"Hard to understand" is an indication of symbolism such as metaphor.
It's easy to accuse another person of distorting the word, it is more difficult to constructively discuss the meaning of the word. What is the truth in this case? You are claiming that Romans 14 is literally about food and only literal food. I respect that this is your interpretation but do not find it compelling. Why should we assume Romans 14 is necessarily only about literal food?
Even without Romans 14, from your perspective, how does one keep the Sabbath? And where in scripture is your perspective founded from?
I was claiming that Romans 14 was about fasting. So yes about eating, but not just what to eat.... when to eat it. There is nothing in The Father's law that decides this for us. So to judge people based off of how they fast is unlawful, and therefore an unrighteous judgement.
Many people are not open to looking outside of the bible for answers, but I believe it can be very useful for helping to understand context and culture. I believe Josephus (and others) has some writings about antiquities and the big fasting debates at the time of these scriptures.
As far the Sabbath is concerned, I believe the place to start is where the commandment is given:
Exodus 20:8-11
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, maintaining its holiness. 9 Six days you are to labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You are not to do any work—neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you— 11 because the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days. Then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The two main things I get from the commandment here is.
1. Keep the day "holy." Holy means set apart/designated for a specific purpose. So I definitely believe that we aren't supposed to treat this day the same as the others.
2. Not to work on this day. This includes your household, as well as the "foreigner" (gentile) that want's to live with you. In order to be welcomed as a brother or sister I believe that you have to respect the instructions from the Father of the home.
Now I believe the law has two components... the works and the faith, the physical and the spiritual, the WHAT we do and the WHY we do it. If you have tunnel vision on the physical side of the law and forget WHY you are doing said law, you still can end up breaking it. So in other words, I don't believe that we are breaking a law if we are keeping WHY it was created in the first place...
I believe that there was never anything wrong with the law (The Fathers instructions on how to live). The problem was mankind not being able to keep the law how it was always meant to be kept. The Pharisees for example added and took away from the law (E.g. washing your hands before you eat.), as well as completely missed the spiritual component of the law. This misrepresentation of God's law happens all throughout scripture and was used to judge unrighteous... just like in Roman's 14. This is where the modern day Judaism stems from and their oral law.
I believe that The Messiah came to pay the penalties associated with the real law under the first covenant and reteach us how the law was always meant to be kept... a second chance.
Circling back to the Sabbath, I believe there is a key distinction between God's work... and man's work that we are to restrain from.
If we are helping those in need (sick, homeless, hungry, etc) that is done out of love and therefore keeping the spiritual component of the Sabbath...
Matthew 12:11-12
11 But he asked them, “Is there a man among you who, if he had one sheep and it fell into a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and pull it out? 12 How much more is a human being worth than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on Sabbath days.”
However, man's work is doing things for personal gain... or helping others who are doing the same. It is done out of selfishness.
We keep the Sabbath out of love, honor, respect and trust that the father knows better for us than we know for ourselves. So we take this day to rest and set it apart out of love... therefore keeping both the spiritual and physical components of the law.