Religious teachings about food can generally be divided into two segments: the "don't eat" and the "do eat." The "don'ts" are more likely to be codified into religious law than the "dos," which tend to follow custom and may be largely unspoken. But the do-eat rules can be just as important in helping spiritual people remember who they are. On Rosh Hashanah, Jews eat apples and honey to represent the sweetness of the new year; on Passover, herbs represent the bitterness of their enslavement in Egypt. Muslims often break the Ramadan fast by eating a bite of "heavenly" food such as olives or dates.
Turkish Muslims who feel they've been granted a wish may prepare a "Zaccharia table" with 41 different nuts and fruits to thank the Prophet Zaccharia. They also celebrate the month when the waters of the great flood receded by preparing asure or Noah's pudding made of wheat berries, dried legumes, rice, raisins, currants, dried figs, dates and nuts. Tradition says these foods were all the supplies left in the Ark.
But the don't-eat rules get most of the attention. Jews and Muslims don't eat pork because it's said to be unclean. For Jews who keep kosher, mixing meat with dairy is also unclean. Hare Krishnas, who don't eat onions or garlic, sometimes give as their reason that their food is first offered to the deities who might be offended by the noxious smell from such vegetables. Muslims aren't supposed to drink alcohol. Mormons are forbidden alcohol, caffeine and tobacco. Baptists and a number of other Christian denominations also preach abstinence.
Behind all these prohibitions is the idea that the human body is a temple dedicated to God that ought not be defiled. Their power can live on after the dictates have been lifted. Catholics have been allowed to eat meat on Friday since Vatican II in the mid-1960s. But you'd never know it in heavily Catholic areas like Milwaukee where Friday fish fries are so much the rule there that even pizza parlors have them.
To outsiders, religious food traditions often seem nonsensical. Ekeko, the Bolivian god of abundance, gets cereal and cigarettes. Shou Lao, the Chinese god of longevity, likes peaches and carries one to represent immortality. St. Expedite, a legendary saint who can make things happen more quickly, is entreated by many cultures, which offer him flowers. In New Orleans, he is thought to be particularly fond of Sara Lee pound cake, according to Catherine Yronwode, owner of the Lucky Mojo Curio Co. in Forestville, California, who has studied such customs for 40 years.
Strictly observant Hare Krishnas can hardly eat anything when they travel because the food has not been prepared with the kinds of blessings and dedication that they require. Jews observing kosher dietary laws must not only use two sets of dishes but they must use two dishpans to wash them and may also have two sets of dishwasher racks.
Though the food laws and customs of every culture and faith can seem arcane and antiquated to outsiders, paradoxically, as culture becomes global, they are becoming more important, not less. American Hindus who learned that beef flavoring was being used in McDonald's french fries sued the burger chain. "Eating a cow for a Hindu would be like eating your own mother," one enraged plaintiff told The New York Times. When the rumor that such flavoring was being used reached India, statues of Ronald McDonald were smeared with cow dung. (McDonald's spokespersons say beef flavoring is not used in India.)
We are all, then, not only what we eat, and how we eat but why we eat. As one Dallas Jewish woman who keeps kosher said, "Every bite I put into my mouth reminds me of who I am and what my values are."
