A Biblical View of Eating and Nutrition: Purposiveness, Order, Seriousness and Restraint
Kalman Kaplan, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Moriah Markus-Kaplan, PhD, Private Practice Psychologist, Tel Aviv, Israel
Matthew B. Schwartz, PhD, Lecturer, Wayne State University
Abundance of food is good, but in America today eating seems to have gotten out of hand. Obesity, even in children, runs rampant. Unhealthy food combinations are advertised, quantity rather than quality is pushed and any sense of a sequence, timing or purpose to a meal is missing. A family-meal seems to be a relic of the past. We seem to be living out the Roman banquet satirized by Petronius in his chapter entitled Dinner with Trimalchio in his famous work Satyricon. Several aspects stand out in this orgy of food.: 1) the lack of underlying purpose 2) the lack of any order or sequence in eating, 3) the idea that everything is a charade, one food \disguised as another, 4) the lack of restraint, people stuffing themselves and then vomiting up the undigested food, thus failing to provide needed nutrients to the body.
A critical aspect of a Biblical view of eating is mindful attention paid to the food that one eats. The meal is seen as an ordered activity, with each separate food blessed as an acknowledgment of a Creator’s purpose in providing food for the human being. Whether one is formally religious or not, this has the effect of focusing one’s attention on what one is eating. The writings of the great Jewish physician Moses Maimonides in 12th Century Spain, North Africa and Egypt provide a very strong contrast to the chaotic eating patterns described above. He emphasizes the importance of digestion which are affected by quantity, quality, timing and sequence (Schachar, 2013).
Quantity stresses one should never eat till he is full: the stomach stretched beyond its normal capacity. If so the acids will not reach all the food, and the food will not come to the small intestine completely digested. A person should eat only 3/4ths of the capacity of the stomach, stopping when he feels he could still eat more. Quantity eaten should decrease with warmer weather
Quality emphasizes the importance of the chewing. Digestion begins in the mouth: 1) mechanical digestion and 2) chemical digestion. Saliva contains many enzymes which start the process of digestion. The mucous cells of the mouth, esophagus and stomach renew themselves every two days and if the enzymes are not created in the mouth, some important elements for regeneration of the mucous cells are missing.
Timing emphasizes that one should not go to sleep directly after eating. One should wait for 3-4 hours after eating before sleeping. Modern medicine suggests that one’s intestines do work at night unlike previous thinking that they did not. The immune system is primarily active at night so that if the person eats at night, the energy goes to digestion and there is not enough energy for building one’s immune system.
Sequence emphasizes that one should not mix too many different types of food in one meal. One should eat what is easier to digest first. When it is colder, eat warm food and when it is warmer, eat fruits.
Moriah Markus-Kaplan, PhD, Private Practice Psychologist, Tel Aviv, Israel
Matthew B. Schwartz, PhD, Lecturer, Wayne State University
Abundance of food is good, but in America today eating seems to have gotten out of hand. Obesity, even in children, runs rampant. Unhealthy food combinations are advertised, quantity rather than quality is pushed and any sense of a sequence, timing or purpose to a meal is missing. A family-meal seems to be a relic of the past. We seem to be living out the Roman banquet satirized by Petronius in his chapter entitled Dinner with Trimalchio in his famous work Satyricon. Several aspects stand out in this orgy of food.: 1) the lack of underlying purpose 2) the lack of any order or sequence in eating, 3) the idea that everything is a charade, one food \disguised as another, 4) the lack of restraint, people stuffing themselves and then vomiting up the undigested food, thus failing to provide needed nutrients to the body.
A critical aspect of a Biblical view of eating is mindful attention paid to the food that one eats. The meal is seen as an ordered activity, with each separate food blessed as an acknowledgment of a Creator’s purpose in providing food for the human being. Whether one is formally religious or not, this has the effect of focusing one’s attention on what one is eating. The writings of the great Jewish physician Moses Maimonides in 12th Century Spain, North Africa and Egypt provide a very strong contrast to the chaotic eating patterns described above. He emphasizes the importance of digestion which are affected by quantity, quality, timing and sequence (Schachar, 2013).
Quantity stresses one should never eat till he is full: the stomach stretched beyond its normal capacity. If so the acids will not reach all the food, and the food will not come to the small intestine completely digested. A person should eat only 3/4ths of the capacity of the stomach, stopping when he feels he could still eat more. Quantity eaten should decrease with warmer weather
Quality emphasizes the importance of the chewing. Digestion begins in the mouth: 1) mechanical digestion and 2) chemical digestion. Saliva contains many enzymes which start the process of digestion. The mucous cells of the mouth, esophagus and stomach renew themselves every two days and if the enzymes are not created in the mouth, some important elements for regeneration of the mucous cells are missing.
Timing emphasizes that one should not go to sleep directly after eating. One should wait for 3-4 hours after eating before sleeping. Modern medicine suggests that one’s intestines do work at night unlike previous thinking that they did not. The immune system is primarily active at night so that if the person eats at night, the energy goes to digestion and there is not enough energy for building one’s immune system.
Sequence emphasizes that one should not mix too many different types of food in one meal. One should eat what is easier to digest first. When it is colder, eat warm food and when it is warmer, eat fruits.