When I decided to write nutritional articles for Christian Online Magazine, I had no idea refining the extensive training I have, the volumes of credible reference material and my personal experiences would be so difficult to refine into a few hundred words. However, there is such a critical need for good nutritional information in laymen’s language, it was clear this was the path which God had provided for me to share that knowledge. I thank our owner and publisher, Darlene, for graciously accepting my input for her beautiful website.
What drove me to become so extensively involved in nutrition was the serious need to reign in the negligent attitude I had adopted about our health in general and bring our eating under control. Oh, we haven’t fully arrived yet, but the journey is interesting. On the flip side, the more we learn about how God intended for us to use these bodies he has given us for our time on this beautiful earth, the more discriminating we are in our choices.
I thank God for the caring doctors for those times of distress and disease. However, I have found few who share the same theme of health; “prevention instead of treatment.” My disdain for pills and medication is well known to all my medical providers. For reasons unknown to me, I have Familial Hypercholesteremia which is not controlled by diet alone. Knowing the dangerous side effects of medication, finding a good middle ground in the struggle to manage this part of my life has been challenging.
In our quest for better health to enjoy those golden years, we took serious inventory of what we put into our bodies and it was astounding how much we had fallen into the Killer Western Diet trap although I had been a student of natural health my entire adult life. (Favorite quote of Dr. Hans Diehl of Loma Linda University), one of our favorite mentors of change. We began to see physical and mental improvements by feeding our bodies fresh fruits and vegetables as well as capsules made from with fresh vine ripened foods.
Since there are so many topics to cover, I’ve included just three this month. I trust you will be challenged to rethink your personal food program with what I’ve provided this month. I encourage you to take charge of your health; if you don’t, who will?
MEAT: Animal source proteins are considered superior by the medical establishment because they are high in protein content. That’s good, you say, but did you know meat can actually provide the body with too much protein, which is then stored in the body as a toxin. While it is true that meat is a complete protein this is not necessarily advantageous. Animal source proteins have some disadvantages. PARASITES, STEROIDS, ANTIBIOTICS, SULPHURIC ACID, PHOSPHORIC ACID, can lay in your colon for 3 days or more giving off carcinogenic gasses. (You wondered what that smell was?). Meat is a high acid food which robs your body of calcium, depletes your immune system, and leads to osteoporosis and other degenerative diseases. (A personal note here: If I eat red meat I can expect gout within hours!)
More energy is required to digest meat than can be obtained from the meat. This wears out the protein digestive organs, and leads to stressful indigestion, congested liver, overworked kidneys to name a few. Meat, high in fat is the main cause of arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, stroke, certain forms of cancer, and obesity.
Man was created by God. Man's anatomical and physiological make-up dictates that a certain food type was designed specifically for him – vegetables and fruit. God gave man fruit to eat:
"Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food" Gen. 1:29,30 (NIV) What better authority do we need?
SUGAR: An earlier article dealt in some depth concerning the negative aspects of sugar in the body, and some are repeated in this writing since the effects of sugar are so devastating to the body. Sugar is an acid which robs your body of calcium and other nutrients as you try to digest it. Sugar has been found to be a cause of osteoporosis. Have experienced the surge of energy after eating a candy bar or consuming a bottle of sugar water, as I refer to sodas, only to experience fatigue within minutes? Sugar can cause sharp mood swings and alters personality. Sugar has been found to be a major cause of ADD and behavioral problems. Schools should prohibit any form of sugar.
> Sugar contributes to obesity because of its addictive nature.
> Too much processed sugar is the death of the immune system.
> Processed sugar depletes B vitamins which is needed by the liver to detoxify it. The liver is the most important organ when it comes to healing the body.
> Sugar is a simple carbohydrate; simple carbohydrates are empty calories, excess empty calories turn to fat
> Sugar spikes your energy levels - especially dangerous for diabetics
> Cancer has become the number one "killer disease in children" in the past few years. Sugar consumption is robbing the oxygen out of their little bodies and making their cells extremely acidic while shutting off their immune systems. Statistics indicate sugar averages for children are around 36 teaspoons a day.
> When sugar rises to about 20% of calories, there are elevations in blood pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol as well as the bad cholesterol LDL, uric acid, glucose and insulin response.
> Did you know a high sugar intake will cause much inflammation in our body which is leading to many diseases including cancer and heart disease? Want relief from fibromyalgia and other inflammatory conditions? Stop using sugar!
ALCOHOL. We do not use alcohol in any form, but statistics are overwhelming on the use and abuse of this substance. Our particular area is quickly becoming the wine capital of the northwest,
Alcohol is a poison which kills brain cells. How many can you afford to lose? Can this be good? Your brain controls every aspect of what goes into your body. Alcohol may taste good to some; but it contains lots of sugar, which is another poison.
How does it actually “work” in its destructive journey through the body? For starters it causes liver and pancreas malfunction – it even causes wrinkles! To mitigate its effects, it sucks vital fluids from your organs to dilute the poison(diuretic). Then it activates the adrenal glands to speed up your metabolism so as to remove this poison as fast as possible (euphoria).
If you continue drinking, (it's called alcohol abuse), you run out of vital body fluid with which to dilute the alcohol, and your body becomes dehydrated. When you take in more alcohol the body has a choice. It can both keep the alcohol in your body and let it destroy brain cells, or it can sacrifice its remaining bodily fluids which contain this poison, dehydrate itself further, and die from dehydration.
Most alcohol drinks contain sulfites to preserve them and maintain consistency of color. Sulfites cause nerve damage and dehydrate your body, and then the brain eventually shrinks. When you wake up in the morning what you feel is your blood pumping through your dehydrated brain and putting pressure on the damaged nerves there. This is often called a hang-over, but it really is a serious consequence of alcohol consumption.
Alcohol is actually a depressant. It switches off nerve impulses to areas of the brain involved in memory, judgment, and coordination and can cause permanent mental impairment.This should not be surprising, since its major use is as a commercial solvent*.
The EPA mandates that workers use protective gloves to keep commercial solvents* from touching their skin. Does it make any sense to put that same solvent in your arteries and veins? If it does, you've had too much to drink. Until next month, remember that only you are responsible for your body. If you are a parent, you have a double responsibility to see that your children become healthy adults.
