Musar zu Dewarim 20:20

Another lesson we have to learn from this portion is to be careful not to use our power of speech to speak slanderously as the serpent had done, seeing that for every other sin there is some way to atone through some punishment, but the only sin that could not be atoned for was the slanderous use the serpent made of its tongue. Its punishment was not designed to elevate and rehabilitate. Of course, we also learn to be careful with what we eat, seeing that Eve sinned by eating forbidden food. Seeing that the Torah permits the cutting down of a tree only "if you know that this tree is not a fruit bearing tree" (Deut. 20,20), we learn that food is to be treated as something sacred and must not be wasted. We have a tradition that the prophet Ezekiel did not eat any meat if there was a question of the animal having been healthy etc., i.e. if a halachic ruling was deemed necessary concerning its fitness to be eaten. Just as consumption of food of a forbidden kind caused death, so fulfillment of the command to eat in sanctity which is hinted at in the words מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל, "From all the trees of the garden you shall surely eat" (Genesis 2,16), is a commandment which promises life. The expression אם כל חי, which contains all the letters of the word for food, i.e. מאכל alludes to this. I have discussed this at length in my treatise dealing with the letters of the Aleph Bet when discussing the letter ק, at which point I have also explained the rabbinic statement that the word בראשית tells us that the world was created for the sake of the חלה תרומה and בכורים Jews separate from their dough or harvest respectively and dedicate to G–d. So much for the lessons of סור מרע, "desist from doing evil."