Vegalicious

When I started my vegan journey to improve my failing health, veganism was not yet popular. Celebrities were not wearing it proudly, doctors were not recommending it, and only occasional bloggers were talking about the health/food connection. There were books written on the topic, but back then they were not well publicized. Vegan was not yet hip.

When it came to faith based communities, namely Christian, from which I hail, going vegan was nearly blasphemous. Well, not really, but it certainly felt like it. I heard everything there was to hear, to set me straight, with a lot of Scripture quoting taken out of context: “What God has cleansed you must not call unclean.” (Acts 10:15) “Jesus ate fish!” “God gave us dominion over all of the earth, including animals,” and the list can go on. I once was even accused of deceiving others and leading them astray by teaching them the benefits of plant based eating, because I “commanded to abstain from foods which God created.” (1 Tim. 4:1-5).

Who could argue with that?! 🙂

I generally stayed away from the topic of Christianity and veganism on my blog. I put my hands to the plow and kept trekking along, sharing the good news of lifelong optimal health with whoever wanted to hear it. I got busy doing the work of a vegangelist (a person who spreads the good news of the benefits of a plant based diet).

Finally, a couple of years ago, having received tons of emails from believers from around the world who sought veganism as means to improve their health and to be kinder to the planet, I wrote an article “Is God Vegan?” to share my thoughts on the topic and to help set some people free of the notion that Christianity and kind living (veganism) are mutually exclusive.

In the last few years I noticed a refreshing trend, however–veganism is becoming more accepted among Christian believers.  Many of them follow the Daniel Fast (a 21 day plant based diet with some restrictions) for three weeks, and experience amazing health benefits and many experience supernaturally natural healings.  As a result, many end up becoming accidental vegans. They discover what apostle John meant by saying:

“…I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

3 John 2 (NKJV)

I have decided to start a new category on Vegalicious: faith and food, to help more from faith based communities discover divine plan for human health, one that would address faith and diet. It will be available only to those who want to read about it. Articles in this category will be published about once every couple of months. Let me know what you think about it.

Today I want to kick it off by sharing an opinion piece written by one amazing woman, who, nearly three years after hear plant based “conversion”, still sticks to the vegan diet and prospers in health.  Meet Kelita.

About Kelita Deems

After years of eating the standard American diet, at age of 46, Kelita was diagnosed  with painful osteoporosis. She was given medications and told to increase her dairy and Vitamin D intake. Kelita could not understand why she was deficient in calcium, since she drank milk and ate cheese and/or yogurt every day.  So, she started doing research on alternative and healthy ways of dealing with her diagnosis.  What she found was incredible.  

Kelita watched Forks Over Knives, which led her to read The China Study and other books, like The Starch Solution and websites like Vegalicious.  She changed her diet over to a whole foods, plant based diet, and not only does she live pain free, but her calcium and Vitamin D levels became normal without dairy products. 

In 2013 Kelita became certified in Plant Based Nutrition through The T. Colin Campbell Foundation and Cornell University.  Now she loves sharing her story and helping people become healthy by changing their diet and educating them to the benefits of plants!  

Should Christians be Vegan?

Four years ago, I was diagnosed with osteoporosis.  I was in pain, ate lots of dairy and went on calcium and vitamin D supplements.  However, I did not want to be on medication for the rest of my life, so I began to do some studying.  I read a book called The China Study and it opened my eyes!  I then began to search out other sources like Forks Over Knives, The Engine2 Diet, and Vegalicious.  I transitioned to a plant based diet and my pain disappeared!  Not only that, but four years later, my calcium and vitamin D levels are all in the normal range without supplements and dairy! 

In this process, many of my friends heard my story and began asking questions and I began helping them. One of the people I helped was my pastor.  Within six weeks of changing his diet, he was able to stabilize his blood sugar and blood pressure.  He was hooked.

Shortly thereafter, about twenty three people joined me and within six weeks we had lost over 300 pounds, and people were able to eliminate medicines left and right!

One night, while eating grilled portabellas, I was thinking about Genesis 1:29 (NIV)

I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

and I realized that in God’s original design, man was created vegan.  WOW! As I began to think about it and talk to my husband, I realized that only after the fall of man, namely, after the great flood, did animals die for food.

What was the great sin that led to the fall? The sin was disobedience, but what was the lure?  FOOD!  When Eve saw that the “fruit” was pleasant to the eye and good for food, she ate it. (Genesis 3:6)

And what was the name of the tree?  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  All of my life, I just thought of it as the tree of knowledge, but think of this–the knowledge of good and evil.

I said to my husband, I bet the tree said things like when it came to food:

“THIS STEAK TASTES AND SMELLS SO GOOD! IT’S GOT PROTEIN FOR YOU! But it is animal protein, which humans can’t digest, and eventually this will lead to high cholesterol, heart disease and death.”

“THIS CHOCOLATE CAKE IS DELICIOUS! EGGS ARE AMAZING!  YOU NEED THEM TO BAKE DESSERTS. But too much processed sugar will lead to diabetes, and the eggs, rich in animal protein, are harmful.”

Humans always gravitate to what they want to hear–it’s like those commercials on TV that tell you all the good the medicine will do and then really fast and in a low voice, they run through the negative side effects.

Now, is it wrong to eat meat, in my opinion?  No. In the Old Testament, after the flood, God gave specific instructions of which animals you could eat and which ones you couldn’t.  However, it happened because He knew that once man had fallen, the desire to eat flesh would be set into motion, so He set parameters.  In the New Testament, we read “All things are permissible, but not all things are profitable,” and that “whatever you eat and drink, do it to the glory of God.”  (1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Corinthians 10:23) Also in the New Testament, we find that the fall of man has been remedied, and redeemed, therefore, why would we not go back to how things were before we lost something?

Jesus died and became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, nullifying the need for any other sacrifices.  We no longer have to go and offer our best lamb, or the best of our flock because Jesus paid that price.  He came to redeem mankind, and when He did, He nullified the need to ever sacrifice an animal again.

Jesus not only redeemed mankind, but redeemed the animals as well.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

Psalms 36:6

After all, when He came to earth, He came to take the authority back that Adam and Eve had given to Satan and gave it back to us.  He came to restore us back to the garden state, where nothing needed to die.

Plants have all the vitamins and nutrients you will ever need to be healthy.  You could live on potatoes alone for the rest of your life and not be malnourished.  (Seriously, check out the man who lived on nothing but potatoes for sixty days!)   Yes, I know, we need B12, but the B12 can be easily supplemented.

The Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 16:19) This is important because I believe for many years believers just figured that blessing your food was enough and as long as you were doing “God’s work” you didn’t have to take care of your body with nutrition and exercise.  But, if we eat things that we know are bad for us, and then suffer with arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, that will greatly inhibit our work in the kingdom!  Such choices have taken far too many believers out before their time.

How many Christians are ill, not feeling well, not able to be out and about doing the physical work of the spiritual kingdom because of poor health, while other religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, focus on good health and require their followers to be vegetarian?

Now, there is no condemnation to anyone who eats meat.  But there is a better way!

Humans cannot digest and absorb animal protein–100% of bad cholesterol comes from animal foods.

We were made to digest plants, nuts, berries and seeds.

Just compare our digestive system to that of other herbivorous mammals.  We match!  If you compare our digestive system to carnivorous animals, like lions, we are different.

Why should we continue to eat animal protein and take cholesterol lowering drugs with side effects, while praying for a healing?  Wouldn’t it just make better sense to eliminate the cause of the problem and enjoy lifelong health, praying for others instead?

I love that God has made a way for us to be healthy and provided everything we could ever need for it, starting in the garden from the earth he created us from.  And I love that I no longer have pain from osteoporosis, and am living a healthy life.

I hope that my story has given you a few things to consider to improve your health through food also.

To Vegan or not to Vegan?

Do you agree with Kelita? Do you think we were meant to eat plants to be healthy?

Do you have your own naturally supernatural healing story to share?

Would you like to have more conversations on the topic of health and faith?

Leave a comment under this post and let’s have a discussion.

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credits: cover image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net by Salvatore Vuono