Scriptures and Yeast
I May Be a Christian, But I Eat Like a Jew
How a morning of scripture study with my kids turned into a fascinating deep-dive on kosher law — and a yeast experiment we won’t forget.
Every morning after breakfast, the kids and I listen to a Living Scriptures dramatization of the Old Testament. It’s become one of my favorite little rituals of the day. This week we reached the story of Daniel and his three friends — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — carried captive to Babylon and chosen, for their strength and promise, to be trained as advisors to the king.
In the story, these young men make a bold request. Rather than eat the rich meat and wine from the king’s own table, they ask to be given only vegetables, grains, and clean water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they look healthier than all the others — and years later they stand before the king in remarkable strength of mind and body. (The very next chapter is the fiery furnace, where the three refuse to bow to the golden image and the Lord delivers them.) The dramatization even had the young men calling the king’s well-fed courtiers “soft,” while they called themselves — and the poor who ate simply like they did — “strong.”
And that’s where our scripture study wandered happily off the trail… all the way into the world of kosher food.
Why couldn’t they eat the king’s meat?
I started to explain to the kids that the Jews wouldn’t eat meat from animals without cloven (split) hooves — and then promptly confused myself, because pigs have split hooves and yet are famously not kosher! So my two trusty sidekicks, Google and Wikipedia, came to the rescue, and I printed off a small stack of pages on Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws we call “kosher” in English. I was FASCINATED — and amazed at how much our own real-food kitchen already had in common with a kosher one.
Here’s what solved my pig puzzle: a land animal has to meet two requirements to be kosher — it must have split hooves AND chew its cud. A pig has the hooves but doesn’t chew the cud, so it doesn’t qualify. Then there’s the care in how the animal is handled: a smooth (non-serrated) blade, the draining and salting to remove the blood, and a careful inspection of the animal afterward to make sure it wasn’t diseased.
I explained that last part to the kids with a homey example — imagine opening up an animal and finding its organs full of worms; you’d want to know! So much of the meat in big grocery stores is processed by machines at high speed. There’s real value in getting meat from a good man or woman (like the folks we buy ours from) who actually looks the animal over, knows it was healthy, and prepares it cleanly.
Jews are remarkable! Or maybe I should say — the law, and the Giver of the law, is remarkable.
The kids had a ball making lists of which animals count as kosher. We debated giraffes (they actually meet the criteria by most readings — but good luck, and they’re endangered besides!). Then we moved on to birds, which sent me back to Google to learn what a bird’s “crop” and “gizzard” are — basically the pouch and muscular mill in a bird’s digestive tract that stores and grinds food. Birds of prey and scavengers are out; familiar poultry like chicken, turkey, duck, and goose are in.
I smiled when turkey came up, because my own body seems to digest turkey more easily than chicken, so I’ve been buying organic turkey more and more. And it got me thinking about how chicken color (that yellow-vs-white you see at the store) mostly comes from what the bird was fed — a good reminder that a food’s appearance can be shaped for the shelf, which is exactly why I’d rather know where mine comes from.
Then fish: to be kosher, it needs both fins and scales, which rules out shellfish and the other bottom-feeders and scavengers of the water. That took me back to my own health-crisis years, when I read stacks of books searching for answers — among them Jordan Rubin’s The Maker’s Diet and Patient, Heal Thyself. Rubin (who went on to found Garden of Life) tells his own remarkable story of battling severe Crohn’s disease, traveling the world for answers, and recovering dramatically after adopting a biblically-inspired way of eating. His account is what first convinced me to avoid scavenger meat, to grow as much of my own food as I can, and to care about the minerals in the soil that food grows in.
Coming back to the fruits, vegetables, and grains — prepared and handled by trusted hands — I couldn’t help thinking how much I, too, lean on good farmers, honest markets, and my own family to put the purest, most nutrient-rich food on our table.
Unleavened bread — and a yeast experiment
When we got to bread, the kids didn’t know what “unleavened” meant. So I explained how the Israelites had to leave Egypt in such a hurry that there was no time to let the dough rise — and how, at Passover, Jews still eat unleavened bread to remember that deliverance.
That’s when inspiration struck: let’s SEE what yeast actually does. We put a little yeast, water, and sugar in a cup. Nothing happened at first (my water was too cool), until one of the kids suggested we set it on our warm Scentsy — and sure enough, it began to foam and rise. The yeast was feasting on the sugar and fermenting, and the kids were delighted.
I used it as a picture for something I believe about eating: when we fill up on refined sugar and processed flour, we’re basically pouring fuel on that same kind of fire — and we tend to feel puffy, heavy, and sluggish as a result. (To be clear for my curious kids and readers: that’s a picture, not literal biology — the real reasons too much processed sugar leaves us feeling that way are inflammation, blood-sugar spikes, and fluid retention, not yeast actually brewing inside us.) Whole fruits, where the sugar comes bound up with fiber and water, don’t hit us the same way at all.
What healing looked like on my face
That foaming little cup carried my mind back to my sickest years — the season when I was part of a dance company and couldn’t muster the energy to finish a warm-up. When I look at photos from the tail end of my mission, I can see the illness right there in my face: flushed, swollen, worn out. I felt sick, and it showed.
A couple of months ago I got together with an old college roommate, and she kept marveling at how well I look now — how much healthier and more vibrant my face seems than it did back then. I knew exactly what she meant. Getting well has been slow, hard-won work, but it’s written on my face too, and that’s a gift I don’t take for granted. I want to be remembered, generations from now, as someone who was healthy and truly well.
A note for my celiac family. Over the years I’ve leaned on probiotics, digestive enzymes, essential oils, and an anti-inflammatory, real-food way of eating, and they’ve helped me feel so much better. But I want to be very clear about something: for diagnosed celiac disease, the only treatment is a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. No supplement, enzyme, oil, or probiotic makes gluten safe for a celiac — and because celiac damage can happen silently, even when you feel fine, please don’t reintroduce wheat based on feeling better. Those good gut-supporting habits belong alongside gluten-free living, not in place of it. Always work with your own doctor.
One more thing that fascinated me
I also read that many Jews keep meat and dairy entirely separate — some with two sets of dishes, or even separate kitchen areas — and wait a period of time between eating one and the other. I find that endlessly interesting, and I want to learn more about the wisdom behind it.
All of this left me half-joking that I’ve stumbled onto a book title: “I May Be Christian, But I Eat Like a Jew.” Said with the deepest respect — because the more I learn about how carefully these laws guard health and gratitude and reverence for life, the more remarkable they are. What a rich, unexpected morning of learning, right there at our own kitchen table.
“Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.” - Daniel 1:12
Lots of love to you!
Steffanie
A note on sources: The dietary laws described here come from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 and traditional Kashrut; the Daniel account is from Daniel 1–3. On celiac disease: the Celiac Disease Foundation, Mayo Clinic, and current medical reviews all agree that a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet is the only established treatment, and that probiotics and enzymes remain research topics rather than proven ways to make gluten safe. Jordan Rubin’s recovery is his own published account.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you have celiac disease or another health condition, please work with a qualified healthcare provider — and never reintroduce gluten without medical guidance.
How a morning of scripture study with my kids turned into a fascinating deep-dive on kosher law — and a yeast experiment we won’t forget.
Every morning after breakfast, the kids and I listen to a Living Scriptures dramatization of the Old Testament. It’s become one of my favorite little rituals of the day. This week we reached the story of Daniel and his three friends — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — carried captive to Babylon and chosen, for their strength and promise, to be trained as advisors to the king.
In the story, these young men make a bold request. Rather than eat the rich meat and wine from the king’s own table, they ask to be given only vegetables, grains, and clean water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they look healthier than all the others — and years later they stand before the king in remarkable strength of mind and body. (The very next chapter is the fiery furnace, where the three refuse to bow to the golden image and the Lord delivers them.) The dramatization even had the young men calling the king’s well-fed courtiers “soft,” while they called themselves — and the poor who ate simply like they did — “strong.”
And that’s where our scripture study wandered happily off the trail… all the way into the world of kosher food.
Why couldn’t they eat the king’s meat?
I started to explain to the kids that the Jews wouldn’t eat meat from animals without cloven (split) hooves — and then promptly confused myself, because pigs have split hooves and yet are famously not kosher! So my two trusty sidekicks, Google and Wikipedia, came to the rescue, and I printed off a small stack of pages on Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws we call “kosher” in English. I was FASCINATED — and amazed at how much our own real-food kitchen already had in common with a kosher one.
Here’s what solved my pig puzzle: a land animal has to meet two requirements to be kosher — it must have split hooves AND chew its cud. A pig has the hooves but doesn’t chew the cud, so it doesn’t qualify. Then there’s the care in how the animal is handled: a smooth (non-serrated) blade, the draining and salting to remove the blood, and a careful inspection of the animal afterward to make sure it wasn’t diseased.
I explained that last part to the kids with a homey example — imagine opening up an animal and finding its organs full of worms; you’d want to know! So much of the meat in big grocery stores is processed by machines at high speed. There’s real value in getting meat from a good man or woman (like the folks we buy ours from) who actually looks the animal over, knows it was healthy, and prepares it cleanly.
Jews are remarkable! Or maybe I should say — the law, and the Giver of the law, is remarkable.
The great kosher-animal hunt
The kids had a ball making lists of which animals count as kosher. We debated giraffes (they actually meet the criteria by most readings — but good luck, and they’re endangered besides!). Then we moved on to birds, which sent me back to Google to learn what a bird’s “crop” and “gizzard” are — basically the pouch and muscular mill in a bird’s digestive tract that stores and grinds food. Birds of prey and scavengers are out; familiar poultry like chicken, turkey, duck, and goose are in.
I smiled when turkey came up, because my own body seems to digest turkey more easily than chicken, so I’ve been buying organic turkey more and more. And it got me thinking about how chicken color (that yellow-vs-white you see at the store) mostly comes from what the bird was fed — a good reminder that a food’s appearance can be shaped for the shelf, which is exactly why I’d rather know where mine comes from.
Then fish: to be kosher, it needs both fins and scales, which rules out shellfish and the other bottom-feeders and scavengers of the water. That took me back to my own health-crisis years, when I read stacks of books searching for answers — among them Jordan Rubin’s The Maker’s Diet and Patient, Heal Thyself. Rubin (who went on to found Garden of Life) tells his own remarkable story of battling severe Crohn’s disease, traveling the world for answers, and recovering dramatically after adopting a biblically-inspired way of eating. His account is what first convinced me to avoid scavenger meat, to grow as much of my own food as I can, and to care about the minerals in the soil that food grows in.
Coming back to the fruits, vegetables, and grains — prepared and handled by trusted hands — I couldn’t help thinking how much I, too, lean on good farmers, honest markets, and my own family to put the purest, most nutrient-rich food on our table.
Unleavened bread — and a yeast experiment
When we got to bread, the kids didn’t know what “unleavened” meant. So I explained how the Israelites had to leave Egypt in such a hurry that there was no time to let the dough rise — and how, at Passover, Jews still eat unleavened bread to remember that deliverance.
That’s when inspiration struck: let’s SEE what yeast actually does. We put a little yeast, water, and sugar in a cup. Nothing happened at first (my water was too cool), until one of the kids suggested we set it on our warm Scentsy — and sure enough, it began to foam and rise. The yeast was feasting on the sugar and fermenting, and the kids were delighted.
I used it as a picture for something I believe about eating: when we fill up on refined sugar and processed flour, we’re basically pouring fuel on that same kind of fire — and we tend to feel puffy, heavy, and sluggish as a result. (To be clear for my curious kids and readers: that’s a picture, not literal biology — the real reasons too much processed sugar leaves us feeling that way are inflammation, blood-sugar spikes, and fluid retention, not yeast actually brewing inside us.) Whole fruits, where the sugar comes bound up with fiber and water, don’t hit us the same way at all.
What healing looked like on my face
That foaming little cup carried my mind back to my sickest years — the season when I was part of a dance company and couldn’t muster the energy to finish a warm-up. When I look at photos from the tail end of my mission, I can see the illness right there in my face: flushed, swollen, worn out. I felt sick, and it showed.
A couple of months ago I got together with an old college roommate, and she kept marveling at how well I look now — how much healthier and more vibrant my face seems than it did back then. I knew exactly what she meant. Getting well has been slow, hard-won work, but it’s written on my face too, and that’s a gift I don’t take for granted. I want to be remembered, generations from now, as someone who was healthy and truly well.
A note for my celiac family. Over the years I’ve leaned on probiotics, digestive enzymes, essential oils, and an anti-inflammatory, real-food way of eating, and they’ve helped me feel so much better. But I want to be very clear about something: for diagnosed celiac disease, the only treatment is a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. No supplement, enzyme, oil, or probiotic makes gluten safe for a celiac — and because celiac damage can happen silently, even when you feel fine, please don’t reintroduce wheat based on feeling better. Those good gut-supporting habits belong alongside gluten-free living, not in place of it. Always work with your own doctor.
One more thing that fascinated me
I also read that many Jews keep meat and dairy entirely separate — some with two sets of dishes, or even separate kitchen areas — and wait a period of time between eating one and the other. I find that endlessly interesting, and I want to learn more about the wisdom behind it.
All of this left me half-joking that I’ve stumbled onto a book title: “I May Be Christian, But I Eat Like a Jew.” Said with the deepest respect — because the more I learn about how carefully these laws guard health and gratitude and reverence for life, the more remarkable they are. What a rich, unexpected morning of learning, right there at our own kitchen table.
“Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.” - Daniel 1:12
Lots of love to you!
Steffanie
A note on sources: The dietary laws described here come from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 and traditional Kashrut; the Daniel account is from Daniel 1–3. On celiac disease: the Celiac Disease Foundation, Mayo Clinic, and current medical reviews all agree that a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet is the only established treatment, and that probiotics and enzymes remain research topics rather than proven ways to make gluten safe. Jordan Rubin’s recovery is his own published account.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you have celiac disease or another health condition, please work with a qualified healthcare provider — and never reintroduce gluten without medical guidance.
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