Which Animals Can We Eat?

Question: You’ve mentioned that God has rules about “clean and unclean meats.” What’s that about?

Answer: The Bible determines which animals are good for food and which ones are not. It describes differences between animals it calls “clean” and those it calls “unclean”—which animals were designed to be eaten and which ones were not. Knowing the difference between clean animals and unclean ones is usually quite simple, and we can use Leviticus 11 to figure it out.

First, let’s examine the difference between clean and unclean land animals. Leviticus 11 says that “whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud, that you may eat” (v. 3). Then it explains that if an animal chews the cud but does not have split hooves, or vice versa, it’s unclean and should not be eaten. A couple of the specific examples given are “the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves” and “the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud” (vv. 4–7). It goes on to say that animals with paws, as well as reptiles, are unclean, and explicitly names the mole, the mouse, the large lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon (vv. 27–30).

Again, of the land animals, those designed to be eaten have split hooves and chew their cud. And it happens that all animals with these two characteristics fall into a scientific class of animals we now call ruminants, which are very efficient at turning grasses into meat. Some examples are cattle, buffalo, deer, goats, sheep, elk, moose, and giraffe.

Next, God distinguishes between animals living in the water: “whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat. But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales… you shall not eat their flesh” (Leviticus 11:9–12). Some examples of clean fish are salmon, flounder, tuna, sardines, and trout, which all have fins and scales. Some examples of unclean water animals, which do not have fins and scales, are octopus, shrimp, oysters, catfish, crab, and lobster.

The next few verses focus on winged animals. For these, Leviticus 11 does not list the differences between clean and unclean, but it gives examples of unclean winged animals, such as the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, the falcon, the raven, the ostrich, the seagull, the hawk, the owl, the jackdaw, the stork, the heron, and the bat.

Based on this listing and the biblical examples of clean birds, we can gather that clean birds are not birds of prey; do not eat their food in the air and while eating their food do not use their feet to hold their food down; have an elongated middle front toe and a hind toe; spread their toes so that three front toes are on one side of their perch and the hind toe on the other side; have a place to store extra food before they’re ready to digest it, usually called a craw or a crop; and have a gizzard with a double lining, which can easily be split. Each of the unclean birds listed in the Bible is missing at least one of these six characteristics. Some examples of clean birds are the chicken, the duck, the goose, the turkey, the dove, the quail, the peafowl, and the pigeon—all of these were designed to be eaten.

Finally, we find the differences between clean and unclean insects. The only clean insects are flying ones that use four legs for crawling and have “jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind” (Leviticus 11:20–23). So, insects are good for food only if they can fly, have four legs used only for crawling, and have two hind legs that are also used for jumping.

If you want to know more about health principles from the Bible, you can read our free study guide Biblical Principles of Health right here at TomorrowsWorld.org or by requesting a copy from our Regional Office nearest you.