The concept of the "Adam and Eve diet" evokes images of the Garden of Eden and a simple, plant-based way of eating. While it's impossible to replicate the exact conditions or diet of Adam and Eve, exploring the principles behind this concept can offer insights into healthy eating and individual dietary needs.
The Garden of Eden: A Vegan Paradise?
The Bible makes references to Adam and Eve’s food being sourced primarily from fruit, nuts, seeds, herbs, and grains. The Urantia Book corroborates the general consensus among Bible scholars that Adam and Eve did not eat meat. In the beginning, God gave our first parents a diet of plants. The garden abutted the Mediterranean Sea and the climate favored fruits and nuts. According to the Bible account, consuming the flesh of animals is introduced only after the flood destroyed the vegetation on the earth.
Some people claim that Adam and Eve ate a diet of mainly fruit with some herbs. Some further suppose these were all raw. “Every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,” would include fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains and other plant foods.
The Tree of Life and Unique Biology
One must keep in mind that Adam and Eve’s diet was supported by the tree of life and that Adam and Eve had a unique biology. The tree of life was replanted in Eden to sustain Adam and Eve. “This superplant stored up certain space-energies which were antidotal to the age-producing elements of animal existence. The food eaten by the celestial couple and their family contrasted considerably from that of the largely hunter-gatherer and pastoral human populations they had come to enhance. The Urantia Book expands on some of the other energy, originating in space, that was available to sustain the celestial couple.
This highlights a crucial point: we don't live in the Garden of Eden, and those exact foods are unlikely to be available to us now. When our parents left the Garden, they went from an immortal to a mortal state, I assume their bodies changed somehow. Our bodies are likewise not immortal. Today’s vegans have neither the genetics of Adam and Eve nor the tree that sustained them.
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Modern Interpretations: The Hallelujah Diet
The Hallelujah Diet answers the question: "What would Adam and Eve eat?" Created by North Carolina reverend George Malkmus, the Hallelujah Diet is based on the story of Adam and Eve. Malkmus recommends followers consume fruit, vegetables and whole grains consisting of 85% raw and 15% cooked plant-based foods. The program consists almost entirely of raw fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts. Malkmus said that -- long before South Beach or Jenny Craig -- God laid out his own diet plan in the book of Genesis.
The Importance of Whole Foods
If we were to go on “Adam & Eve’s Diet and Exercise Program”, we’d eat more fresh whole foods, take fewer shortcuts and increase our activity. Meals were centered on simple whole foods. Simplify your meals and skip over the casseroles and multi-ingredient recipes. Adam and Eve likely did a lot of walking around together. You may not have any fruit to pick, or work to do in the garden, but you can still enjoy the great outdoors while burning a few calories.
The Adam and Eve Diet and Individual Evolutionary Types
Developed and tested by leading naturopath Roderick Lane, this pioneering eating plan targets your individual evolutionary type. The Adam and Eve Diet is different. That means you don’t need to eat less. Just differently, and the weight you lose will stay off for good. The principle is simple. Each of us belongs to one of five body types - Hunter Gatherer, Pioneer, Pathfinder, Farmer, Gardener or Dancer - which governs our physique and thrives on different ways of eating. The perfect diet for a Pioneer, say, could pile the pounds on a Dancer.
Functional Bio-Typing
The key principle behind the Adam and Eve Diet is that of Functional Bio-Typing; that is, one size does not fit all, one diet will not suit everybody. Man is an adaptive animal, constantly changing and adapting to his environment. What suits an Eskimo will not work for a South Sea Islander in a tropical paradise. What is it that your physiology works best on to achieve and maintain optimum health? The Adam and Eve Diet takes your differences into account and allows you to understand what will work for you.
Functional Biotypes are confirmed when the body becomes fully formed at puberty, which is interestingly, also the time at which we are at our physical peak. In Chapter 1, you can identify your own Functional Biotype by answering the questionnaires. Lane concluded that the five Functional Biotypes evolved in response to the needs of early man. And those needs were all geared towards one thing: survival.
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The Five Functional Biotypes
Lane hypothesises that the first anatomically modern Homo sapiens were ‘Hunter-Gatherer’ types, and that today’s Hunter Gatherers are the descendants of the people who first walked out of prehistoric Africa to populate the world. As you will discover in Chapter 1, these Functional Biotypes are admirably designed to roam for long distances, hunting and gathering their food as they go. ‘Pathfinders’, the tallest of the Functional Biotypes, probably came next, then Pioneers, Farmer Gardeners and Dancers the most modern in evolutionary terms. Along with their physical characteristics, these Functional Biotypes also developed personality traits that enabled them to adapt, and many of these are still evident today.
Modern Challenges and the Adam and Eve Diet
In the 21st century we are not only the product of evolution. We are also hugely influenced by the pressures of modern living and increasingly abnormal sleep patterns as the ’24-hour’ day becomes more and more prevalent. Chronic stress is increasingly recognised as a growing problem with health and wellbeing implications. Technological advances also produce their own challenges in terms of removing established boundaries at the beginning and end of the working day and feeling pressured to constantly stay connected to others.
Stress can place an intolerable strain on many areas of your body, including your glands, and many of the niggling (and not-so-niggling) health problems experienced by the majority of the population are either caused or exacerbated by stress. You can identify your own individual Stress Weakness Points by answering the detailed checklists in Chapter 3, and correct them by making lifestyle changes, and taking specific supplements, herbs and homeopathic remedies.
Limitations and Considerations
Relatively few human beings over the last million years have been sustained by a vegan diet. A significant percentage of people who experiment with vegan diets are known to abandon their pursuit as they discover the negative impacts on their teeth, immune system, stamina, and sleep-even their spiritual health.
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