And let's not forget that God hates figs.

http://www.godhatesfigs.com/

The whole pork as no no thing was explained in the amazing book 'Guns Germs and Steel '. In hotter desert climates (where all those bible books were written) pork was a bad scene cuz you couldn't refrigerate it and they would have to eat food reserved for humans. However, in the north, say Ireland, England, Scotland, Europe, etc, the pig was a terribly handy animal-they would wander the woods getting their own food and still come back daily when it was slop time. Sometimes, not all of them went back out, but hey. They have huge litters, need little care and grow VERY QUICKLY. And when our ancestors devised ways of preserving the meats with salt, smoking, and the like, they would keep for ages.

I dont doubt that many of the religious food bans had valid reasons for it-IN THE DAY. Lobster and shrimp, for example are/were verboten beause theyre bottom feeders, and someone explained a possible scientific reason for the no meat and cheese together rule. I have a suspicion the washing before praying 5 times/day thing had more to do with sanitation than religious purpose.

Nowadays, with sanitation, refrigeration and modern preparation techniques, are they really a problem?

LOL! These web sites just crack me up. Maybe he just didn't like figs. Man, if he'd come out like that against wheat we could've saved a lot of human suffering. I'd say sugar too, but they probably didn't have refined sugar back then.

But Nancy, doent it say in the Book of Armements that man should eat Breakfast Cereals in addition to other foods? And I quote:

ARTHUR:
Consult the Book of Armaments!
BROTHER MAYNARD:
Armaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one.
SECOND BROTHER:
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--

Sorry if this seems sacreligious-as a Card-Carrying Athiest, Python scripts are as valid a book of instruction to me as the Bible.

Funny because I was thinking about this just the other day. It occurred to me that this wasn't something that was exclusive to pigs. Most herbivores have no compunction against lying in their own excrement. Of all the barnyard animals, maybe only the pigs roll in it, to cool off, as was pointed out. But horses, cows will often lie in it without a care in the world. My sister has a horse and I remember her clucking in disapproval because he lied down in his manure and now she had to hose him down. And it's not because she was slack about keeping his box clean, and he had enough room in his box to sleep where it's clean.

And if you see animals in the wild, you often see that they are covered with mud or worse.

By contrast you'll never see a carnivore do that. That why crate training works well to train a dog to be clean. That's why cats are naturally clean. it's an evolutionary thing. If they were covered with excrement, they would announce their presence to any prey that is nearby (even more than usual).

Anyway, it's a city bias. Farmers get pretty used to being ankle deep in manure.

This godhatesfigs.com is deliberately twisting the Scriptures. God doesn't hate figs. Cursing the fig tree that bore no fruit is symbolic of the person who will be condemned upon Jesus's arrival because they bore no fruit in their lives. Putting up such websites is one road to get closer to condemnation.

Just a friendly reminder of this sticky, folks.
While discussion of diet and nutrition in Biblical times along with the historical context of dietary restrictions of the time and whether or not people would be better off eating in that manner today is fine, please keep it on topic.

Actually, I think the figs web site is a parady of another web site with a similar name, took me awhile to make that connection. But suffice it to say figs are wonderful little fruits. I personally have wanted a fig tree for a long time. My parents had one and there's nothing quite as lovely as a fresh fig.

Obviously, Jesus and everyone else from His time up until the 1950s ate WHOLE FOODS regardless of the section of the food pyramid. No refined sugars and flours, no over-processed, nutrient-deficient garbage. I believe that diets that contain carbohydrates can work for some people-but empty carbs work for NO ONE. I choose low-carb, but more than that, it is about whole foods. Also, I believe that Jesus, like many poor people, ate to live, not lived to eat.

I apologize for going off on the "religious" tangent here....

I like that phrase from meimeicat1, to eat to live and not to live to eat! This is where people make a mistake. They become obscessed with food, eating or not eating.

Well, I feel it is increasing difficult in today's world to NOT obsess about food. It is everywhere, shamefully convenient, and an integral part of our societal customs. Having said that, I adore food......but I want to be healthy and fit even more than I want to eat the bad for me (albeit tasty) garbage that passes for food these days! Believe you me, a McDonald's fry might make me "lose my religion"! LOL

I hear he was very fond of dairy. Didn't he have a shop: Cheeses of Nazareth?

"Don't get saucy with me, Bearnaise."

My dog will sometimes even eat it.