I agree with you. Hearing things like that from people make me want to respond something like this: Then should we be lax on the other counsel in the scripture to? If that meat part wasn’t meant for our day, then maybe the rest of it wasn’t either. The Lord is not dumb and knows what is best for us.

It bothers me to see members of the church health go down the drain when they think they are abiding by the word of wisdom. Food is a major part of our health, not just tobacco, tea, and alcohol.

It is a code of health. Our bodies are our temples and we are supposed to treat them like one. I even more agree with you that the vast members of the church are not living this scripture. They overeat and eat unhealthy food.

If the comma thing were true, wouldn’t that verse then be implying that people mostly ate meat in winter or cold? Was that so in the 1800′s?

I have heard the argument that the prophet and apostles eat meat, so it must be okay. What’s your response?

Really, this part of the word of wisdom is so confusing! On the one hand verse 13 says ONLY in times of winter, or of cold, or famine. On the other hand, in verse 15 it says ONLY in times of famine and excess hunger. Which is it? “only” is a pretty strong word, so it seems the verses counterdict each other. Unless verse 15 is actually talking about grains? The previous verse talks about grains. If not, then we start by talking about meats, then grains, then meat again, then grain again. That’s a lot of jumping around. And what exactly does “staff of life” mean? Something that is the mainstay of our diet? Or something we lean on, like a staff, when we need too? Lastly, if verse 13 is saying that we should eat meat, only sparingly, then verse 15 would have to be talking about grain. (so people who eat meat, shouldn’t be eating grains). The only thing clear to me is that fruits and vegetables are good.

Hey, we have the same secret hobby!

Here’s another fun biblical reference that people rationalize with. “The land of milk and honey.” My mom tried to tell me that being vegan was wrong because milk and honey were obviously sanctified. I asked her if the streets in America were actually paved in gold. I told her that I take the milk and honey statement was probably expounding on the wealth of the land.

Those are the same two points that came up in my class. I do eat meat nearly every day. But very small portions. I do a lot of weight training and haven’t found anything (other than protein shakes, but how natural is that?) that gives me back my energy like animal protein does. On days when I don’t train, I am more likely to not eat meat.

I tried to bring portion size and processed foods into the discussion (I teach, but only every other Sunday, and I was a student this time) and got shot down as “sidelining” the lesson.

Do you eat meat in winter?

Does my comment even show up? I was interested in others thoughts on this but no one has seem to commented.

Tiffany, don’t forget the Jello salads! LDS even seem to get their animal by-products in the dessert!

Great comments (Jill and Lazurii, still laughing!). Most of our lesson was a very energetic debate about COLA DRINKS. As if there’s any defense for that nutritionally (regardless of whether it’s “outlawed” in some fashion).

Speaking of confusing, read the first few verses . . . IS it a commandment or ISN’T it?

(Erin, have you tried SunWarrior fermented brown rice protein? I make protein shakes for my teenage son every night with it.)

I am less qualified to be the arbiter of final truth on any of this, than any other topic we discuss on my site/blogs. So I’m just kicking it around with you all.

Robyn

I realize I’m coming to this conversation rather late, but rationalization is a pet peeve of mine and in my ward SO many commandments that are taught at Church meetings end up having a significant amount of time spent on rationalizing not completely following them. I wish people who aren’t sure what “sparingly” means would make it a matter of prayer for themselves and their family, rather than rationalizing what they WANT it to mean, which is what I so often hear.

And I remember a quote somewhere from Elder Packer, which (paraphrased) said that anyone who taught that the Word of Wisdom required us to eat NO meat was teaching false doctrine. However, he did not say that we should NOT eat no meat, just that it’s not the doctrine of the Church. But I’ve heard people try to say that’s what it means.

I think many people don’t look at that part of the commandment too carefully because it’s their vice of choice, since the more obvious vices of society are more obvious. Mormons DO like their meat and sugar! LOL (And isn’t there something about that on the yin/yang food scale — that eating meat, on the one end of the scale, sets up a craving for sugar on the other end, in an attempt to balance it?!)

I think ‘only in winter’ probably had a lot to do with meat being the easiest local source of nutrition during a season when people–outside the sunbelt–couldn’t grow, harvest, or mail order their own food. Therefore, they needed to eat meat or face malnutrition. Otherwise, animal flesh was to be avoided. A lot has changed since then to allow us greater variety of vegetarian options in the winter.

There are obviously drawbacks to our modernized system, of course, and there are certainly benefits to being a ‘localvore’. But, a recent study concluded that eating vegan creates a smaller carbon footprint than eating local.

I was reading a bit on the Weston Price Foundation website and he advocates avoiding a vegan diet of any kind. I personally disagree, but I wanted to figure out why he would say that. My theory is that he found a similar trend, that at the time it was hard to be healthy without a source of concentrated nutrients. Once again, things have changed. Not only in terms of food availability, but in terms of knowledge.