What is saturated fat, you might ask? Most nutrition and diet sources define saturated fat in terms similar to the following: “the least healthy of all fats/lipids. Common sources of saturated fat include animal fats, butter, lard, red meat, cheese, cream and milk…. Saturated fat is solid at room temperature” (Collins, 2002). What could too much of this kind of fat do to your body? It could cause your arteries to clog, lead to obesity, give you serious heart problems, raise your cholesterol, and the list goes on.

Only within the last few decades have we Americans become acutely aware of the dangers of certain types of fat. We hear stories from bygone years about our great-grandfathers literally chewing animal fat on the porch, our grandmothers cooking most everything with lard, and heaps of bacon being served up every morning for breakfast. Widespread knowledge of the hazards fat is relatively novel to our society.

But long before we were diagnosing heart disease and high cholesterol or monitoring fat intake, God saw to it that the children of Israel had regulations to ensure that they did not fall prey to the diseases that ravaged the land in their day (and ours). In Leviticus 3, after Moses detailed what the Israelites were supposed to do with fat around the tail of a lamb, the fat attached to the liver of the sacrifice, and the fat above the kidneys, He wrote: “This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood” (v. 17). Isn’t it amazing that in approximately 1,500 B.C., hundreds of years before any scholarly dietary research ever connected fat with heart problems, God was implementing a nationwide diet that would lessen the Israelites’ chances of high cholesterol, heart attacks, obesity, and a host of other adverse health issues?

Please understand that this article is not designed to tell you what Jesus would or would not eat. Neither was it written to demand that you never eat animal fat again. The Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant, in which we find no commands about staying away from animal fat. But isn’t it interesting that the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has provided so many accurate answers to situations hundreds of years before our most advanced medical research? Let us all follow the psalmist’s example when he prayed to the Lord, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law” (Psalm 119:18).

Collins, Anne (2002), “What is Saturated Fat,” [On-line], URL: http://www.annecollins.com/dieting/saturated-fat.htm.

“New Dietary Guidelines from the American Heart Association,” (2000), [On-line], URL: http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/972602194.html.