veganeise what?

Last night the hubs and I had the chance to attend a free health & nutrition class that was being held at the Seventh Day Adventist church down the road from us (will refrain from comments on that). A woman, who 20 years ago was cured of Chrone's Disease just by changing her diet, has been organizing this series on healthy eating.

The whole experience was a little more than strange. We were served a vegan meal, which consisted of baked potatoes, a "cheese" sauce, "chili", broccoli, and a few sides like almonds and carob cookies.

The "cheese" was anything but cheesy. It was a gooey, yellow cashew/pimento sauce that had strong overtones of lemon. The "chili" which was made of walnuts and minced vegetable was edible, and actually not too bad. It did help fill our tummies.

The delight of the night was the cookies, though only one per person was allowed. They were maple-walnut-carob cookies, and for the longest time I couldn't tell if those little brown pieces were chocolate or raisins. I later discovered that they were neither-- it was carob (what is that anyways??).David and I are neither vegetarian nor vegan, though we are not against those who are. What really struck us as odd was the almost cult-like way in which the group approached food, especially that which came from animals. They used Genesis 1:29-30 to support their theory that we must only eat what was in the original diet. But what does that do to all of Paul's statements in Romans (and elsewhere) about eating what is acceptable?

It seems like to say that it is wrong and bad to eat animal products is to say that God's provision for food is not good enough (didn't He provide quail for His people at one point??). God is in control of all of His creation, and we can only do the best we can, all in balance.

Yes, we probably all need to cut out more processed, sugary, and fatty foods, but I think we have to remember that food is a gift to be enjoyed! I do appreciate some of the knowledge I gained about measuring the fat in foods we eat (that was last night's topic) and I learned a few new cooking techniques for my veggies.

In summary, I will never become a vegan, and probably not even vegetarian. I give those people credit though for their creativity in cooking.

and praise God for chicken fingers.

the mrs.