In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and food. “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so (Genesis 1:29-30).

God created us to be vegetarians.

Wait! Come back! I love bacon too! I’m not going to try to convince you to be a vegetarian, just a veggie-consumer-ian. Bear with me.

We were created to eat plants all day and play outside. That makes us sound like kindergartners with vegan parents, but it’s true. God created an herbivore world with no death and therefore no meat on the plates. There was also no obesity, heart disease or body image hang-ups. Plants are low calorie and gardening is exercise (wrestling with lions is too; you know Eve spent her afternoons snuggling those beasts into submission), so weight gain was never an issue.

Vegetables have nutrients, fiber and water and many have complete proteins or combine to make complete proteins. Scientists are discovering that many vegetables have chemical compounds that improve our health and fight disease. They do so much more for us than fill our bellies. Our bodies are designed to digest plants and the closer to plant form (not processed) you can eat them, the better.

For those of you who are wondering, God approved eating meat after the global flood. The flood changed the climate of the planet and plant varieties were more limited afterwards. Knowing that it would be harder for humans to feed themselves, God gave his official blessing to become omnivores. “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything” (Genesis 9:3).

If you’re not a vegetable fan and can’t imagine eating plants all day and calling that Paradise, keep in mind that Eden had better plants than we do today. Take my Grandpa’s strawberries, for example. They didn’t come from a big chain store. Their straw-babies and great grand-planties were handed down through the years from neighbor to friend to family. Grandpa’s strawberries don’t taste like store bought berries. Their flavor is unique: still a strawberry, but so much better. It makes me wonder how many more plant flavors there were before mass production of food (and before that the global flood) limited what’s available.

But don’t despair! Today’s vegetables can be as delicious as they are nutritious. They just need a little help sometimes: some bullion mixed into a stir fry, a little butter and salt after steaming, hummus or dressing to dip into, and so on. My point is that our bodies were created to eat plants: whole grains, legumes, beans, vegetables, fruit. Plants are important and we should eat a lot of them. They do a body so so good.

For more  vegetable inspiration:

Local vs Organic Produce

Meat my Zucchini