The Spiritual Food Pyramid

Do you spend more time planning what you put in your mouth than what you put into you mind? Maybe it’s time for some spiritual meal planning.

Typically, I write about eating and food from the standpoint of healing food addiction, establishing healthy eating habits, and learning how to keep eating from becoming about something more than it was intended (i.e., eating my feelings).

Part of my transformation journey has included learning some basics of good nutrition, including the concept of nutrient density. This is the idea that all foods are not equal when it comes to how efficiently they fuel our bodies.

Green, leafy vegetables, for example, tend to pack a ton of vitamins and minerals into a relatively small calorie count. Other nutrient-dense foods include complex carbohydrates, healthy fats like olive oil and nuts, and lean proteins.

On the flip side, some foods are considered empty calories, composed primarily of sugar, providing virtually no nutritional value or useful energy to the body. Think cheese puffs, soft drinks, alcohol and almost anything containing high-fructose corn syrup.

The general idea is that we can keep our bodies fueled efficiently by maximizing consumption of nutrient-dense foods and minimizing consumption of empty calories.

Smart, right?

Did you know the Bible gives us a similar picture of how we should fuel our hearts, mind and spirit as well?

Jesus says in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:2, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.”

These are clear illustrations that depict the word of God as spiritual food, needed for our growth and development.

This got me thinking about the nutrient density of my spiritual diet, if you will. It’s no secret that we are bombarded with millions of messages a day, all fighting for attention.

The bookshelf full of devotionals and Bible study aids? Spiritual food.

That TV show that I keep DVR’ing every week even though it’s full of gruesome serial killers? Spiritual food.

The music I listen to during Musical Dinner? Spiritual food.

The people we surround ourselves with? Spiritual food.

That inner monologue after a fight with my husband? Spiritual food.

Whatever I just Googled? Spiritual food.

The book I just downloaded to my Kindle? Spiritual food.

You get the picture.

As hard as I’m trying to be deliberate and wise about every bite of food I put in my mouth, I have to confess that I’m a lot less discerning with what I’m feeding my mind.

I’m pretty complacent about it — I tend to blow off notions that I’m susceptible to toxic messages. After all, I’m grounded in my faith and I know what I know. Right?

Or maybe I’m a little like that 19-year-old boy who subsists on Doritos and Gatorade, celebrating his awesome metabolism with reckless abandon and another Snickers bar. (You know that always catches up with them later.)

Unlike my physical food restrictions, where I’m most focused on not eating too much, there’s real danger of spiritual malnutrition if we’re not taking in nutrient-dense content.  I think it’s time for some serious spiritual meal planning.

That starts with the Bible. Not your favorite devotional. Not even your favorite blog. Or this blog. Not someone’s sermon or study group. The best source of spiritual feeding we can get is one-on-one time reading God’s Word straight from the source: the Bible.

After years of struggling to make this part of my routine, reading the Bible every morning when I get up is now the one consistent part of my morning routine. I enjoy it and my day seems wrong without it. This time has brought to life the Scripture from Hebrews 4:12:

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Apart from the truth that the word of God is living and active, I can’t hope to explain how His word speaks to me and my situation every day, whether I’m in Ecclesiastes or Ephesians, John or Jeremiah. It’s like a one-to-one conversation with God, where He’s doing most of the talking and I can just sit at His feet and listen.

Perhaps it’s like the healthy fat of the spiritual food groups — nutrient dense, energy-packed. Next to the Bible, everything else is just … iceberg lettuce.

That said, part of physical eating is the digestion process — from the taste, to the chewing, swallowing and then separation of the various parts into the fuel we need. Sometimes we need to lighten up the dietary load a little bit to make it easier to digest. Consider that the fiber of the spiritual food groups — when we consume the words of others to help us better digest God’s Word. Think sermons, devotionals, Bible study groups, or when my husband and I compare notes after finishing our daily TAG (Time Alone with God … not sure where I heard this term, but I’ve adopted it).

What about fellowship and the people we choose to be around? Fellowship strengthens us, and through it we build one another up. Like proteins build our physical muscles, iron sharpens iron, Proverbs 27:17 says, and one man sharpens another. So we ought to choose good quality proteins, not rancid ones.

“I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked.” (Psalm 26:4)

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him — a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Education is another big input — like the vegetables in our diet, education fuels growth. But not all vegetables or plants are really that good for us (FODMAPs, I’m looking at you!). In the same way, not all the information we take in is necessarily beneficial. We need to be on the lookout for food intolerances, if you will.

Music I liken to the fruit in our diet — sweet and refreshing, with a lot of variety. Bear in mind that rotten fruit makes us really sick. Consider your music choices prayerfully and carefully, and stay away from the rotten stuff.

And what of the rest — entertainment, social media, television, movies, video games, magazines, pictures, places? I liken these with carbohydrates — they’re kind of complex, and they’re full of empty calories. It’s not easy to know how much you ought to take in or the impact they’re going to have on your system. Some of us will be more sensitive to them, like those of us who are physically insulin resistant or gluten sensitive, for example. In the same way, some of us are more impressionable than others, or are particularly susceptible to certain types of messaging. There’s no need to eliminate them altogether, but it’s probably best to be cautious about how much of this type of spiritual food we’re taking in, and to pay close attention to how our minds respond, being willing to make some adjustments if needed.

How do we tell the “good” carbs from the “bad” ones? Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

That sounds like great advice to me. If only all the carb decisions were so easy.

What, then, would my Spiritual Food Pyramid look like? I start my day with God every day — it’s the most important “meal” of the day, right? But I confess my spiritual diet is way too carb-heavy, and my mind has been feeling cluttered lately.

Perhaps it’s time to consider an intermittent fast of sorts, shutting down the flow of media for awhile each day to allow for reflection, prayer, meditation. To think. We don’t do that enough. We get so busy running from one thing to the next, it’s tough to digest anything thoroughly. So let’s not forget to make space in our diet for silence.

Lord, things are coming at us all the time, competing for space in our limited minds and lives. Help us — help me — to make good decisions about how I’m fueling my spirit. Help us start with You. Give us wisdom, and with it understanding. Help us to dwell on the lovely things, the pure things, the excellent things and to walk away from the rest. Feed our souls, Father, and fuel us for Your good work. In Jesus’ name, Amen.