Can you be a Christian and be Primal, too?
I’ve been working on this post for quite some time now. I guess you could say I had writers block. Bloggers block? Is that a thing? I just didn’t really know how to express what I had to say. I know what I believe in and why, but putting into an intelligent sounding blog, now that’s another story all together. I still don’t think I’ve hit all the points necessary on this topic, but like all believers are, it’s a work in progress. Maybe by the time I get to owning my own life coach consulting business, I’ll have it all straight. Until then, let’s dive in. Can you be a Christian and believe in the Primal way of living?
Yes and no.
By now, most people are familiar with the term “paleo” and the large following it has behind it. It’s theory is simple; humans evolved from apes to cavemen who ate wild meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And because of this so called fact, our modern human bodies are not adapted to consume the modern Western diet of highly processed carbohydrates, genetically engineered plants and hormone/antibiotic laden meat. Therefore, we should try hard to eat like a caveman would.
Rubbish.
Well, part of it is rubbish anyway.
As a Christian, I reject all notions of evolutionary theory. There was no big bang. Humans didn’t evolve from apes. The Bible is my absolute truth. It is clear on where the human race came from. Genesis 1:27 says “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” and then in Genesis 2, God creates a woman, Eve, out of the rib of Adam, the first man. It doesn’t say he created monkeys who later turned to humans. No, monkeys and humans were two separate beings all together. But I’m not here to convince you, dear reader, that evolution is not the way we came to be. My point is this, I can be a Bible-believing Christian AND believe the Paleo/Primal lifestyle is one of the best ways you can life your life.
The simple fact is, humans used to eat one way, and now we eat another. Let’s go a little deeper. Take a look at the Standard American Diet (SAD) in the past 150 years. We’ve gone from eating meat and vegetables that we raised ourselves to picking up a quick meal in the drive-thru at the local fast food joint. American housewives used to use butter and lard in their kitchens as the standard. It was cheap and easy to come by but also very fatty. Many switched to Crisco after its debut in 1911 because of deliberate marketing techniques aimed at housewives that that convinced them that Crisco was”a healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats. . . and more economical than butter.” It was quite awhile before the science came out about Crisco being chock-full of trans fats. Also consider that in that time many American homes now had two working parents, as compared with the one breadwinner of previous times. This contributed to the need for food that was quick to prepare. Enter TV dinners, frozen meals, etc. American food companies didn’t have to convince the public that using already prepared meals was more convenient, the public gobbled it right up…liberally!
All this to say, that little by little, American kitchens were changing. We went from gathering our food from the garden in our backyard to getting it from the frozen section or the local drive-thru.
Gardening used to be what we did if we wanted to eat.
What I love about the Paleo/Primal community is that they have lots of science to back up their stance. No, not the science about evolution, but they’d like to think they have a lot of that too. I’m talking about nutrition science. I can ignore all of the talk about evolution while accepting scientific facts based on studies and research done in this modern age. For instance, We now know that grains are converted into glucose in the body. This causes an insulin spike in the blood and that glucose most likely being stored as fat. That is scientific fact. Do you see a connection now between overweight, diseased Americans and the 6-11 servings of grains the US government recommends in the food pyramid?
Let’s also consider the fact that humans used to eat differently in pre-modern times as compared with how they eat now. That former way of eating is enough of a reason for me to avoid processed foods. The way I see it, God created every thing and He created everything that every thing needs to survive. Confused? Don’t be. I don’t see any reason why we should complicate our lives by adding man-made things that are supposed to make us healthier. Whole grain pasta, anyone? It’s marketed as a health food but just look at the facts about grains. We don’t need it in our diet. We can get our fiber from consuming actual plants, we don’t need a processed pasta product as a stand in.
I think I’m rambling. Am I making any sense?
Bottom line is this; the closer you are to the way foods are in nature, the better. I feel like before we were bombarded with processed foods at every turn, we were consuming food as God intended. And it showed. We had less disease and overweight issues. Now over three quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. Something’s gotta give.
I am convinced that if more people adopted the Primal style of eating, our country would see less disease, less death from preventable disease, fewer overweight individuals and happier people.
~Hannah