Food and Faith: Does What We Eat Affect Our Life With God? | The Rev. Nicole Foster

A few years back, the doctor dropped the blood pressure cup and yanked out the stethoscope from her ears in frustration.

Your blood pressure is out of control”, she vented. “…Really??”, I replied.

I knew it had to be. I was experiencing headaches and my heart felt as if it was beating out of my chest, at times. I was emotionally edgy. I was in the middle of my seminary education taking 18 hours while working two jobs. I had put yoga on the shelf due to time constraints. My prayer life took a back seat and I fueled myself with coffee, pizza, and margaritas.

I remember reading how one minister was questioning her colleagues at General Convention. She stated,

“Why is it that our clergy look as if they are in desperate need of some sort of health intervention?”

Apparently the majority of clergy she saw at convention were out of shape.

But does are physical health affect our spiritual health? Does food affect our faith? Of course anyone can have faith. But are we as God’s creation operating at our spiritually optimum?

Daniel suggested to the guard appointed over him to nutritionally test his (the guard’s) servants in Daniel 1:12 saying,

“Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.“

While I’m not advocating to go vegan, vegetarian, keto, a “Daniel’s fast”, or any other kind of diet, I am pondering if we as people of faith, would do well to contemplate a more holistic spirituality. Might our devotion receive a boost? Would we be more apt to pray if we fueled our bodies with foods that wouldn’t cause us to be sluggish? Would we be more readily still and listen to the Holy Spirit if we weren’t caffeinated up on the latest drink from the newest trendy coffeehouse?

Lately I’ve been to pushing the reset button on a lot of things, including what I put in this earthly temple. While I’ve always been active, I’ve had to learn how to reorient my eating. I’m now eat tons of vegetables and fruits and riding my bike a lot. Although I haven’t eaten pork in over 15 years, I do indulge in some serious pizza now and then- just with more vegetables. So I’m enjoying myself with wisdom in the driver’s seat…most days.

Peace and Love, 🍗🍎🍉🍌🥦🥒🥬🥩🍕🍹

The Rev. Nicole Foster