Yes! Good point re: FLDS. That type of control is common in full blown cults. Usually it has to do with lowering protein and calories to basically make people super weak and out of it.
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Also to be fair, mainstream Mormonism does have the food thing in terms of the words of wisdom around alcohol and āhot drinksā- which is hotly debated what is covered under it 
for some reason everyone agrees it doesnāt cover hot chocolate and Diet Coke but it does include regular chocolate?
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Thatās true! I guess I donāt think of that as a food restriction since so many brands of christianity prohibit alcohol. I do love the diet coke exception thing, haha. Have you heard of the diet coke and creamer drink? Apparently itās super popular in Utah.
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Ooh, my housemates are seventh day adventists, and there has been a lot of very ā¦interesting bible study conversations Iāve overheard about the origins of the churchā¦
More on topic, their church at least has a really interesting focus on health as like a godly duty, and it definitely manifests as something pretty disordered a lot of the time. Thereās a very good reason we donāt cook together, and itās that they think butter, sugar, and basically anything that actually tastes good is pretty much a sin. On the other hand, my housemate R had struggled with anorexia a long time before joining the Adventists, and I think that focus actually really helped her find a reason to start eating again 
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Yea but I think they are the only Christianity I know that prohibits tea and coffee. I think only some Buddhists also prohibit caffeine?
Iāve see the Diet Coke and creamer thing apparently it is in slushee form though.
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The seventh day adventists are also no caffeine (I think in general itās pretty much āno mind altering drugsā and that counts).
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That includes garlic apparently.
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Wait what???
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Iām definitely keeping that quiet from my housemates or their food will never taste of anything at all
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They may have changed it a few years ago, I heard they did. Itās like the Mahayana Buddhists I think- no onion or garlic because it interferes with meditation?
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What beep boop said, Seventh Day people donāt do caffeine! I didnāt know that about some schools of Buddhism prohibiting caffeine tho?! Iāve never heard that and green tea is served at so many temples! It must be a super strict interpretation of the fifth precept. I could kind of see that bc it mentions intoxication which most view as alcohol/non prescribed drugs but I suppose you could make the case for caffeine being an intoxicant/drug too, or sugar even.
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Yea, Mahayana, super strict diet Buddhists.
Also, not Buddhist but Hare Krishna are no caffeine.
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So thereās this one teaching about the five pungent vegetables which some people believe Buddha said and some think he didnāt say at all. A lot of translations understand it to mean that you shouldnāt consume it early in your practice because it can create upset stomach and that can lead to difficulties meditating, but I donāt think itās common practice across the board at all. Thereās also stuff about not making food like, a thing to worship, so I could see some sects of monks not having overly flavorful foods because of that.
A key tenant of buddhism, though, is self-judgment. Even the Dalai Lama says if something your Lama says or something a Buddhist teaching allegedly says/is understood to say does not bear out what you know to be true and does not sit with your own experience of the eightfold path and the four noble truths, you should not follow it. There are a lot of teachings directly from the Buddha that warn about becoming legalistic too, and that are careful to say his teachings are just one route to enlightenment, not something to be dogmatized and enshrined and worshipped in themselves (in part because that is in direct conflict with other teachings like those about non-attachment and impermanence). And of course everyone took that to heart and no one became an extremist or used Buddhism as an excuse for war and violence ever. /s /s (alllll the /s)
Interestingly most Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhists Iāve known also ate meat! And seemed super surprised that I was surprised by that, lol.
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The thing that I find really interesting is the eastern Orthodox Christians rules- they follow a basically Vegan diet during periods of fasting- which for the Great Lenten fast is 6 weeks long.
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And no sex! Itās wild how that was common in Catholicism not too long ago. I think if you look at the whole Catholic calendar like half the days of the year end up being vegetarian and chaste. As Tracy in 30 Rock says, āCatholics donāt eat meat on Fridays, you know why? THE POPE OWNS LONG JOHN SILVERS.ā Haha, isnāt that the kind of conspiracy we need right now? Sigh. I wish it were true.
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Mostly I know the onion/garlic/tea thing because when I am traveling in Asia, I usually eat a lot of temple food because it is always vegan, and it never has onions and garlic. Possibly because of the temple component.
Also I was going to work at a meditation center as a cook, but I had to not eat onion or garlic (not just not cook it, but not eat it if I worked and lived there) and I decided that was not a lifestyle choice I was willing to make
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Yeah in Buddhism as in other religions there are very different standards for people who are monks versus normal practitioners. The whole thing about monks eating meat if itās offered comes from people who are practitioners feeding monks alms, and those alms containing meat bc thatās what they were eating.
Most food Iāve had at temples in the USA has been pretty bland too, but Iām not well versed in how it is at temples across/throughout Asia, youāre much more internationally traveled than I am!
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Temple food in Asia isnāt usually served at temples, but just at Buddhist restaurants. Sometimes near temples but not always. Itās what to look out for when traveling in Asia if you are either vegan or kosher because you can always get vegan and kosher food if it has the lil swastika-esque symbol out front.
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And even all the stand alone/not temple affiliated restaurants are spice/flavor less?! That really surprises me! The more you know I guess, haha.
To clarify when I said āatā temples usually it is a separate little restaurant/dining area but itās run by the temple.
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Yea, though it can depend on the country if they follow that guideline, but in every country Iāve found that is mostly true, including india. Korean temple food is heavy on the picklng. One of the korean temple food restaurants even got a michelin star!
ETA: in my experience, ātempleā food is not usually at temples, not the affiliated restaurant etcā¦mostly itās been some random hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere or in the busy central areas of a city, not near a temple. Only sometimes has it been near temples- mostly in Japan, which has very few buddhists of a strict variety, but the temple food persists.
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