Kayla Bundy likes to start her day with a cup of bone broth.<\/p>\n
She buys her milk raw, snacks on sardines, eats authentic sourdough bread \u2014 no commercial yeasts here \u2014 and generally cooks with locally-sourced ingredients. On TikTok, where she has over 500,000 followers, she claims that her diet \u201cfixed\u201d her skin, her hair and her depression, and she sells coaching sessions to help others with their diets.<\/p>\n
Bundy, a 27-year-old Christian content creator, might sound like your run-of-the-mill clean-eating type, but she believes her diet to be part of a higher calling. For eight years, she has been a biblical eater, someone who consumes mostly foods mentioned in the Bible. She is part of a niche but dedicated online community trying to tie religious values to dietary needs.<\/p>\n
In an era when the Make America Healthy Again movement has pushed for more access to unpasteurized dairy products<\/a>, stricter boundaries around ultraprocessed foods<\/a> and new definitions for what counts as healthy food<\/a>, alternative diets focusing on simpler foods are finding popularity, even when their proponents don\u2019t actively consider themselves part of the MAHA movement. Add to that the growing numbers of GLP-1 users struggling to eat enough protein<\/a>, and biblical diets can offer an appealing repackaging of certain age-old diet tenets. (The new acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who assumed his role<\/a> on Tuesday, is also a vocal champion for policies to remove chemicals from the food supply.)<\/p>\n \u201cI had never really thought to look to the Bible for a recipe book,\u201d Bundy, who grew up in Michigan and now lives in Bali, said, but after cutting out refined sugar made her feel good, she said, she started \u201cstudying scripture from that lens of noticing what they are eating.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cSin entered into the world through food, and Satan doesn\u2019t stop there. Food, for me, is really like a weapon of how I can fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n Bundy is open about not having nutrition credentials, but she sells a $28 digital guide to biblical superfoods, as well as coaching sessions that start around $700 for a month, she said.<\/p>\n She\u2019s not the only one. Like other health food influencers, the biblical eating proponents with popular accounts often sell products.<\/p>\n Annalies Xaviera, a stay-at-home mom who lives in Gainesville, Ga., and posts biblical eating tips, said her Facebook following had jumped from scant thousands to over 300,000 in just a few weeks this spring. She sells a digital cookbook.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bible says that God appreciates and celebrates small steps of obedience,\u201d said Xaviera, 32, who added that she did not consider herself part of the MAHA movement, but that some of its goals, like removing artificial dyes from foods, aligned with her own preferences.<\/p>\n She said her approach boiled down to eating whole foods and cooking meals at home. She still buys some processed foods, like pasta.<\/p>\n Eating biblically \u2014 which can mean strictly sticking to the good book\u2019s ingredients, cooking from scratch or anything in between \u2014 is not new. \u201cThe Eden Diet,\u201d a 2008 book, offered weight loss and nutrition tips rooted in biblical teachings. The author Jordan Rubin\u2019s 2004 book \u201cThe Maker\u2019s Diet\u201d was a best seller (as was his recent book \u201cThe Biblio Diet,\u201d coauthored with Josh Axe, a supporter of the MAHA movement, and published last year).<\/p>\n For years, some Christians have also participated in \u201cDaniel fasts,\u201d 21-day fasts<\/a> based on the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, in which Daniel consumes only vegetables and water. (There\u2019s also, of course, the long tradition of religious diets, such as keeping kosher or halal, or following a Levitical diet. Jesus, himself, presumably kept kosher.)<\/p>\n On social media, however, biblical eating has appeared to have a resurgence in recent months.<\/p>\n A few years ago, the actor Chris Pratt talked about completing a Daniel fast<\/a> when he was on \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert.\u201d In January, as part of his partnership with the prayer app Hallow<\/a>, he posted a video<\/a> encouraging his followers to use the app to participate in a fast and prayer challenge<\/a>. The bean-heavy fast had made him quite gassy, he said with a laugh. Other celebrities, including Mark Wahlberg and Patricia Heaton, have been part of similar efforts with the app.<\/p>\n Casper Schimmer, a college student in Amsterdam, said he sold coaching sessions for young, Christian men looking to align their diet and exercise with their faith.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like eating healthy only is what makes a godly person,\u201d Schimmer, 20, said. He said he also focused on physical and mental fitness as part of a larger system of \u201cgodly habits.\u201d (For example, sabbath as the \u201coriginal biohack.\u201d)<\/p>\n Jennifer R. Ayres, a religious education professor at Emory University, said the biblical food movement online seemed to show \u201ca focus on personal decision making.\u201d She added that \u201cthe more collective and environmental analysis of what\u2019s happening in our food system\u201d is missing from some of the social media dialogue.<\/p>\n Abbie Stasior, a Christian dietitian who lives in Nashville, said much of her work looked, at first, like standard nutrition guidance. She often starts with clients by talking about the importance of breakfast. But then she\u2019ll reference Bible verses, pointing, for example, to a scene in the Book of John in which Jesus eats a balanced breakfast of bread and fish with his disciples. \u201cHe\u2019s got carbs and protein,\u201d Stasior, 31, said.<\/p>\n Tying dietary counsel to scripture offers \u201can extra incentive,\u201d Stasior said. <\/p>\n When it comes to meeting nutrition needs, Dr. Marion Nestle, one of the country\u2019s foremost nutrition policy experts, said that if people on the biblical diet consume ample calories and eat \u201ca wide variety of relatively unprocessed foods,\u201d they are \u201cprobably doing just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n She also described how wellness culture had been colliding with policy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing about wellness is that it\u2019s based on personal experience rather than science \u2014 it\u2019s what makes you feel good,\u201d Nestle said, adding: \u201cDiet is about belief. We don\u2019t have a lot of belief systems left in this country. People are desperate for meaning in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Xaviera, the stay-at-home mother in Georgia, said she encouraged her followers to pause before eating, describing a person who might be deciding whether to eat a cookie.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a craving,\u201d she said, \u201chave you ever thought to stop and pray?\u201d<\/p>\n