What is Daniel's Diet?

DANIEL'S DIET: DANIEL 1:8-15

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you." Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food." (NIV)

Note especially three things:

EXODUS 23:25f
Worship the Lord your God, and His blessing will be upon your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you.

GENESIS 6:3
Then the Lord said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

This was BEFORE the flood.

GENESIS 9:3-4
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that still has its lifeblood still in it.

This was AFTER the flood. Could there be a connection between limiting man's lifespan and eating meat? Certainly, there are many factors, but meat "weighs heavy."

LEVITICUS 3:17-7:23
"This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: YOU MUST NOT EAT ANY FAT OR ANY BLOOD."

EAT NO ANIMAL FAT OR BLOOD (eliminate meat and you have LITTLE OR NO chance of eating saturated fat or blood). "FAT" of meat means the skin of chicken, the "RIM of fat around the outside of meats"--which is what the Hebrew text means by "fat."

Acts 10, Mark 7:19 and other New Testament Scriptures teach, "All foods are clean." But not all foods are profitable. Not all are beneficial for health. Legally we may eat anything," But: In the Law of Moses GOD tells us to eat no Blood or Fat.

The American diet typically serves meat at every meal. FORTY PERCENT of the American diet is FAT. This directly relates to the millions of dollars spent annually for hemorroid remedies in this country. Americans also have the highest incidence of colon and rectal cancer in the world. Americans are also more subject to hardening of the arteries and other kinds of heart diseases.

Another danger of the American diet is "hydrogenated" fats or oils. To the human body, these are foreign fats that damage the arteries, blood vessels and heart. If the ingredients say "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated," don't eat it. Nearly all chips have these foreign fats in them. However, "baked chips" don't. Just watch out that you don't eat too many of them; they are not "bad" for you, but they do contain calories.

Meat is filled with saturated fats and cholesterol. Vegetables, fruit, and whole grains may include some fat and even some saturated fats (only in palm oil and coconut oil), but they have NO CHOLESTEROL at all. Besides that, FAT COSTS MORE MONEY! Meats cost far more than an equal weight of rice, macaroni, wheat, beans, etc.

Also--studies show that pure "vegan"-ism is not healthy. Pure vegetarians die earlier than meat-eaters! So I would now recommend some (nearly fat-free) meats with the "seeds" of Dan's diet.

Why does Daniel say their diet changed BEFORE they received wisdom? Could it be that clearing their bodies of saturated fats and poisons would clear up their minds also?

In I Corinthians 6:12 Paul said: "I will use all things, but I will be mastered by nothing." If you feel you MUST have some FAT FOOD, to have some on each eleventh day is okay. You must return to the low fat lifestyle for the next 10 days. Probably, after a while, you won't even miss the fat! The problem has been--"we were mastered by food" in our past. God can help us overcome this sinful behavior. Any addiction is wrong. With God's help, any addiction can be conquered.

(Much of this information is derived from: David Reuben, M.D.'s THE SAVE YOUR LIFE DIET. S.I. MacMillan and David Stern's NONE OF THESE DISEASES. Also many articles from "Prevention" magazine, Robert Kowalski's THE EIGHT WEEK CHOLESTEROL CURE, and Cliff Sheats' LEAN BODIES.)

The body uses food for fuel to supply energy for all bodily functions and movement just as a car engine burns gasoline to supply energy for all its moving parts. Suppose your car engine is not performing properly. It pings and diesels. You pull into a gas station for fuel. There you are faced with two types of fuel. The first is regular unleaded and the second is super-premium unleaded. Naturally, one would choose the higher grade fuel even though it might cost more, because this fuel would be more efficient. The engine will run on either fuel, but much better and longer on premium fuel. However, many automobile drivers, when faced with the choice between performance and longevity and short term cost, choose to save money in the short term. They think it is better to save money now, even though the car will be destroyed in the future.

Ironically and more shocking is the fact that this isn't true with the fuel we eat. In fact, the opposite is true. The low grade fuel or "fat food" is FAR MORE EXPENSIVE than the high grade premium foods or "fat free foods". So, unbelievably, we pay MORE for what isn't good for us as opposed to eating right and saving money.

Now, I don't know anyone who wouldn't choose premium gas over regular, especially if it were cheaper. Do you?

We would treat our cars better than our bodies. We simply want our pleasure from fat food now, in spite of the high price of poor health and poverty. Isn't this true of all sin?