Grace & Truth

Grace and truth. As Christians, we walk in the balance of these two concepts in everything that we do. Jesus is the one who brought both grace and truth (John 1:17). Through the Bible, God has given us objective truth that we can base our lives on. This truth is shown through the truth of His love, but also through moral laws. However, when we inevitably fail to meet God’s perfect morals (aka sin), we are in need of grace. This grace has only been achieved through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection. This is truly the greatest gift because His grace is what allows us to live in freedom!

Both grace and truth bleed into every facet of our lives, including food and nutrition. This is a concept that I have spent a lot of time thinking about, especially as a nutrition professional. With the large amount of confusion around fad diets, cleanses, superfoods, and body positivity, it can be really tough to distinguish how we, as Christian women, should navigate this topic.

I will start by saying that nutrition is highly individualistic, so if you have received specific advice from a doctor or dietitian, definitely keep following their advice.

We can see from nutrient content and nutrition research that some foods are truly healthier than others. So there is truth in what we should eat more of (fruits, veggies, lean proteins, etc) to increase our health and to honour our bodies. It is also true that what we eat can cause weight loss or gain and affect our body compositions, our energy levels, and our appearances. But there is danger in obsessing over the food “truths”. This can lead to restrictive and even disordered eating, idolizing food (or a lack thereof), finding our value in what we eat/look like, and vanity with our own appearances. Another downside to becoming obsessed with only eating healthy foods and dieting is that we can miss out on opportunities to be with people and connect around food.

This is where grace comes in! The “perfect” diet doesn’t exist, but I believe that eating a varied diet of the foods that God provided for us (also known as whole, unprocessed foods) is the true roadmap to getting there. However, this isn’t as easy as it seems to be on the surface, because of the way we’ve engineered and manufactured foods to be delicious and addictive (I’m looking at you Doritos & Fuzzy Peaches). We can eat these treats in moderation, because in our world today they are often hard to avoid. Giving ourselves grace when we are indulgent in the foods we know aren’t the best for the health of our bodies is super important. But leaning too far towards grace has its dangers as well. It can become easier to excuse unhealthy habits, gluttony, emotional or stress eating. These are all unhealthy practices that can keep us from living in the freedom God has intended.

I think depending on our personalities and the specific season of life we are in, we can lean more heavily to either truth or grace when it comes to food. That is totally okay and I think being aware of that can be super helpful. Some may love the method of macro counting and keeping track of numbers, while to others that can seem too restrictive and lead them down the road of obsession.

So where does this leave us? In this world of extremes, I think aiming for the middle of the road is the goal with almost everything. That means pursuing truth in the way we eat by choosing foods that will nourish us and have proven health benefits, but also remembering that there is so much more to life than what we eat and what we weigh! Our mission on this Earth is to love God and love people and to make Jesus’ name known. Let’s thank God that he created food to be delicious and something we can connect with people over and love them with. As Christians, we don’t need to buy into this diet culture narrative, or let food have any power over us. So let’s see food for what it is: a wonderfully delicious gift that gives us the energy to live out our purpose on this Earth. Let’s pursue health while living in freedom!