S3. E6. Clean Eating
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[00:00:00] Those were the people that had the highest correlations with more disordered eating behaviors and had a greater risk of developing an eating disorder. And it's language like this that keep us in a workspace place and keep us thinking what we're doing is keeping us in right standing with God, not remembering what Jesus did for us and the finished work of the cross.
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a registered dietician and certified intuitive eating counselor. My prayer is that these bite-sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food, improve body image, and ultimately help you grow closer to God. Now, I can't personally heal you, but I'm gonna be directing you to the one that can, and that is Jesus. Also disclaimer, I'm not a pastor, but a sister in Christ that's offering you some food for thought that you can take into your quiet time with the Lord as your daily bread. Let's dig in.
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Your Daily Bread podcast, y'all. I have a pretty controversial [00:01:00] episode this week, uh, but I also feel like every episode ruffles some feathers. So today we're gonna be talking about the dangers of clean eating and the clean eating trend, and I hear. So often be like, I just wanna eat clean.
I just wanna eat cleaner. Oh, I can't eat that because it doesn't have clean ingredients. And so we're gonna talk about the dangers of clean eating and using that type of language. And we know from our Cheat Meals Cheat Day episode that our language is so important. There's power behind our words and the power of life and death behind our words.
So, how we speak about food and our way of eating can either build up our relationship with food or it can damage it. So we're gonna be talking about the dangers of using the term clean eating and thinking about your food as. Clean or not. It really is a subtle way of you saying good or bad, and still keeping that morality tied to food honestly.
But, let me not get ahead of myself. We'll get into this week's episode and I'll [00:02:00] pray us in.
father God. Lord, we just praise you and thank you Lord. We thank you that your mercies are new every single day. That every day we have another chance, Lord, a clean slate to try again. Another opportunity to honor and glorify you with our bodies.
Thank you for choosing our physical bodies as your eternal dwelling place. Lord, we are just so grateful and we don't take that for granted. Lord, thank you. Thank you for dwelling within us for never leaving us nor forsaking us. Lord, I pray that this episode helps us to renew our mind around the language that we use , when it comes to food.
And I pray that people are able to. Receive this message into their heart in a way that leads to healing, . And I pray, that everything that's said in this episode is what you want to say through me.
It's not what I want to say, but it's what you want to say, Lord, have your way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
So we're gonna be getting [00:03:00] into the Book of Acts, acts chapter 10. And we've talked about so many scriptures before that are around this topic, but we've never talked about, this scripture in Acts, so I'm really excited about it.
Some scriptures that are similar that bring up a similar idea would be, and these are great for you to study, mark vii. Mark VII is where Jesus declares all foods clean. And he has a pretty heated discussion with the Pharisees. , Romans 14, and y'all know in season two we did a whole series going through Romans 14, that chapter, especially in the NLT translation, that's probably my favorite four.
Romans 14, I'm always trying to switch translations. Today I'm gonna be reading from the NIV, , and then also one Timothy four verses one through five. All of those relate and help us to see that all foods are clean, all foods are okay to eat. But we know from one Corinthians 10 23, y'all know, I talk about , that verse all the time, basically [00:04:00] every episode.
But , my mentor always says to me that leaders are repeaters. So I always like to bring up the same things again. And I think it's. Good to, to plant seeds so that you'll be able to be like, oh yeah, I know that verse, and be able to be able to recite it yourself. All of my clients are like, wow, like I really want to learn and memorize more scriptures.
So hopefully by listening to this and hearing me say a lot of the same scriptures over and over again, you'll be able to memorize those as well and be able, to recite them.
But first Corinthians 10 23 says that everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. So let's dive into Acts 10. I'm starting in verse nine. And this is all about Peter's vision
about noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city. Peter went up to the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners, it contained all [00:05:00] kinds of four footed animals as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, get up, Peter. Kill and eat. Surely not Lord Peter replied, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
Now that is the word of the Lord and another way that the Lord is stand on business when it comes to our relationship with food and.
Just another example we just talked about this last week, but Jesus is going to challenge the food rules that you hold and we no longer want to be relying on our own understanding, but trusting in the Lord. Giving, uh, Proverbs three verses five through six for sure.
This really brings up the concept of clean eating. So we know from Mark Vi that Jesus declared [00:06:00] all foods clean. And we know in the Old Testament there were a lot of food rules. We got a whole book on those in Leviticus. We had so many food rules in the Old Testament, and they served a purpose at that time.
And Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. So as new covenant believers, we are not bound by. Those Old Testament food rules. Now, there are things that we are bound by, like 10 Commandments and a lot of morality things, but when it comes to things like the ceremonial washings and food rules, we are no longer bound by those things, and Jesus reiterates time and time again as we see in Mark vii, Romans 14, one, Timothy four, and now also Acts 10 that we no longer want to consider certain foods unclean.
now, there may be certain foods as you walk with the Lord and are led by the spirit. There may be certain foods that the Lord says, yes, that food is permissible, but it's not [00:07:00] beneficial for you to eat for you. You shouldn't have that. Even if you don't have something like celiac disease, the Lord may say, you know what?
Gluten is not for you. Season two, we had Keisha Price on the show and she was talking about healing her endometriosis, and she said, I don't have celiac disease, but the Lord told me that gluten . Is not something for me to eat.
It would not be beneficial given her health status and her health conditions. And that has led to a lot of healing and that was obedience to her. But that doesn't mean that now everybody needs to be gluten-free , it's important to be spirit led about that. And it's important to note that when we think about foods as clean or unclean. We then take it to mean when I eat these clean foods, then I'm being good. Then I'm holy. Now I'm righteous. It keeps us in a workspace place 'cause it, we tend to think and make these mental leaps that I am in. Right standing with God. I'm a better holier Christian when I'm eating this way, where it's not the foods that make us righteous.
It's not our works that [00:08:00] make us righteous, but it's Jesus that makes us righteous because of his sacrifice, the shedding of his blood, us being washed in that now God sees us through that lens. If God is wearing glasses, then Jesus is that filter and , we are holy and unblemished perfect in God's sight because of Jesus, not because of anything that we're doing.
And it's language like this that keep us in a workspace place and keep us thinking what we're doing is keeping us in right standing with God, not. Really surrendering or remembering what Jesus did for us and what he accomplished for us in the finished work of the cross.
And it's not just scripture that shows , that this type of language is harmful, but there actually have been scientific studies that have studied the clean eating language and trends of clean eating,
There was a study done in 2019 actually by Ambi et al, and they studied the trend of clean eating in college students and they [00:09:00] asked them if they used the term clean eating and what were their perceptions of clean eating and people that. Saw clean eating as something positive, something that they would strive to do and eat more clean.
Those were the people that had the highest correlations with more disordered eating behaviors and had a greater risk of developing an eating disorder if they didn't already have an eating disorder. And they have ways in scientific studies to screen for eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors
so, using the term clean eating and seeing that as an ideal that they want to uphold actually led to more disordered eating because it keeps you in that all or nothing place. That leads to guilt and shame, because what if you eat a food that you see as unclean, now you think you're bad. Now you think you're damaged goods.
Now you think you're unclean, you're not in right standing with God. It leads to more guilt and shame that can lead you to do very disordered and harsh things towards the body.
So it's important to note that it's [00:10:00] not a bad thing to want to eat more foods that are. Less processed, ultra processed things that you don't get out of a package. And I think it's also important to note that there's a difference between processed foods and ultra processed foods.
It's very difficult to get away from processed foods, even frozen vegetables or canned beans that is technically processed because it's been through a process to be packaged in that way. But most people would consider frozen broccoli to be totally fine to. To eat and you, you know, Steven in the microwave.
It's a really convenient way to get vegetables in and it actually, a lot of people don't know this, that frozen vegetables actually have the same, if not more. Vitamins and minerals in them than fresh vegetables. And this is because when farmers know, Hey, this group of crops is going to be,, packaged to be frozen or it's gonna be canned, they'll let it grow a little bit longer.
They'll let it cook so it's be a little bit longer in the ground and they'll pluck it at that point in time to be frozen in that [00:11:00] point in time, or canned for that point in time. But things that need to be served fresh, typically they pluck it from the ground. Sooner knowing that it needs to transfer to the grocery stores, needs to sit in the grocery store for a little bit, then you buy it and it sits in your fridge for a little bit.
Hopefully you eat it before it goes bad. I felt so accomplished a couple weeks ago 'cause I finished a whole tub of spinach without it going bad. And if, you know, you know, that is a huge sense of accomplishment. , And it very rarely happens where I finish the whole thing, before it goes bad.
So, I was feeling good about that, honestly. But I hope that that's encouraging that. Because we tend to demonize frozen vegetables, and when we say, oh, I can't eat processed foods, I want you to know that, frozen broccoli, technically that is processed. So there's a difference between processed foods and ultra processed foods.
Ultra processed foods is when things are really manufactured and things are stripped of all the nutrients and things are fortified and added back in. And it's not that those things are bad. I mean that even includes. Protein bars, protein shakes, , it's not all Twinkies out there. I think we could be grateful for some of the [00:12:00] ultra processed foods that we have access to because it is made eating more nutritiously, we're convenient , with our busy lives.
And there's a difference between. Having those foods , and being overly reliant on those foods. I don't think we should be overly reliant on ultra processed foods, but it is okay to eat them here and there because, they are convenient and they can fill in the gaps and, make it so that you can hit all of your bases, so to speak, in a convenient way.
So we don't wanna demonize processed foods or, ultra processed foods. And I find that when people say, oh, I wanna stay away from processed foods, they really mean ultra processed foods, but they're saying processed foods. So definitely wanted to clear that up
It's important that we are cognizant of our language. We're tying morality to food and Jesus is saying in the scripture that it's okay to eat those things. God has declared all foods clean, and in one Timothy four it says any food that is received with prayer and thanksgiving is okay to eat. So be grateful for the foods that we have and the provision that [00:13:00] we have. And of course, we wanna be spirit led about what we eat.
It's important that we're not continuing that clean eating language because it can be very harmful for our relationship with food. So instead of using clean or unclean, maybe saying something is nutrient dense or calorie dense, or less nutrient dense. Or something is nourishing or filling or only gonna keep me full for a little bit. Using terms like that can be helpful.
And we talked about this last week that the goal is to have peace around all foods. The goal is not to eat more junk food all of the time, but to make peace around all foods, to experience the fruits of the spirit. And to be spirit led in our eating.
So my goal is that this scripture gives you yet another example that shows that the Lord is declaring all foods clean and that we have permission to eat and we wanna partner with the Holy Spirit to discern what is best for us to eat in the moment, in that [00:14:00] day, in this season for our bodies.
So I pray that that was helpful for you and I will see y'all next week. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Your Daily Bread Podcast. Now, if anything about this episode resonated with you, I wanna encourage you to send it to three sisters in Christ who may also wanna steward their bodies better.
I read every comment, every review of the show, and I love hearing your testimonies and how the Holy Spirit is meeting you through these episodes. And if you haven't left a review yet, I wanna encourage you to do so 'cause it truly does help the show grow and it. Ultimately benefits the kingdom. And if you need any personalized support with your nutrition and your relationship with food or your body image, head to the show notes and you'll see all the different ways to work with me.
See you next week.
