthier than alternative eating lifestyles (III John 1:2).

The health reasons for the distinctions between clean and unclean are fairly apparent. Avoiding unclean foods means avoiding harmful toxins and possible disease. For example, unhealthy toxins are stored in the fat and removed by the kidneys of every animal. Bottom feeders were created to remove toxins from the seas and their flesh is full of unhealthy toxins and metals. There are many, many reasons to avoid pork. Pigs will literally eat anything, and pork can contain up to 30 times more toxins than beef or venison.

Conversely, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, milk, and scaled fish are healthy foods in so many, many ways. The benefits of each are so plentiful, I won’t attempt to list them all, but they include: good proteins and amino acids, healthy omega-3’s and 6’s, healthy carbohydrates, and balanced measures of beneficial and soluble minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

As much as possible, eat foods as they were created – before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better. There are some excellent examples of this and more and more research is showing that the further we remove ourselves from our food sources, the unhealthier we become as a result.

Consider margarine: Leviticus 7:23prohibits eating any of the fat of even clean cattle.  God noted in Leviticus 3:17 that this would be a “perpetual statute” prohibiting the eating of fat.  Back in the nineteenth century, a Frenchman learned how to turn vegetable oil into an artificial animal fat substitute we know as margarine in direct conflict with the Levitical dietary law.  In the last 200 years, we have changed our diets and our lifestyles so much that we have caused an epidemic of cancer, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Angina pectoris has only been described in the English medical literature for the last 200 years. Two hundred years before, NONE of these diseases or conditions existed at all or in any appreciable numbers.

Consider unfermented soy. In recent studies, even the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has listed unfermented soy as an Endocrine Disrupting Chemical (EDC) meaning it contains natural hormones that emulate human hormones, the consumption of which can lead to obesity, infertility, genital malformation, reduced male birth rates, precocious puberty, miscarriage, behavior problems, brain abnormalities, impaired immune function, various cancers, and cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently withdrew support for any definitive health claims related to soy protein and coronary conditions.

Consider genetically modified or engineered foods (GMOs or GEOs) many of which are sterile and thus are not “seed-producing” which has been linked to a variety of health concerns including many of the same problems with unfermented soy.

Consider high fructose corn syrup, added to literally everything from ketchup to cough syrup, which shuts down the human metabolism and has been linked to high blood pressure.

Consider enriched bleached, white flour”which contains none of the healthy oils or nutrients of whole grains and is enriched with industrial grade chemicals.

Consider that it is highly unlikely that you will ever encounter any health problems as a result of preparing and eating unmodified “real” foods. You won’t live forever, but you will certainly live longer and better as a result.

The final principle, that of not making any food or drink or any diet or eating lifestyle into an idol, is a bit subjective but also not difficult to integrate into our eating lifestyle.  Some things which can become too important include alcohol, caffeine, and sweets (Ecclesiastes 10:17).  Devoting too much energy or too much of your finances to purchase exclusively this or that kind of food is also a danger, especially if you place more financial importance on that practice than on, for instance, offering a tithe (1 Corinthians 10:31).  If rich delicacies or rarities rank high on your dietary priority list, this can also present a risk (Proverbs 23:1-3)

One way to break food addictions or binge cycles, a method which also has definite health benefits, is fasting. According to recent studies, Americans in particular rarely if ever experience real hunger anymore. Essentially, we have not yet digested our last meal before we have already eaten our next meal.  Therefore, we never feel hungry. A short fast, such as a “daylight” fast can offer time for prayer and meditation and alert you to certain unhealthy cravings or food attachments. If you take no food or drink, or else only allow for drinking pure water, during the hours of daylight, coupled with prayer, your body can send you signals of certain foods which have become too important. This is particularly true of caffeine and alcohol.

A prolonged fast, such as the Daniel’s Fast, also offers time for prayer and meditation while weaning your body of possibly dangerous addictions to any but “clean” foods.

References

There are MANY really good references for this diet. The best, most complete, and most comprehensive text is found in the first five books of the Holy Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, also called the Torah which means “the Law”.