LEARNING BY MISTAKES

 Through their twelve years of school, through high school, our three boys took homemade bread sandwiches for lunch every day. But the big slices, fat whole wheat sandwiches brought curiosity.  Every week I ground whole wheat in a Whisper Mill (most often Hard Red Wheat) turning it into fine flour, then into bread. Getting lunches ready quickly, I did not slice the loaves carefully. Every day the sandwiches were large and each one was different. Often, they were natural peanut butter and butter, and cut up vegetables, fruit and a granola bar.

A mistake was to make beef bologna sandwiches with mayonnaise. It was cheap. Back then, our budget constrained me to watch the food prices carefully. Though grinding wheat and baking bread was a priority, I had not yet learned to be careful with processed meat.

On a field trip our middle son, Josiah, had to put his head out the bus window and vomit. I stopped buying bologna. The chemicals in cold-cut meats had warned me through our son suffering with a sick stomach.

I should have known that the preservatives in the meat were not good for health.

The Bible is a Guide to food simply by using certain food as illustration of God’s supply, created to nourish us. Look closely. Beginning with Adam and Eve God told them, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat..." Genesis 2:16.

Later, God instructed Noah about food in Genesis 9. Later there were guidelines and provision for His people when they escaped slavery in Egypt, their food was specifically specified on the night before the exodus. Then for forty years God sent manna every morning.

The Passover supper began when the Israelites were getting ready to leave Egypt where they had been slaves for four hundred years. The Passover Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, on that fateful night, picturing a profound spiritual truth.

Now we know: The food for the Passover Feast was a figurative “picture” into the future: the perfect lamb slain pictured Jesus, God in human form, the Lamb of God. His blood shed for us, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

“Hearken diligently…eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:2). “Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Traditionally food is part of connection to God, whether it is the Passover in the Old Testament or Communion with bread and wine in the New Testament. As a Christian our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: God is pleased when food is part of our worship to Him.

MODERN HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Two statements in Proverbs are noteworthy. The first: "A merry heart does good like a medicine..." (Proverbs 17:22). 

In Strong’s Concordance, the merry heart is glad, joyful. It is meant literally and figuratively. Good medicine and a glad and happy heart works in our favor.

The word "medicine" here refers to a cure. When God allows sickness and suffering, our first response can be, “Lord, please heal.” Medicine is affirmed. God heals with and without medicine.

The second inspiring thought: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (Psalm 103:2-5).

Healthy food and the right medicine can be healers.

HEALTH CHALENGES

Five years apart my husband and I discovered we had cancer; modern medicine saved our lives. The knowledge of the doctors and their expert care worked to bring us back to health. By the grace of God, their therapies (chemotherapy, radiation, and several surgeries for both of us) brought us through.

Eric, my husband, was ready to take off for a business trip to the West Coast. Before he retired, he worked for The Navy as a Logistics Manager. His trip from Florida to California was scheduled for a week of meetings. Our son, Zachariah and I discovered for the first time that he was bleeding heavily. It took both of us to persuade him to go to the Emergency Room instead of to the airport. It was Colon Cancer.

Life changed. Our future changed. After his radical colon resection surgery, while he was on chemotherapy, I drove him across Orlando from the west side to the east side of town every day to work. It was illegal for him to drive a car while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. I was writing Submission Is Not Silence, and the drive simply gave me a different place to think and write while I waited for him to call me from his office when his work was through for the day.

For Eric, the colon cancer changed his natural process by a resection. It is still a challenge but has given him years cancer free.

Five years later, a Primary Care Doctor’s Assistant discovered a mass in my left breast. It led to a biopsy.

Earlier that year I had seen a video of a Senior Woman’s Beauty Pageant taking place. I decided to try out for it. Was it vain? Was it an aside for what I was really interested in? As a Christian, could I be a good influence? Eric and I drove toward the first try out and my doctor’s office called my cell phone. The Physician herself was on the line. My biopsy had shown a cancerous mass. I should come to the doctor’s office at once. Eric and I drove to the next Exit on the Interstate Expressway and turned around. We drove straight to the doctor’s office where the process for removing cancer began.

A breast cancer diagnosis meant surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, a second surgery and therapy by a lymphedema specialist.

God was with us those years! The doctors, the assistants, surgeons, therapists: we entered a world that would never have been known to us. My breast cancer needed lymph nodes removed, which left me with lymphedema, a swelling from the shoulder to my hand. A therapist told me, “Take your wedding rings off or they will have to be cut off.” I did. The therapist God supplied is still watching over my tendency to swell on the left side. She is a teacher, a patient teacher. I had a tough time accepting the new reality. Now, though, with again, God’s leading, my care is in place, compression sleeves in the daytime, a Reed Sleeve sinched tight at night. “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 is amazingly true and real.

NUTRITION IN THE MEDICAL WORLD

How do you assess a world you are not a part of! I know what I am pursuing: that is insight and wisdom discovered in the Bible on nutrition and health.

I will say that doctors and medicine have kept us alive. We still have opportunity to gain experience in understanding and in strength.

I have friends who have suffered strokes, and depression. What to do? Pray, read Scripture with a prayer for wisdom and leading. For Job in the Old Testament and The Apostle Paul in the New, it was uniquely personal. How they were tried through extreme hardship and affirmed by God is a testimony to us. Look and listen. Read things that will encourage you in Scripture. "A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones." (Proverbs 17:22).

Health, life, and breath…began with Adam. I believe that the years of good nutrition, the strength training and exercise strengthened us for the battle each of us had with cancer. Eric began jogging at thirty, soon after we married. He rose before daylight and followed Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s book, “Aerobics” by jogging before driving to work. I joined him soon after. In our fifties we did strength training in addition to the jogging: lifting weights and stretching. Acting on Scripture as we went through “the valley of the shadow of death” and appearing on the other side was a day at a time. Our future, like yours, is in God’s hands. All of us have this dependence on God: what will He allow? Life can get hard. Remember, the apostle, Paul wrote, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2Co_12:10). At the same time, are we doing our best to live a disciplined life based on wisdom! Our faith in Psalm 103 can give comfort.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." (Psalm 103:2-5). 

Look for the Light. He is the Light of the World. He knows and cares and loves you and will lead you as you continue learning to listen to Him and watch for His clues and cues. Then act on them. 

FOOD BY FAITH

 

Instruction for Health and Nutrition is all through the Bible.

There is good news. All our food can be good, healthful, nourishing, energizing. It is there, coming from the earth, the trees, the vine, coming from rain from heaven. But of late, if we have been hurting ourselves because we are taking the “wide road” with devitalized food, why just quick and easy? Why processed food, chemical additives, devitalized, bleached and degermed grains and a listed “ingredient” called “natural flavor”? (So called “natural flavor” is a lie). It is making us unhealthy, sick; making us less than we want to be and can be. There is another way.

This “other way” has been a profound subject for me, too high, too broad, and too deep. At the same time, the worthiness and fascination of it calls me. It has for a lifetime. It is a “Way” which is hopeful because the Bible is correct in every respect. Spiritual food and physical food have similarities: one is for the spirit and soul, the other for the body. God promised over and over to bring His people into a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is an example of abundant spiritual and physical nourishment. When Scripture highlights food it can apply to our whole person: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ…;” (I Thessalonians 5:23). One type of food (spiritual) teaches about the other type (physical), but also the other way around.

From the first day I was born, and every day thereafter, my father and mother with their family of eight children read the Bible aloud together every day. Seven siblings and I learned to read this way. It influenced me, and even before I realized, it directed my life. By my twenties, my health pursuits became an adventure primarily because of Scripture.

At one point I traveled to Texas. I could type well and got a job at Link-Temco-Vought (LTV) in Dallas. There all the ways of the culture came up, including food and alcohol. Instead of going rogue, I decided to follow the Bible already planted in my head and heart. My spirit, soul and body needed to be fed. I saw good food described in Scripture.  For example, Ezekiel’s bread. God told Ezekiel, "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof..." (Ezekiel 4:9). Food is also figurative, "And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35). Physical bread and spiritual bread are a highlight in Scripture, in both the Old Testament and the New.

The Bible has vital information about food and health sprinkled all the way through and in surprising places. We can go to it with certainty. Here is dependable wisdom and knowledge because our Creator wrote it all for us. It is the “bottom line” in nutritional wisdom. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  (2 Peter 1:21).

The more you learn about nutritious food, its value to your health, the more you will enjoy it. Get it into your head and heart. Once convinced, eating knowledgably, eating wisely becomes a habit. Habitually eat what is good, you will soon look forward to it, even crave it. Grab salted almonds or a crisp apple and cheddar cheese or grapes. Two pieces of Ezekiel Bread, available in grocery stores (freezer section), with butter heated in the microwave for 30 seconds, then honey added, with it a half cup of grass-fed milk is one effective way to begin the day. Alternate with your simple homemade Granola. You and your body are happy.

"And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land." (Isaiah 7:22).

OIL IN TODAY'S DIET ARE OFTEN PROBLEMATIC...GO FOR OLIVE OIL

 

OILS THAT CAUSE HARM

Ava Rockwell, founder of the School of Holistic Medicine, commented that any mixed vegetable oils or straight vegetable oils, such as corn, canola, or soybean, are terrible for you. 

“They cause awful inflammation and are implicated by a famous, now-retired heart surgeon who has 1,000 bypasses under his belt. He claims that sugar and refined vegetable oils are the real cause of heart disease,” she said. “They damage the arterial walls, leading to injury, causing the body to create layers of deposits to repair the damage.” Ava Rockwell - Certified Holistic Health Professional - Self-employed | LinkedIn

Fast-Food Fans May Face Liver Damage

Written by Megan Brooks

Jan. 13, 2023 – A new study that shows the harm to the liver of eating fast food might provide people with motivation to eat less of it in the new year.

https://www.webmd.com/

Partly hydrogenated oil

Partly hydrogenated oil is often part of processed foods and is the principal source of dangerous trans fats in a person’s diet, crediting the American Heart Association (AHA). 

“These synthetic trans fats are made in an industrial procedure that involves adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to solidify them.

Trans fats raise your LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol levels and lower your HDL (or “good”) levels and increase your risk of developing heart disease and stroke, per the AHA.

 

TRANS FATS

"Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid."

"The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is partially hydrogenated oils. Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages. In November 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils are no longer Generally Recognized as Safe.

“Trans fats are easy to use, inexpensive to produce and last a long time. Trans fats give foods a desirable taste and texture. Often restaurants and fast-food outlets use trans fats to deep-fry foods because oils with trans fats can be used many times in commercial fryers. Several countries (e.g., Denmark, Switzerland, and Canada) and jurisdictions (California, New York City, Baltimore, and Montgomery County, MD) have reduced or restricted the use of trans fats in food service establishments.”

https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/trans-fat

According to LIVESTRONG.COM

Hydrogenated oil, more specifically partially hydrogenated oil, contains a type of man-made fat, called trans-fat, which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Although once "generally recognized as safe," the FDA has declared that after January 1, 2020, no food manufacturers are allowed to add partially hydrogenated oils to their foods. https://www.livestrong.com/

FREEDOM AND GOOD DECISIONS

Food is a source for thinking about God. We go to Him, “Give us this day our daily bread…”

Jesus "took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’" Luke 22:19.

Scripture does not guarantee perfect health just because we find our resource for food in the Bible. However, it is the ultimate truth. "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." Proverbs 30:5. Food is important in the Bible, closest to leading the way to good health.

The Old Testament dietary law is clear. Leviticus 7-11 is one description of the laws about food. There is a different focus in the New Testament.

"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come...And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you..." Luke 10:1,8

Later Peter had a vision in Acts ten: "And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call not thou common." Acts 10:13-15. Peter was sent to Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. 

The vision demonstrated God including every person through salvation in Jesus. When Peter went on the mission to tell them about Jesus, he would be in their environment. He would be fed by a Roman Centurion’s hospitality.

The Book of Romans comments on these differences in people, "Him that is weak in the faith receive, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs. Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him." Romans 14:1-3

When I am in the home of a friend who serves pork, I eat it. But personally, I stay away from pork, (swine have one digestive tract. Pigs will eat you if you “are disabled” in their pen; this was told me by a farmer who raised them.) Crab, lobster, and other bottom feeders seem risky, so I think of them as reason to understand why God would forbid eating them in the Old Testament. When we visit the State of Maine, where my father and grandfather ran a Bible Conference in York Beach, Eric, my husband, urges me as we visit a restaurant located by the ocean, “You like lobster. Go ahead, get it.” I do.

WHO IS WATCHING?

After the serious bicycle accident in December of my seventy-ninth year, I was in the hospital, finding from the doctor’s consultation that I had two pelvis fractures and one fracture in the clavicle. “You will be off your feet for at least three months,” the doctor said. “Don’t go gaining twenty pounds.” I confidently assured him that I would not. But off my feet, in a wheelchair for several weeks and off the bike, I didn’t weigh for months. An awful reality stared me in the face when I finally stepped on the scales: I was up eight pounds.

Who is watching? I think in my head, “Are angels watching me?”

Whenever I think I’ll take a second big tablespoon of peanut butter on my celery stick (and what is a big tablespoon? It is a “mountain”, all you can fit on the top of a tablespoon); or, if I’m thinking about another “tablespoon” of ice cream, (you know… heaping).

At night (always thinking I’m hungry going to bed,) I put everything necessary into the refrigerator and there right in front of me is a slice of Muenster cheese in the container. “Don’t,” says my mind. Discipline yourself! It is hard to lose weight.

"For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee..." Luke 4:10. What does that mean? For sure I disappoint myself, but are angels watching? "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Psalm 91:11.

Accepting discipline for our lives, treating our bodies as a “temple of the Holy Spirit” is a “battle” in our head; sometimes overwhelming. But the Holy Spirit, who lives in this Temple which is our body is the Power behind this move, so we can be “ready.”  "What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I Corinthians 6:19,20. I’m down three pounds so far…and back on the bicycle.

A TEMPLE: IS IT REALLY!

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” I Corinthians 6:19,20.

In actuality the longer I live, the more grateful that God enabled my husband, Eric and me to overcome cancer. We had been exercising intensely for years and had been eating carefully. What causes these scary, life-threatening diseases…

Some are understood well enough. Some are total mysteries still.

What do we do about both? It might be that for all of them, what we can do is eat well, drink enough water and exercise. Yes, we, most of us know what to do.

I find that the hardest part, (though some powerful foods like the benefits of whole grains are not well known) is to follow the wisdom we know.

But the whole pursuit of healthy food can become an interesting challenge. Remembering to think on it! Go to the Bible for plenty of recommendations (you can remedy the “unknowns” by beginning to read it with food in mind).

Instead of running to McDonalds for a burger and fries for lunch, we eat an apple, a tangerine, peeled carrots and celery with natural peanut butter or something like it.

Getting on track and in the habit, it happens when the grocery list is written, the grocery store is shopped and the food stored in good containers in the refrigerator.

The older you get (by the grace of God) the more grateful you will be…the earlier in life you start the happier.