In this blog series, I’m going to teach you which foods I recommend people eat—and which foods I do not. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that I recommend almost all foods.
The body is designed to digest most foods. The only time people struggle to digest foods I recommend is when one of the body’s systems is out of balance. If you’re dealing with gut issues, you may find it hard to digest certain foods, even if those foods are naturally good for you. That topic, however, is beyond the scope of this blog series.
To start, I’ll share the foods I do not recommend eating. This list may surprise you, as it’s not often discussed in the health and wellness space. The only foods I do not recommend are the biblically unclean foods listed in Leviticus 11. Why?
Our Heavenly Father asks His holy people to abstain from unclean foods. God’s chosen people are instructed not to eat unclean foods because we are called to be a holy priesthood, set apart. We are called to be holy as the Father is holy.
One of the ways we can be set apart from the world is through how we choose to eat. The way we eat can glorify God. God doesn’t restrict food to punish us, but calls us to eat in a holy and set-apart way—because He is holy.
Acts 10 Vision
Many believers think they can eat whatever they want because the apostle Peter had a vision from heaven in which a voice told him to eat unclean foods. Based on this, some interpret that unclean foods were made clean, and that believers can eat anything.
Let’s take a moment to read that passage in Acts 10 to understand what’s really going on:
“The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’ And the voice came to him again a second time, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.”
—Acts 10:9–16 (ESV)
From this passage, we learn a few things immediately. First, Peter does not eat unclean foods. He tells the Lord that he has never eaten anything common or unclean. The events in Acts 10 occurred around 39–40 A.D., which means Peter had followed dietary laws during Jesus’ ministry and for years afterward.
Many interpret this vision literally, believing God’s people can eat unclean foods. But let’s look at how Peter interprets the vision himself.
If you keep reading Acts 10, you’ll see that Peter later visits a Gentile believer named Cornelius. While speaking to a large group (presumably Gentiles), Peter says:
“You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”
—Acts 10:27–28 (ESV)
So, the vision was not about food. The voice from Heaven wasn’t declaring unclean animals clean for consumption—it was showing Peter that Gentiles, whom Jews previously considered unclean, were now accepted by God.
For Everything Created by God is Good Paradox
Let’s examine another verse people often use to support the idea that all foods are clean:
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”
—1 Timothy 4:4 (ESV)
This verse is often misunderstood to mean that we can eat any food we want as long as we pray over it. But that interpretation ignores the context of Paul’s letter to Timothy.
In this letter, Paul is warning Timothy against false teachers (1 Timothy 1:3) who claim to be teachers of the law but misunderstand it (1 Timothy 1:7). In chapter 4, Paul addresses false teachings that promote abstaining from certain foods:
“They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”
—1 Timothy 4:3–5 (ESV)
These false teachers were forbidding people to eat all meat, including clean meats such as lamb, goat, poultry, and beef—foods that God approved in Leviticus 11. Paul isn’t declaring unclean foods clean; he’s correcting people who said believers must be vegetarian to be holy.
Following the Traditions of Men Rather than Obey the Commandments of God
Another passage people use to support the belief that Christians do not need to obey Levitical dietary laws anymore is Mark 7:19. In Mark 7, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for questioning why His disciples eat without first washing their hands—a man-made tradition.
Here’s the passage:
“And he called the people to him again and said to them, ‘Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.’ And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, ‘Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.)”
—Mark 7:14–19 (ESV)
This passage is not about the Levitical dietary laws. Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for elevating human traditions above God’s commandments. He’s teaching that eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make someone spiritually unclean. It’s the sin that comes from a person’s heart that defiles them—not whether their hands were washed first.
The text in parenthesis “thus he declared all foods clean” does not exist in any original Hebrew text of the Bible.
That phrase is a translation choice made in modern English Bibles based on the Greek of Mark 7:19.
Meat Sacrificed to Idols
Now let’s address one more common argument—that 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14 permit eating all foods, including unclean ones.
In 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14, Paul is speaking about food sacrificed to idols. At the time, meat sold in the marketplace may have come from pagan temples. New believers with a sensitive conscience worried that eating such meat was sinful. Some even chose to avoid meat entirely.
Paul explains that eating this meat is not sinful in itself. He tells believers with stronger faith not to judge those with a weaker conscience—and not to cause them to stumble.
These chapters are not discussing whether unclean animals from Leviticus 11 are now permitted. They’re addressing concerns over idol-sacrificed meat, which is a different issue.
For a deeper dive, I recommend the 119 Ministries teaching titled “Meat Sacrificed to Idols.”
Now that we’ve clarified that the New Testament does not permit unclean foods, the question remains: What are the unclean foods listed in Leviticus 11?
🐄 Unclean Land Animals
You may not eat animals that do not both chew the cud and have a divided (cloven) hoof:
- Camel – chews the cud but does not have a divided hoof.
- Rock hyrax (coney) – chews the cud but does not have a divided hoof.
- Hare – chews the cud but does not have a divided hoof.
- Pig – has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud.
🐟 Unclean Water Creatures
You may not eat any water creatures that do not have fins and scales:
- Includes all shellfish: shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, oysters, mussels, scallops.
- Also includes: catfish, eels, squid, octopus, sharks, and other scaleless aquatic animals.
🐦 Unclean Birds
You may not eat the following birds :
- Eagle
- Vulture
- Black vulture
- Red kite
- Black kite
- Raven (all kinds)
- Horned owl
- Screech owl
- Gull (all kinds)
- Hawk (all kinds)
- Little owl
- Cormorant
- Great owl
- White owl
- Desert owl
- Osprey
- Stork
- Heron (all kinds)
- Hoopoe
- Bat
🐜 Unclean Flying Insects
You may not eat flying insects that do not have jointed legs for hopping on the ground:
- Most insects are unclean.
- Exceptions (clean): locusts, katydids, crickets, grasshoppers.
- All other winged insects (e.g., flies, bees, wasps, ants, beetles, etc.) are unclean.
🦎 Unclean Small Creatures That Crawl
You may not eat or touch the following creatures that crawl on the ground:
- Weasel
- Rat
- Great lizard
- Gecko
- Monitor lizard
- Wall lizard
- Skink
- Chameleon
Additionally, anything that walks on paws among the animals that move on all fours (like dogs, cats, lions, bears, etc.) is unclean.
🐍 Other Swarming Creatures
- Creatures that swarm on the ground are unclean: mice, snakes, bugs, and most crawling animals.
Let’s Obey God’s Commandments
Jesus obeyed God’s dietary law, and as followers of Jesus, we should strive to obey the same commandments that He obeyed. Remember, the word of God is truth (Psalm 119:160), and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). God does not change—if He did, He would be a liar. Therefore, it is safe to say that the word of God has not changed; rather, it is man’s interpretation of Scripture that has altered its meaning.
If you want to follow God’s commandments, I encourage you to obey His dietary law. I truly believe it will bless you as it has blessed me.If you’re curious about the foods I recommend eating only occasionally due to how they are made and processed today, be sure to read Part 2 of this blog series: Foods I Eat Only Sometimes.