The Original Diet - outlined at Creation, while Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden:
- "I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seeds; to you it shall be for food." Genesis
1:29
The first modification on the Original Diet plan - given when Adam and Eve were excluded from the Garden of Eden:
- "And you will eat the plants of the field." Genesis 3:18
The second modification on the Original Diet plan - given to mankind after the Flood:
- "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Genesis 9:3
- But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Genesis 9:4
Only those animals classified as "clean" were included in the allowed list of edible meats. (See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-12)
The instruction was also given to avoid the animal fat. (See Leviticus 3:17)
(Though written clarification regarding how to include animal flesh in the diet does not occur in Scripture until during the days of the Israelites, it is clear that
Noah understood that God differentiated between "clean" and "unclean" animals long before the Hebrew nation of Israel was formed. See Genesis 7:8)
Other interesting Scriptures on the subject of eating:
- "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
- "When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. Do not
desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food." Proverbs 23:1-3.
- "Blessed are thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness." Ecclesiastes
10:17