Healthy Food for Body and Soul
Healthy food starts long before it reaches our plates. Recently, I wrote a magazine article on “the lost art of learning through food” because I love to share the benefits of growing and harvesting food together as a family. I’d like to share some of those thoughts with you here, too. I will also include some delicious, healthy recipes alongside posts on cultivating those foods.
Preparing food is a process that it is central to life. Every generation experiences the sacred rhythm of growing, harvesting, hunting, gathering, and preparing their nourishment. Food is the common language of humanity, transcending time, culture, geography, economics, language, and social class.
“A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey…” —Deuteronomy 8:8
In fact, the very first assignment given to Adam was not merely to exist in Eden, but to cultivate it. Genesis 2:15 says that God placed Adam in the garden to dress it and to keep it. Humanity’s first calling was that of gardener.
For me and my family, a healthy diet starts with natural, unprocessed foods. God has created such a lavish variety of nutrients — whole grains, fresh fruit, beans and legumes, vegetables, meat and fish, and dairy products — to nourish the body and soul. In fact, biblical foods alone provide all the components for a balanced diet: one that is rich in protein, healthy fats, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
At the same time, God provides all we need to enjoy our healthy food. Nature includes so many great choices — flavors, colors, and textures — with which to create delicious dishes. For example, the vivid colors of foods like tomatoes and sweet potatoes signal their nutrients, but these bright beauties also promise taste delights. Including them in our daily diets is satisfying on every level.
Here in the United States, we are lucky to have a wide variety of plant foods and wild and domesticated animals to nourish us. From herbs to olive oil, wheat to rye, figs to berries, lentils to quinoa, and soy to peanuts, each natural food has its health benefits. In fact, nutrition experts are discovering more all the time.
Yet food is never merely physical: it is spiritual, relational, cultural, and deeply personal. It teaches stewardship, hospitality, gratitude, discipline, creativity, and love. It produces intimacy and connection among those who break bread together. For that reason, I feel that my family’s food is much too important to outsource.
Besides, we have so much fun together growing and catching our healthy food! We fish, hunt deer and dove, prepare our soil and plant vegetables, and pick fruit from our fruit trees. Cultivating these foods brings us together as a family.
But you don’t have to do all this to reap the benefits of homegrown foods. Even a small container garden can add fresh greens and herbs to your diet and the joy of tending them together.
Here are some recipes to nourish your family, paired with articles on cultivating the ingredients. From salads to fish and lean wild game, these ingredients help protect against heart disease and other diet-related illnesses. And of course, I’ve included a few fruity desserts!
