Eat healthy foods? No, they are eating “the biblical way”

Kayla Bundy likes to start her day with a mug of bone broth.

She buys raw milk, snacks on sardines, eats real naturally fermented bread — no industrial yeast — and, in general, cooks with ingredients from local producers. On TikTok, where he has more than 500 thousand followers, he says that the diet “fixed” his skin, his hair and even his depression. And it even sells consultancy sessions for those who want to change their diet.

Bundy, a 27-year-old Christian content creator, may seem like just another “clean eating” influencer, but she sees what she does as part of a greater calling. For eight years, he has followed what he calls biblical eating, prioritizing foods mentioned in the Bible. She is part of a small but engaged online community that tries to bring faith and diet together.

In a context in which the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement is pushing for more access to unpasteurized dairy products, more restrictions on ultra-processed foods and new definitions of what constitutes healthy food, alternative diets focused on simple foods have gained ground, even among those who do not consider themselves MAHA. Add to this the increase in users of GLP-1-based medications, who have difficulty consuming enough protein, and biblical diets end up functioning as a new packaging for old eating rules. The FDA’s new acting commissioner, who took office on Tuesday, is also a staunch supporter of policies to take chemicals out of the food chain.

“I had never stopped to look at the Bible as a cookbook,” says Bundy, who grew up in Michigan and now lives in Bali. After cutting out refined sugar made her feel better, she says she began “studying the Scriptures with that eye, noticing what they were eating.”

And he adds: “Sin entered the world through food, and Satan didn’t stop there. Food, for me, is almost a weapon, a way to fight back.”

Bundy makes it clear that she has no background in nutrition, but she sells a digital guide to “Biblical superfoods” for $28, as well as coaching packages that she says start at about $700 a month.

She is not an isolated case. Like other healthy eating influencers, those who preach the biblical diet on social media usually also sell some type of product.

Annalies Xaviera, a homemaker from Gainesville, Georgia, posts biblical eating tips and says her Facebook audience jumped from a few thousand to more than 300,000 in a matter of weeks this spring. She sells a digital cookbook.

“The Bible says that God values ​​and celebrates small steps of obedience,” says Xaviera, 32. She says she does not consider herself part of the MAHA movement, but recognizes that some of the group’s flags — such as cutting artificial colorings from food — clash with her preferences.

On a daily basis, he summarizes his proposal as eating real food and cooking at home. He still buys some processed products, such as pasta.

The idea of ​​eating “biblically” — which can range from strictly following the ingredients mentioned in the Bible to just cooking everything from scratch, or something in between — is far from new. The 2008 book “The Eden Diet” already offered weight loss and nutrition tips based on biblical teachings. “The Maker’s Diet,” by Jordan Rubin, released in 2004, became a bestseller (as did “The Biblio Diet,” written with Josh Axe, a MAHA supporter, published last year).

For years, some Christians have also been doing the so-called “Daniel fast”, periods of 21 days inspired by the Book of Daniel, in the Old Testament, in which he consumes only vegetables and water. (Not to mention older religious dietary traditions, like maintaining a kosher or halal diet, or following Levitical dietary rules. Jesus himself, in theory, followed kosher laws.)

Jennifer R. Ayres, a professor of religious education at Emory University, says the online Bible-feeding movement appears to show “too much focus on individual decision-making.” She highlights that “there is a lack of a more collective and environmental vision about what is happening in our food system” in this type of online debate.

Abbie Stasior, a Christian nutritionist who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, says that much of her work looks, at first glance, like traditional nutritional advice. It usually starts by talking to customers about the importance of breakfast. Then, he uses biblical verses, such as the passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus has breakfast with his disciples, with bread and fish. “It has carbohydrates and protein,” says Stasior, 31.

Tying the conversation about food to the Bible, he says, offers “an extra incentive.”

From a nutritional standpoint, Marion Nestle, one of the nation’s leading food policy experts, says that if people following a biblical diet consume enough calories and “a good variety of relatively unprocessed foods,” they are “probably doing very well.”

She also points out how the culture of well-being has been mixing with the debate on public policies.

“The problem with wellness culture is that it’s based more on personal experience than science—it’s what makes you feel good,” says Nestle. “Diet is all about belief. We don’t have many belief systems left in this country. People are desperate for some kind of meaning in life.”