Just shy of six weeks ago, I started on the carnivore diet for personal reasons. This diet is classified as an elimination diet, as it eliminates everything else but meat or animal products. That means no greens, fruit, veggies, grains, and potentially no dairy. When I use the word diet, I’m not talking about a weight loss program, I’m talking about the kind of food we eat. For example, a low-fat diet, a vegan diet, a low carbohydrate diet, a paleo diet, a healthy or unhealthy diet, the standard western diet, an Asian diet, a bush tucker diet etc. Well, I started this diet in faith that it was the Lord’s leading for future health and longevity–something Derek and I have been praying for, for years now.

A month prior, some 85-year-old Christian friends of ours shared they had been on the carnivore diet for four months, and all the health benefits they were experiencing that were changing their lives: reversing diabetes, reversing bowel and stomach problems, reducing inflammation and medications, and a considerable increase in overall health, energy and vitality.

I never considered it for myself; it sounded unsustainable, and I had no sickness or disease that I was aware of. Besides that, the thought of eating so much meat made my stomach churn. However, one thing kept lingering in the back of my mind, they said it has been known to reverse dementia for some. As some of you know, my mother suffers from Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia. Her mother suffered from it too. It’s a nasty thing, and I would do anything I could to see my mum released from its grip. Nearing age 88, alas, it is too late for her. I have to continue to let her be fed sugar in the form of desserts, biscuits and cake, as well as all the additional things in her ‘healthy’ meals. She is beyond understanding; if I tried to change her diet, and now that she is in a nursing home, that would be an impossibility. But, it’s not too late to make positive changes for me so that, God willing, Derek isn’t left to care for me or I’m not left to the care of strangers in a nursing home–not for dementia, anyway. God alone knows the future, and I’m in His hands.

Coming back to my thoughts about meat–I have never liked it. I preferred to leave it than take it. So, to feel a stirring in me towards this was certainly not motivated by my interest, tastebuds, or even curiosity. As I say, I felt it was the Lord’s leading, gentle and quiet, as it so often is. I have no idea how long I will remain on the carnivore diet, but I intend to give it at least 90 days.

My Wrestle With the Thought of a Meat-Only Diet

In the Beginning

We all know that God made beautiful food for us to eat. Why wouldn’t He? He loves us! I’m not talking about ice cream and chocolate, although they are truly delicious, but they are man made, not natural. No, I’m talking about ‘In the beginning’, and God’s beginnings always speak something about His desired endings. Everything God has made reveals something of His own nature.

The Garden of Eden was full of trees, from which all except one, Adam and Eve were free to eat. In Genesis 1:29, God told them He had given them every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, as their food. Earlier on, in Genesis 1:11 & 12, it says that God caused the ground to sprout with vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them. I’m not sure, of course, but it does sound to me like this was a diet of fruit and vegetables. This was God’s original design.

Now, if you think about it, those two categories cover a lot of variety. And I can’t help believing the food God made in the Garden of Eden would have been pretty different to the food we purchase from our local supermarket and even, perhaps, grow in our own backyards or pick up at a local market. I bet every cent I own (ok, that might not be much) that the apples tasted completely different; the pears, oranges, pomegranates, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, carrots, and whatever else there may have been there was a far cry from what we have today.

So, in the beginning, God gave us plant yielding seed and seed bearing fruit trees. And then, the Scriptures tell us that He gave every animal, including the birds, every green plant for food. And best of all, He saw that it was good (Genesis 1:12, 31).

As we well know, after the fall of Adam and Eve everything changed, including the food situation. God cursed the ground, and from that day on it would be in toil that mankind would eat of it. Thorns and thistles would grow and we would eat the plants of the field.

Now, what was a field? A field is not a garden. Though I’m not sure what that meant, it sounds like fields were an introduction of crop cultivation for grains. And as part of the curse God said by our sweat, we would eat bread (Genesis 3:17-19). Again, I’m uncertain but this sounds like eating bread was part of the curse, or was it the fact that we would eat it by our sweat? Either way, something about eating bread or the way it was obtained was not God’s best, not God’s original design.

Moving on to after the great flood, after blessing Noah, God changed up the entire diet system for mankind. From that point, God put fear of mankind in the animals, the birds, the creeping things, and even the fish, because He placed all these in our hands for food–He introduced meat to our diet! He said, ‘Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant’ (Gen 9:3).

I actually find this very sad, because I am a serious animal lover. It breaks my heart that animals have to be afraid of us when that was never God’s intention in the beginning. Every now and then, we get a glimpse of how it must have been in the beginning, when we see documentaries on lions or bears and the like, who were raised by humans, and who are not afraid of those who cared for them; it is a touch of heaven. It is a tragedy that animals have had to suffer so dreadfully due to sin. But we take comfort, because all creation groans for the revealing of the sons of God because it will bring an end to its suffering! That means animals will no longer suffer at our hands, and the ground will no longer be cursed!

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21 ESV)

Wow, what a wonderful hope! Thank You, Lord!

Various Diets Throughout Scripture

In the wilderness, God gave the Israelites manna from heaven. This was a heavenly diet that appeared like thin wafers on the ground in the morning dew. He also gave them quail. They didn’t have any plants, veggies, fruit or grains for 40 years. We know that, because of their complaints about missing cucumbers, leeks, melons, onions and garlic, saying in Genesis 11:6, ‘There is nothing at all to look at except this manna!’ And many years into their wilderness sojourn, they continued their grumbling against God, saying ‘For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food’ (Numbers 21:5b).

And guess what? Their diet didn’t kill them, their disobedience did! Forty years is a long time to live exclusively on manna and quail! That’s no fruit or vegetables, no fibre, no vitamins or nutrients that come from those kinds of food. Things that many doctors and health organisations today insist must be part of our diet or we will shrivel up and die without them.

But God blessed the manna and quail to their bodies. They didn’t block up with constipation or colon disease, they didn’t suffer from diabetes, they didn’t suffer from any sickness or disease related to their diet.

Once in the promised land however, God blessed them with rich land; green pastures for crops and cattle, sheep and goats, for the flowing of milk, and no doubt, meat. Also, the rich pastures allowed a great flow of honey from the many bees due to the healthy pollination of the crops and plants. We know the grapes were an enormous size because it took two men to carry a single cluster of them on a pole! There was an abundance of pomegranates and figs–this land was good! The fruit and vegetables, meat and milk was abundant and rich!

Let’s look at some other references to diet recorded in Scripture.

• The widow made bread cake from flour and oil for Elijah (1 kings 17:10-16).
• Daniel and his three wonderful friends ate a diet of vegetables and water (Daniel 1:12-16).
• John the Baptist had a staple diet of locusts and honey. No fruit and veg, no grains, no dairy, no meat (Matthew 3:4).
• In Romans 14, those with faith to do so could eat meat with a clear conscience before God (Romans 14:103).

It seems God has no hard and fast rules concerning diet, but as in all things, we are to submit to Him and live by faith. God gives us all food to enjoy, yet there are times He moves us to restrict our diet for His reasons, for His purpose because He is God. We know that fasting is a spiritual practice that pleases the Lord. In all things, though, we must act out of faith. If we act without faith, it is a sin, according to Romans 14.

So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.  So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:16-23 ESV)

Of course, mankind’s ingenuity has shockingly interfered with our food, changing its genetics and contaminating nearly everything with sugar, additives, colouring, starch (which is just another type of sugar) to make food ‘appear’ appealing to the eye, and to make us addicted so the dominating food companies continue to take rake in the dollars by the billion. The food industry gets wealthier while the people get sicker. Our crops and fruit trees are treated with chemicals and poisons.

Hence, we in the west, now live in a society of individuals suffering from obesity, Type 2 diabetes, depression, dementia, Alzheimers, various cancers, autoimmune diseases, schizophrenia, skin diseases and all sorts of ailments. It is almost impossible to buy any fruit and veg or any other food that has not been tampered with.

Further to this, there are ‘food products’ for sale that are actually not food at all, yet people are ingesting them. What’s wrong with this picture? In fact, is there anything familiar with it?

Let’s go back to the Garden. That one tree God told Adam not to eat from was, to Eve, good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable. It seems quite clear there was nothing about its appearance that made it unappealing, so she ate from it. But what was in that food? Poison–spiritual poison. It poisoned her soul and Adam’s soul. It poisoned the whole human race.

And what do we see the enemy up to, today? Slowly and imperceptibly poisoning multitudes through many things, including food that is pleasing to the eye, desirable and even sold as ‘good’. So, our enemy’s plan hasn’t changed, he still seeks to rob, kill and destroy, and he changes his tactics in order to achieve this.

Jesus restored all who are in Him to life. We can’t die an eternal death, but we can certainly be robbed and destroyed in our physical bodies, whether through physical health or mental health issues. Poisoning the food supply is just another ploy to which the masses are ignorant.

But! When it comes to animal products (meat, eggs, butter, fish, poultry) it seems to be the cleanest, the least contaminated. Meat is one of the, if not the most, nutrient rich foods that can be eaten.

There are hundreds of pros and cons for eating a carnivore diet depending on who we listen to. And I’ve done some research, I haven’t just gone along blindly. There are hundreds of testimonials in the positive, under medical supervision and by practicing medical practitioners and surgeons, regardless of medical ‘experts’ saying meat and fat is bad for your heart etc.

At the end of the day, evidence shows many people on a carnivore diet live long, healthy lives, free from previous diseases and health issues–that it is literally life-changing. However, evidence also shows many people on a carb, fruit and veg, meat or no meat diet, can also live long and healthy lives. And carnivore is not a one-stop-shop as a cure-for all. People on carnivore are not guaranteed to never get cancer or dementia, but for some, it may prevent or reverse it, according to the testimonies out there.

Everything in life is a matter of following the Holy Spirit’s prompting, God’s instructions and obeying Him and doing all things out of faith, which brings peace.

Seeing Christ in the Carnivore Diet

You don’t need me to tell you that God is clever. It just so happens that beginning the carnivore diet coincided with my Scripture reading, which was all about the animal sacrifices in which God instructed Moses, in the book of Leviticus. I have often struggled to understand why animals had to be killed-couldn’t God have made another way to be pleased? Another way for the atonement of the people? Although it is clear in Scripture what they represented: burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. Assembly and individual offerings. Offerings for atonement, forgiveness and the removal of sin, as well as for thanksgiving.

As an animal lover I have found these Scriptures and this diet very confronting. But why? Because of innocence. The animals on my plate–the chicken, the cow, the pig, the calf, the fish, the prawn and so on…the animals sacrificed–the lambs, the bulls, the goats, the turtle doves, and pigeons… all innocent. Being confronted with eating the innocent, has been sobering. My eating has been slow and mindful as I have meditated on the loss of life for my sake, all of course, pointing to the ultimate innocent One, my Jesus, the sacrificial lamb. God’s instructions to make animal sacrifices was pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus. Nothing can cover our sin but pure innocence.

Of course we don’t make animal sacrifices any longer, and it is certainly not part of the western culture. But we eat animals. I think of the big brown, beautiful eyes of a cow, with its long eyelashes, and the little pink lips of a lamb as he sucks on your finger or the teet of a milk bottle, the innocence in the eyes of a goat, the frailty and purity of a turtle dove. It seems shocking, dreadful, and incomprehensible that these beautiful creatures God made were ever to be slaughtered. But now they are slaughtered for what? For our food. But this ongoing sacrifice of innocent animals to eat still points us to Jesus.

Back to the Garden. God wanted us to eat and enjoy food for pleasure and for our good. Ingesting is something important in God’s design, and therefore, what we ingest is equally important. He wanted us to eat the fruit from the tree of life.

So, it is clear that God asked for animal sacrifice to pay for sin, until His Son came along as the final sacrifice, the One from whom we receive life. Yet, God gave a stern warning through Moses, that nobody was to eat the blood of an animal. And God explained it this way,

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. (Leviticus 17:11 NASB)

There is life in the blood, and God did not intend for us to ingest the life of animals, but the life of His Son. Jesus had to be sacrificed for the shedding of His blood, so our sins would be atoned for and that we might ingest His life by metaphorically drinking His blood and eating His flesh. There is life in the blood of Jesus–our innocent Jesus, the lamb slain since before creation for you and me. There is none more innocent than He. He was even more innocent than the beautiful, cuddly, woolly and harmless little lamb, or the delicate, oblivious and gentle little dove. His eyes are more innocent than those of the bull, the cow or the calf. And He was slaughtered for us. And what’s more, it pleased the Father to sacrifice His Son for us–that’s how much He wanted us! How much He loved us! I can’t comprehend it!

So, through this diet, I see how Christ is my real food. I know I’ve said that before in previous blogs, but it is wonderful how God can open things up wider for us. Jesus is the innocence of innocence, and each time I eat, I am reminded that I am so blessed that He gave His life for me. And now, I can partake of His life. For, although God warned the Israelites never to eat blood, our Lord, the final sacrifice once and for all, said the following;

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. (John 6:53-57 NASB)

A while back I was given a book that described many of the Jewish traditions that pointed to Jesus, and how they honoured God in general. In it, there was a section on the way the Jewish people gave thanks for their food. Unlike today in the west, they didn’t ‘say grace’, and ask God to bless the food to their bodies or to bless the hands that made it. No, they thanked God for the food on their table. They thanked God for sending the rain to water the earth and the heat of the sun to cause the grain to grow. They thanked God for the animals He had blessed them with as nourishment. Even though I haven’t ‘said grace’ in the traditional way for years now, being on the carnivore diet has caused me to truly give thanks to God for His supply, and most of all, for the shed blood and broken body of His beloved Son.

At the last supper, Jesus ate with His disciples. They were sharing a meal together. And He took the cup and the bread:

In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:25-26 BSB)

The carnivore diet is teaching me to remember Jesus each time I eat. It has touched my heart so deeply, to be reminded of His innocence and the power of His sacrifice, through the gift of these precious animals. It hurts me, and so it should. It nourishes me, just like Jesus. There is always the presence of suffering for the presence of real life. If for no other reason, I believe God is using this time of being on the carnivore diet to show me more of His Son and if there is more to come, I will look forward to sharing with you.

For now, happy eating. Whatever you eat, whatever you don’t eat, do it as unto the Lord. And most of all, whenever we eat may we remember Jesus, and proclaim His death until He returns.