Our bodies are built up from the food we eat. There is a constant breaking down of the tissues of the body; every movement of every organ involves waste, and this waste is repaired from our food. Each organ of the body requires its share of nutrition. The brain must be supplied with its portion; the bones, muscles, and nerves demand theirs. It is a wonderful process that transforms the food into blood and uses this blood to build up the varied parts of the body; but this process is going on continually, supplying with life and strength each nerve, muscle, and tissue.
| Water | Protein | Fat | Carbohydrates | Ash
(Minerals) |
|
| Wheat | 10.6 | 12.2 | 1.7 | 73.7 | 1.8 |
| Oats | 11.0 | 11.8 | 5.0 | 69.2 | 3.0 |
| Corn | 10.8 | 10.0 | 4.3 | 73.4 | 1.5 |
| Rye | 10.5 | 12.2 | 1.5 | 73.9 | 1.9 |
| Buckwheat | 12.6 | 10.0 | 2.2 | 73.2 | 2.0 |
| Rice | 12.0 | 8.0 | 2.0 | 77.0 | 1.0 |
| Potato | 78.3 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 18.4 | 1.0 |
| Shelled Beans | 58.9 | 9.4 | 0.6 | 29.1 | 2.0 |
| Apple | 84.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 14.2 | 0.3 |
| Banana | 75.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 22.0 | 0.8 |
| Walnut | 2.5 | 16.6 | 63.4 | 16.1 | 1.4 |
“Those foods should be chosen that best supply the elements needed for building up the body. In this choice, appetite is not a safe guide. Through wrong habits of eating, the appetite has become perverted. … The disease and suffering that everywhere prevail are largely due to popular errors in regard to diet.” The Ministry of Healing, 295.
Nutritious food builds up the immune system – the immune system kills diseased cells.
FACTS: We were formed from the dust of the ground and the main composition of our bodies matches that with the dust of the earth: water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and minerals.
The above table showing the breakdown of certain foods is taken from Abundant Health, 15, 16, by Julius Gilbert White, Kessinger Publishing (2010).
All of these foods God provides to us from the dust of the ground—from whence He formed us. And a variety of these whole foods carry the nutrition to our bodies. Another wonderful benefit of natural whole food is that it also aids in healing the immune system. When our body is diseased, it needs super nutrition and a lot of it.
Nutrition Restores the Immune System
There is a chapter in The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, PhD with Thomas M. Campbell II, called, “Turning Off Cancer,” pages 43–67. It explains that certain foods have the potential to promote the growth of cancer cells while other foods have the potential to shut them down.
“These dietary factors, called promoters, feed cancer growth. Other dietary factors, called anti-promoters, slow cancer growth. Cancer growth flourishes when there are more promoters than anti-promoters; when anti-promoters prevail cancer growth slows or stops. It is a push-pull process. The profound importance of this reversibility cannot be overemphasized.” Ibid., 50.
“… nutrients from animal-based foods increased tumor development while nutrients from plant-based foods decreased tumor development. … In studies of pancreatic cancer and other nutrients, the pattern was consistent.” Ibid., 66.
God formed us from the dust of the ground and the nutrition we need can be found in grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables and legumes and need not be obtained second hand from the carcasses of animals.
“As disease in animals increases, the use of milk and eggs will become more and more unsafe.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 365. How very thankful we should be that our God is so merciful to us that He has given us warnings and then directions we need to be healthy.
We need to do the best we can to keep our bodies in good health. Romans 12:1 and 2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”