When did you first realize that nutrition is essential to health?
I didn’t really put the two together until 2014 when I was in my late 60’s. And if it was in the “news” before, I guess I just missed it or didn’t pay much attention. Not on my radar.
Sure, I grew up with “drink your milk”, “clean your plate”, “eat your vegetables” but no one in my kid circle of friends really knew “why”. Or connected it to health – just that it made you grow up right, I think.
Oh yeah, I did the “change your diet drastically” kind of thing as I got into my mid 50’s, but that was to lose weight and body fat. I read Dr. Barry Sears book on “The Zone Diet” – and I remember his motivation was in the health realm because 2 of his brothers died at an early age (I think it was heart attacks). But I just wanted the weight loss and glossed over the health stuff.
But then, in 2014, after my scrapbooking company got switched over to a “health and wellness” company (go figure) – I learned from my fellow photo friends about the “nutrition” issues.
Again, I didn’t think of myself as having any health issues. The problems I had were “masked” with pain meds and I accepted that as a solution, I guess.
The founding vet/naturopath of the company (Dr. Joel Wallach) to which our photo business was now attached, had a riveting story and powerful nutritional information. His “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” CD grabbed my attention and I thought, “ok, I’ll just try it”. Little did I know that in two weeks (or less) after starting the foundational supplements, my arthritis would disappear. Did I tell you I was up to 10-12 ibuprofen daily to deal with the pain in both of my thumb joints? And a surgeon had suggested surgery?
Talk about “grabbing my attention” – it did. And my health trajectory has been so positively impacted by that same foundational nutrition ever since. Want to know how much I love Dr. Wallach? Yeah, TONS!
This all came back as I just read a quick intro to an online meat vendor selling “nutritious foods…no pesticides, no herbicides, no antibiotics, no added growth hormones, no GMO’s and no animal mRNA vaccines.” These are things I pay attention to now that I am hitting my late 70’s. They do monthly orders, but here is what I thought they said well.
“The importance of maintaining good nutrition is not something we are born knowing. We may have intuitions or inclinations toward certain foods when we lack a particular nutrient, but for the most part, we learn about nutrition and what we need to maintain good health. Some people know this at a young age and can use that knowledge to make informed decisions about food and health. Others may come to this realization a bit later in life. Either way, what you know now is what is vital for today.” From U.S. Wellness meats
Their blog offered that food holds the power to nourish our health but also holds the power to sicken us slowly. They turned to the “soda consumption” today as an example. Some tough stats they gave:
- Average individual consumes approx.. 40 gallons of soda annually (obviously, not everyone drinks soda so that probably goes up considerably higher for those that do – estimate is about half of Americans drink soda daily – so double that stat to soda drinkers doing 80 gallons yearly)
- That is a LOT of additional sugar or artificial sweeteners
- Other places sugar is added – (remember there are at least 65 alternative names for sugar) – it is one of the most common ingredients in processed foods.
- The American Heart Association recommends no more than 36 grams of sugar daily for men and 25 for women – the estimate is those numbers are exceeded by 2-3 times, especially if our diet consists of processed foods
If you want more on the sugar issue, I did a blog on it – By Any Other Name – Candy McCune
But let me share their quick “solution” to this nutrition issue they raised – here it is:
1) know the ingredients in your food.
2) know who raised it or, in the case of processed foods, who manufactured it.
3) know how your food was raised or the processes involved in manufacturing it.
4) eat food that is as close to nature as possible with as few ingredients as possible.
5) teach your children and grandchildren the importance of good food and nutrition.
So – now we know. And now we can get healthy, right? SURE!
What’s the problem? Well, you know how our spiritual and physical overlap – right? Heart/Body/Soul – all go together – all are involved in our following the Lord. Well, here ya go—
My favorite, Henry Blackaby, hit me with this in his devotional written around this scripture:
“Therefore, I now say I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.” Judges 2:3
What’s going on? Remember that God gave the Israelites specific instructions: drive the Canaanites out of every corner of the land and obliterate any vestige of their abominable idol worship.
OK – that was a challenging command. Their enemies had formidable chariots, impregnable fortresses (dangerous and difficult to overcome) and, truth be told, much about the Canaanite lifestyle and religion appealed to the Israelites’ sinful nature. (Soda, anyone?)
Huh? How does this relate to nutrition being essential to health? Stay tuned….
When you became a Christian, God declared war on sin’s strongholds in your life, Blackaby reminds us. Sinful behaviors and attitudes were firmly entrenched in your character, but God commanded you to tear them down.
Thankfully, Blackaby reminds us that we have the Holy Spirit who points out areas in our lives that are resistant to God’s will. But his tough question is whether we are tempted to merely establish a truce rather than obliterating every sin? Anger – lust – pride?
His evaluation is just as appropriate to our health issues – Blackaby asks if we have strongholds in our lives because we will succumb to them when caught off guard. In careless moments, these strongholds will still tempt us to continue our past sinful behaviors. (Just wave a piece of chocolate under my nose and watch that stronghold literally rise up and grab it – and yes, stick it in my mouth!)
It is going to take my leaning on the strength of the Holy Spirit to fight that “stronghold” of indulging my taste buds when I KNOW the problem. It is outlined by a naturopath this way:
Her clinical experience was that all the refined sugars and all the artificial sweeteners increase body pain, increase dysfunction such as irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis and all types of headaches, and cause hormonal drops, moodiness and allergy flare-ups. Pain and other symptoms often increase over the following 4 days from consumption, and may not taper off again until about a week has gone by, depending on the toxin clearing ability of the patient’s body.
I‘m trying to recognize my strongholds, but I can’t really fight them unless I recognize that they will become a thorn in my side and a trap for my good health if I give in to them. As Blackaby stated, the Holy Spirit points out areas of my life that are resistant to God’s will (which is good health for this body He gave me) and I am tempted to merely establish a truce rather than obliterate every sin? (is chocolate sinful – no – but it and sugary foods are easily over-indulged so they need to be limited in my life – over-indulging is truly damaging to my body)
I think it helps me to think of my body and health as His gift to me, one which I need to treat as a promised land of milk and honey. But one which He has told me to take control over and drive out all the dangerous and tempting enemies which can become “thorns” in my body.
Let’s do this together! Being conscious of what we are putting in our mouths, we need to read the labels and eat as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible – it’s a body to be treated well! Here’s to our healthy body!
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