Dieting like the Israelites

 Writing this little post in case you want to diet like it's Bronze Age era Israel. This isn't going to be a super strict recommendation post for Christians, they were explicitly freed from dietary restrictions courtesy of God as revealed to Peter in the Book of Acts. Regardless, a lot of their diet is a good idea and I'll provide an overview of the basics should you wish to diet like they were supposed to.

First time God provides specific diet instructions is in Exodus Chapter 12, when discussing the Passover meal. I'll start here because a lot of this is repeated in later parts and it's best to get that out of the way first.

First off, there Passover was meant to be eaten quickly, given it was the night before they could leave Egypt, and thus the meal was a quick and simple one. Unleavened bread (made without yeast), roasted lamb or goat, and some bitter herbs.

Unleavened bread was required for most sacrifices requiring prepared grain, and God demanded most sacrifices roasted on an open fire. For dietary reasons, yeast is good to avoid if you have an allergy to it (it is a form of fungus used to make bread dough rise, and also a brewing ingredient for alcoholic beverages). While most consumable forms of yeast are quite safe, there are types that cause infection, and spoiled food can develop the dangerous forms of yeast, so avoiding bread with yeast would be a prudent decision if you want to ensure your health, albeit it will be harder to softly chew since it's basically flat bread.

Roasted meat, as opposed eating it raw (doable but dangerous for health) or boiled takes much less time and generally does a pretty thorough job of cooking it. God said the Passover was to be in haste, so it was ideal for that purpose.

That said, unless you want to be ultra-traditional, roasting over an open fire is not strictly required, nor grilling. You can get mostly the same effect via baking more or less, just it will take longer. Note, strict observance of the Passover or Eucharist as Christians call it should be done via roasting to keep it like it was done originally.

Note in all cases God had a strict prohibition against eating animal blood. Basically, no rare meat, well done or bust. Me, I'm diagnosed autistic and I get really ill eating anything less, apparently because my palate cannot stand the taste of anything other than dry meat. If you are going to do this, no law against livening up the meat with some sauce or something to hydrate it, but it better be cooked well done by default.

We will fast forward to Leviticus Chapters 11 and 17 next.

Chapter 11 says all animals that were possessed of completely split hooves and chewed the cud (consume grass or grain) were suitable for consumption and offerings. Otherwise, no.

The pig, for example, will eat ANYTHING, it's not strictly herbivorous, so it was off the table. Pigs were also a common animal preferred by pagans, so the prohibition against eating pork prevented social gatherings between the two. Pigs are also highly prone to carrying parasites and very easily spoils unless cooked well, so it's just safe to avoid pigs on dietary concerns alone. If you really want bacon, you can always get it from other animals like turkey. Bacon refers simply to a cut of meat from a certain portion of the pig, healthy alternatives also made from real meat can be derived from turkey and lamb (i.e. -mutton). They also tend to be leaner and less salty.

Unclean aquatic life includes anything that does not have fins and scales. So yeah, no shellfish. If you are oyster, crab, lobster, squid, or anything of that nature fan, well, sorry.

As for unclean birds, here is the text on that from the NetFree Bible translation

 [13] "'These you are to detest from among the birds - they must not be eaten, because they are detestable: the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,  [14] the kite, the buzzard of any kind,  [15] every kind of crow,  [16] the eagle owl, the short-eared owl, the long-eared owl, the hawk of any kind,  [17] the little owl, the cormorant, the screech owl,  [18] the white owl, the scops owl, the osprey,  [19] the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 

(Leviticus 11:13-19 [NETfree])

Given modern day IRL most of these are not considered fit for consumption, not hard to follow this.

Unclean insects, for those of you who are cool with eating those, well, if it doesn't have jointed legs for hopping around, such as grasshoppers, locusts, or katydids, then it's a no go. I'm not a fan of eating insects, mind you, but 

Chapter 17 is where God reiterates his prohibition against eating blood. This is established because God wanted to remind people even if you killed an animal you could eat, you did kill a living being, albeit for sanctioned purposes, so you had to drain it of it's blood before cooking it because you were not to eat it, and the meat had to be cooked well to remove the rest. To be fair, this does minimize the risk of blood borne pathogens in meat, so it's just a sane idea if that concerns for dietary purposes.

Now, just to cover some other foods not specifically mentioned.

Milk is fine, but according to the laws on animals, the Jewish do not mix dairy or meat in any way at the same meal, so no cheeseburgers if you want to obey this strictly. The Bible specifically mentions you can't cook a goat in it's mother's milk, so no meat with a cream sauce. Cheese is also acceptable under the same rules.

All vegetables, fruits, and grains are acceptable, no particular rules on those not already mentioned.

Alcohol, specifically wine, it's fit to drink, but with the caveat you watch your intake and drink in moderation. If you are getting to the point you can't drive or are acting stupidly, you need to stop. Not only is that perfectly good common sense advice to avoid injury or embarrassment due to intoxication, the long-term health of your liver will thank you.