Humanity's Original Diet and Surroundings

When God created the heavens and the earth in seven days it was very good.

But after sin curses came on earth both directly by sin and indirectly by God punishing or chastising sin. Then things became imperfect.

While things became worse the age of men went down too. While right after the fall people lived for hundreds of years, the age limit went down as time went on, especially after the flood.

Our bodily health is connected to our mental health. This can already be felt when we eat or sleep or when we do not eat or sleep.

We may well assume that God’s original plan for humanity, which was very good, was the ideal and the best way to go.

Let us then look at the diet of men and his surroundings at creation. Trying to imitate this to some extent could help our mental health.

To men was said:

[Gen 1:29-31 NKJV] 29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb [that] yields seed which [is] on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 "Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for food"; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed [it was] very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The first diet of men was that of fruits. The herbs of the earth, which would include vegetables, were intended for men.
Flesh was on no diet at all.

This means that the original diet for men consisted of fruit.

But then the earth became cursed. This happened twice.

First there was a curse that happened at the fall. The earth would not give it’s fruits so easily as before. And therefore God allowed them to eat from the herbs as well.

[Gen 3:18 NKJV] 18 Both thorns and thistles it (the earth) shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.

Then the earth was cursed with a flood. Many of the plants must have died in that time and Noah was allowed to eat flesh as well:

[Gen 9:3-4 NKJV] 3 "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, [that is], its blood.

This is the progress of diet. The ideal, probably for our physical and mental health too, would be to get as close to Eden.

But we must also keep in mind that circumstances have changed. Not everything that was in Eden is available now. If we try to get our diet closer to Eden we must make sure we get all the nutrients that we need.
The reason why our diet changed in the first place was because there was a lack of nutrients in the former diets because of certain curses.
But if we can and know enough about which nutrients we need, it may be good for us to get our diet closer to that of Eden. This is how we were created and this seems to be, therefore, the most natural.

If we do this in small steps we will get a taste for it over time. Taste can be trained.

There is no inherent sin in eating flesh. God commanded it in the sacrificial system and Jesus ate fish.

But if we can, it may well be a good thing for our mental health.

The same can be said about our surroundings.

Originally men was placed in a garden:

[Gen 2:8-15 NKJV] 8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life [was] also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first [is] Pishon; it [is] the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold. 12 And the gold of that land [is] good. Bdellium and the onyx stone [are] there. 13 The name of the second river [is] Gihon; it [is] the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river [is] Hiddekel; it [is] the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river [is] the Euphrates. 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

Placing ourselves among much greenery and spending time in nature or even living in such surroundings would do much good too. It would feel natural and more calm.

We were created this way and this seems to be the ideal for the human body and spirit.

Men were also meant to tend and keep the garden. There was no curse yet so it was no job we do with sweat to survive.

But the simple work of keeping and tending a garden is natural and is what God originally intended.
Again, we may well conclude that this work would do much for our mental health over time.

These are some of the things we can learn from our original place in Eden.