The traditional Thanksgiving Dinner

Well now, that’s an oxymoron. Can you imagine Jesus at the Thanksgiving table eating two piled-high plates of everything and topping it off with pie and coffee? How about seeing Jesus walk out of the convenience store with 13 bags of potato chips and 13 sodas, one for each disciple?  When one thinks of Jesus’ eating habits, they probably think of someone who only ate when he was hungry, and for the nourishment of his body. And when Jesus did eat, more than likely, he used wisdom in what he ate and how much he hate, no matter what the celebration, and even at the Last Supper.

Families pray before the big Thanksgiving meal

Thanksgiving in the United States is celebrated annually with foods traditionally served such as turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and the list goes on and on. For vegetarians or vegans, the alternative to turkey is tofurky, a meatless turkey made of tofu, along with vegetables and fruits. Vegetarians have the right idea by eating from the ground. But the good news is; these foods are very healthy choices if brought fresh from the store, and cooked the healthy way, without lots of salt, butter, creams, gravies, sugars and cheese.

Painting of "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" By Jennie A. Brownscombe. (1914)

Although the first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days and provided enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians, it didn’t consist of the fatty foods that one might think, any all of the food came directly from the harvest.  Any fowl that the pilgrims hunted was called turkey, so it could have been duck, swan or a goose. There were no ovens for baking anything, flour was scarce, and cranberries weren’t introduced at that time. Whatever they did eat came from the harvest of the land and cooked with water or over an open fire. The harvest of the land was the reason for the celebration between the Indians and the Pilgrims. Nothing came from a grocery store.

In fact, going back into biblical times; the food grown was also organic. The Mediterranean diet back then consisted of meats, fish, vegetables, cooked grains, bread, beans, figs, raisins, nuts, honey and herbs. Grains were eaten whole and were roasted, parched, cooked like cereal, or made into whole-grain breads. Meat and fish were cooked by roasting. Fruits and honey were the source of sweets. Our bodies were designed to digest and process the food that God made for them, so it seems to be only logical that we should eat as much food as possible in its natural form, as people did in Bible times. They drank water and natural juices from fruit instead of soft drinks. For breakfast, they cooked whole grains such as wheat instead of eating sugar laden cereal, frozen waffles and icing covered toaster snacks. When they ate bread, they didn’t put cream cheese or mayonnaise on their bread. They didn’t eat hot dogs or processed lunchmeat. And instead of frying chicken or fish, they roasted or broiled it. For dessert, they ate fresh fruit, raisins, figs, nuts and honey; not canned fruit in heavy syrup, ice cream, chocolate cake, or a chocolate candy bar.  If they were in a hurry and on their way somewhere, their “fast food” probably consisted of some bread to carry with them and perhaps some figs from a fig tree, not stopping at a fast food restaurant that sold quarter pound cheeseburgers and super-sized French fries.

Today, food is ground, dehydrated, steamed, colored, refined, formed, added to, and subtracted from, until the final product bears little natural qualities. Even so-called “organic” food has been processed to some degree. Fast-food joints and restaurants are now offering a variety of low-fat, no-carb alternatives that still contain loads of sugar, artificial color, and preservatives that cannot be good for us.