Monday, March 3: If you’ve prowled around a bookstore lately, perhaps you’ve noticed a “year of” trend in which authors write about giving up Chinese toys and products (A Year Without “Made in China” by Judith Levine), eating locally and sustainably for a year (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver), and cooking every one of the 534 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a single year (Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell).
These “year of” books having something in common: trying something out or giving up something for twelve months. Maybe there’s a book about the Perfect Weight America Tour that’s waiting to be written since I’ll be out on the road for 11 months. That’s what I’m thinking after hearing that I played a cameo role in one of those “year of” books that’s getting national attention these days. I’m referring to The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs.
A.J. Jacobs, a 39-year-old self-described agnostic, decided to see if he could abide by all the rules in the Bible, with an heavy emphasis on the rabbinical law found in the Old Testament. So A.J. stopped shaving and grew a beard that nearly reached his navel. He stopped wearing clothes made of mixed fibers and donned a robe and sandals. When his wife was menstruating, he avoided touching her or sitting on any chair that she may have sat on. (At least A.J. didn’t marry another wife, which was done in biblical times.)
When it came to following the “rules” of what to eat (found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Torah or Old Testament), this is where yours truly entered the picture. To help him figure out what he could dine on, Jacobs writes that he bought a copy of my 2004 book, The Maker’s Diet, as part of his research. “It’s a helpful guide,” he writes on page 173. “The basic idea is a modified Mediterranean diet, which means our refrigerator is packed with even more hummus, tahini, and pita bread. At the suggestion of the Maker’s Diet, I’ve also cut out all cow’s milk. Cows in biblical times were mainly used for dragging farm implements. The beverage of choice was goat’s or sheep’s milk.”
Well, A.J. is correct in saying that I’m a fan of goat’s and sheep’s milk. In Phase I of the Perfect Weight Eating Plan, I don’t recommend the consumption of dairy products from cow’s milk. Goat’s or sheep’s milk is preferred and a personal favorite of mine.
A page later, Jacobs writes this: “Now, this doesn’t get much play in The Maker’s Diet, but there was one other source of protein in biblical times: insects.” Well, there’s a reason why I didn’t talk about eating crickets and locusts in The Maker’s Diet, and it’s because we have a sophisticated food production system that delivers just about any food you’d ever want to eat to your local supermarket. I just happen to prefer shopping for and eating organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed beef, wild-caught trout and staying away from what God called “unclean” animals and fish—pork and shellfish.
I had to laugh when Jacobs wrote about eating crickets—dipped in chocolate. Hey, in my mind, if you’re going to go all the way and eat those little critters, eating crickets dipped in yummy chocolate really doesn’t count!