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A first-century diet was much healthier than what we consume today.
CNS photo/Reuters
May 1, 2026
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Frank is a typical 50-year-old from a large Canadian city whose wife and children badger him about his weight gain. Yes, he has noticed the few extra pounds. Of course that would happen, he says, the problem is with his aging knees. He just naturally slipped into skipping hockey with the boys. His wife wants him to exercise more. However, much to his surprise, he has been participating in other sports in his leisure time, sport that involves a screen of some sort. Everyone is doing it, he shrugs, it’s hard to avoid!
In the time of Jesus, there was no such thing as planned exercise for health. There was no need to set aside a dedicated time to go to the gym or to wear a device to monitor the number of daily steps. When we compare the 21st-century Canadian lifestyle to those of first-century Galileans, we see that their daily life of hard work was their “exercise,” whereas in modern life, we have to work hard to get our exercise.
Life in first-century Galilee centred on movement. Whether men worked in the fields or were labourers, a typical day included walking and manual work without mechanization: lifting, bending, beating, harvesting and grinding grain, work dedicated to food production and storage. A carpenter or a stonemason spent the day at manual labour. A fisherman’s work meant rowing and hauling heavy nets.
In ancient times, no one thought to count carbohydrates, to reduce meat, salt and saturated fat intake. The diet was made up of locally grown, natural ingredients from food that was in season.
The average first-century woman was fully involved in the harvesting, storage and preparation of food primarily sourced close to home. Women carried water in heavy vessels from a communal well. Meals were simple and naturally plant-based using local grain, olives, herbs, vegetables, fruits, lentils. Bread, the mainstay, was a source of high fibre; meat was minimally consumed. Fish was available regularly. Chemical additives or genetic modifications and plastics did not exist.
Early to bed, rising at dawn, the rhythm of the work week ended on Friday, or Sabbath Eve (Erev Shabbat), when at sundown all labour stopped. In a typical village, the announcement of the start of Sabbath began with the blowing of the ram’s horn (shafar). The hazzan or synagogue leader would blow the shafar once, alerting the people to stop all work in the fields. The second time he blew the shafar, it signalled that all commercial activity should cease. The third time it announced that all household work must stop, and the Sabbath candles be lit. This introduced a rest-work rhythm to life, a defining feature of the Jewish people.
Whether working or eating the communal meals, celebrating Sabbath or attending the many Jewish festivals throughout the year, people were naturally engaged in both movement and sharing time together. Families lived close. If there was a festival or a wedding held outside the village, they walked together. Life was lived in community.
The lifestyle of our ancestors in faith was considerably health promoting. They were not conscious of the fact that by their ordinary daily living they were actually exercising, eating plant-based, farm-to-fork meals and making artisan, high-fibre sourdough bread.
Our modern life is different from that of the time of Jesus because we have mechanization. The car has replaced walking, lawmakers have discarded the weekly day of rest, screen-sourced entertainment and AI bots have replaced the leisure time previously spent with people, manufactured food has replaced whole foods. We have morphed into a people disconnected from the natural world and maybe even each other. If you drill down into the medical advice of today you will find it actually recommends the very lifestyle of the first century: eat simply, exercise, socialize, take rest and engage in a faith practice. The conclusion appears to be that no matter the time or place in history, the needs of every human being created by God remain unchanged. Life today poses a challenge for the body, mind and spirit.
While we cannot replicate the life of a first-century Galilean, we can make some adjustments. Begin with one or two of these four areas: avoid ultra-processed food by making more food from scratch; walk or bike to more places instead of taking the car; increase your connections with one another; and remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
(Donna Fagan’s website is foodandfaith.ca)
(Donna Fagan, Rd,PhD, Registered Dietician, runs the website foodandfaith.ca.)
A version of this story appeared in the May 03, 2026, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "First-century lifestyle vs. 21st-century living".
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