Healthy Living

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By CHERYL ROGERS

There are lots of real neat Bible stories. Don't you wish there was one about someone who lost a lot of weight?

Although Jesus went around curing everyone, I can't think of one person he told "Be thin."

Yet there are some interesting notes about special diets and food. Take the story about Daniel and his friends, for example.

At the time, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had come to Jerusalem and taken it over. He wanted some of Israel's finest, smartest kids to train. Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were chosen.

The trouble was, they were given a daily portion of the king's food: meat and wine.

Daniel didn't want to "defile himself" with food and drink forbidden to him.

As you may recall, the Israelites were forbidden to eat certain foods like pork or shellfish.

In the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus 11 lists "unclean" meats, including swine and fish without fins and scales, fowls such as the eagle, ospray and swan, creeping animals like the tortoise and the mouse, among others.

So Daniel asked the one in charge to test them on a special diet.

For 10 days, Daniel and his friends wanted to eat "pulse," or edible seeds from leguminous crops with pods such as beans, peas. peanuts and lentils. and alfalfa.

Well in 10 days, the four looked healthier than the others who ate the king's food.


"And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." Daniel 1:20



NOTE: The intent of the article is not to endorse vegetarianism per se, but to suggest vegetables (and fruits) as a means of fasting and/or cutting calories.


Contact Cheryl to purchase or view the rest of the article, which contains four of Cheryl's recipe concoctions. (She likes to be creative in the kitchen, too.) Approximately 1050 words. Bible Break sigs are available.

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