diet

The Hadza Tribe and Microbiome Health

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In the June issue of LandMarks, we explored just the surface facts of our microbiome. We learned that it is simply a bustling community of microbes on and within the body that significantly influences the body’s overall wellbeing.

Bacteria are by far the most numerous members of the human microbiome estimated to be between 75–200 trillion individual organisms, while the entire human body consists of about 50 trillion–100 trillion body cells. The area that contains the largest amount of microbiota is the intestinal area, especially the large intestine. Five hundred to 1,000 different species of bacteria may live in the intestine, totaling at least 38 trillion cells. It is said by some that if you could only focus on one aspect of health it should be gut health.

Did you know? Over half of the cells in your body are not even human cells.

We also learned that the microbiota interact with almost every body system, and that the gut microbiome has been called the “second brain” because it interacts so closely with our brain, brain chemistry, and its many functions. The microbiome is very active in the metabolism of our food. Chronic and infectious disease risks are also affected by our microbiome. The gut also is intimately connected to our immune system—70% to 80% of the immune system is in the gut.

We also know that our microbiome affects our mood and behavior. Digestion, sleep, immune health, brain function, mental health, metabolism and cardiovascular health are closely linked to the microbiome, emphasizing its importance in maintaining a healthy living human. The microbiome may help prevent or help fight some forms of cancer, and help prevent or treat some forms of dementia.

Given the importance of a healthy microbiome on the wellbeing of the human body, our question should be, How do I help my gut have a healthy, diverse group of microbiota? To help answer this question, let me share with you the very interesting findings of cultural and health studies of two groups of people, the Hadza tribe from Tanzania and the Yanomami tribe from Venezuela, some of the last hunter-gatherers on our planet.

Approximately 200 of the Hadza tribe stick to a strictly nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They survive on foraged plants and animals hunted with handmade bows and arrows and live in temporary grass and stick shelters. It’s believed that the Hadza people have some of the healthiest gut microbiomes on the planet. Their diet consists of about 70% plant foods including tubers that contain a range of indigestible fibers that are ideal gut fuel. They get a huge 150 grams of fiber per day. This results in the Hadza having a greater variety of gut microbes than that of 17 other cultures around the world. Most Americans get just 10-15 grams of fiber per day. The Hadza have about 40% more microbial biodiversity in their gut than Americans. This exceptionally high fiber intake seems to be a main contributor to their very healthy gut microbiomes—fiber is fuel for your gut microbes, allowing them to multiply and produce health-promoting compounds.

Getting fiber from a variety of plants helps to create microbial diversity. Research from 2018 found that people who ate more than 30 different plant types per week had a healthier gut microbiome than those who ate fewer plant types. Our focus should be to eat more whole, fiber-rich plant foods such as leafy greens, berries, cruciferous veggies (broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, to name a few), Jerusalem artichoke, avocado, beans, and lentils. Sautés and salads are an excellent way to get many different plant foods into a single meal.

Another contributing factor to the Hadza people’s healthiest, most diverse gut microbiomes is that their food source is natural, with no processed foods or agriculturally farmed foods, high in fiber and phytochemicals, and devoid of processed sugars, all of which contribute to the fact that the Hadza experience almost no autoimmune diseases, obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, Crohn’s disease, and other chronic ailments. This is very unlike our modern Western diets which are often low in fiber and phytochemicals, and high in refined carbohydrates, processed foods, unhealthy fats, and contain high levels of sugar.

A third factor in the robust and healthy gut microbiomes of the Hadza people is that they do not live in “sterile environments.” They don’t just admire nature, but interact with it. They are in constant contact with the earth, walking barefoot, working or digging in the ground and with animals when they hunt. So we can increase our contact with our environment by growing indoor and outdoor plants, tending gardens, and through being outside with our families and pets.

A similar study was conducted in Venezuela with the Yanomami tribe. It was found that they had a 50% greater microbial diversity than the average American. They too were hunter-gatherers with a diet high in plant foods. So it seems that the farther away a person’s diet gets from our modern western diet, the more diverse the range of microbes in our intestines. This includes a number of bacteria that are completely missing from the modern American gut. Clearly, a person’s diet plays a major role in the gut microbiome.

The modern Western diet is largely deficient in fiber and high in processed junk, fat, refined sugars, and refined carbohydrates. The research strongly suggests that this diet is effectively wiping out many bacterial species from our digestive tracts.

Surprisingly, the Hadza microbiome fluctuated over the course of the year depending upon the specific season of the year. During the long dry periods, the Hadza people eat considerably more meat, much like a Westerner. Some species of bacteria prevalent during the wet seasons disappeared or their numbers fell to an undetectable level, similar to that seen when analyzing the Western microbiome. During the wet seasons, these missing microbes return.

So cutting the amount of fat, processed food, processed carbohydrates and processed sugars, and having a high fiber diet and interacting with the natural environment may be the vital keys to having a healthy, diverse microbiome that greatly improves the overall health of the microbiome, body and mind.

Sources: vitalplan.com/blogs/blog/the-6-secrets-of-the-hadza-tribe-what-we-can-learn-about-health-and-longevity; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154100; Britannica.com/science/human-microbiome#Overview

Enjoy a Healthy Life

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God created our first parents to be happy. He never intended that they should know disappointment, loneliness, embarrassment, pain, suffering, sickness, or death. These are all a part of the consequences of sin—the consequence of their disobedience of God’s explicit command not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. They ate of the forbidden fruit, a representation of the knowledge of both good and evil. Since then, good and evil have been mixed together, and we all have eaten of its fruit.

Because of sin, we all experience suffering—sickness and pain, death and strife, divorce, bankruptcy, and all the different problems mankind must deal with in this world. But, even in this sin-marred world, we find that a person’s best chance to find physical, mental, and spiritual health is to follow as closely as possible the original plan that God instituted at Creation.

So, let’s see what the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy say regarding God’s original plan.

In Jesus’ time, there was a teaching that a man could divorce his wife for any reason, but some of the Jewish leaders disagreed with this teaching. They didn’t believe that a man should be able to just abandon his wife. They would debate on the question again and again, until they finally presented it to Jesus as a test, thinking that they had a question that would be too hard for Him to answer.

“The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?’ And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?” [Genesis 2:23, 24.] So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’ They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.’ ” Matthew 19:3–9

God created one man and one woman, thus making very clear the divine order for the social relations of the human race. He instituted marriage in the garden of Eden and made no provision for divorce, polygamy, fornication, or homosexuality.

“For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce … .” Malachi 2:16, first part

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:22–32

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10

It is interesting, isn’t it, how people so glibly, nonchalantly, and deliberately do something that God says He hates, something that will keep them out of the kingdom of heaven? You would think that they would be afraid to do that, but they are not. We live in a time when people no longer fear God. This is one of the indicators that we are living in the last days. (See Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:18.)

Mankind’s Health in Eden

Whatever we are looking at—our lifestyle, our diet—we can see God’s original pattern from the garden of Eden.

Did God create man to just sit? In the garden of Eden, God had a mind for man’s physical health. He created him to spend most of his life outdoors. Adam was given active work and exercises to perform. He trained and nurtured the garden. He named every plant, tree, and flower, and the animals who dwelled on the earth, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.

The same is true of his diet. God withheld the one tree in the midst of the garden, the tree that was called the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16, 17). But otherwise, Adam and Eve were able to eat “every herb that yields seed” and “every tree whose fruit yields seed.” Genesis 1:29. Grains and nuts were added later. But God did not give them flesh foods to eat.

Many people today are wondering what is the most healthful diet. When you want the best advice, you turn to the person who knows the most about the subject. In this case, the One who created Adam and Eve and every single one of us down through history, knows what is best to keep the bodies He created in peak health.

It is interesting to see what is contained in God’s original diet. We are finding that the original diet contains more health-promoting qualities and characteristics than we knew even a few years ago. Popular belief used to say that the original diet was not good enough. If you really wanted to be healthy, you needed to add eggs, milk, cheese, red meat, and other flesh foods. They believed that you could not find quality protein in just fruits, grains, herbs, and nuts.

However, we now know that adding these foods to the original diet results in the potential of consuming too much protein. In fact, this is one of the reasons that we see such a huge epidemic of osteoporosis among nations where large amounts of these foods are eaten. God knew when He created man just what he required in his diet so that he could have optimum health.

You may remember, after man sinned, God told Adam that he would eat by the sweat of his face. When we sweat we lose salt, so God altered man’s diet to include celery, spinach, Swiss chard, beets, and carrots, all of which contain more sodium than the foods of the original diet. But most people, for thousands of years, have been, and are today, unwilling to follow the original diet.

Health throughout History

In the time of Noah, and after the Flood—over 1,600 years after man was created, God gave man permission to eat certain flesh foods, those considered to be clean meats. (See Genesis chapters 7, 8, and 9. Also see Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 where God later listed clean and unclean meat.) But most of the people alive then were doing what they wanted to do, and that included eating flesh foods long before He gave man permission to do so. It was only after the flood when every green thing on earth had been destroyed, and it had to recuperate and replenish itself, that God gave man permission to eat clean meat. But this lesson had to be, and will continue to be, repeated over the course of time, until He has a people who have returned to the original diet.

When God took His people out of Egypt and through the desert to the promised land, it was meant as an example of the spiritual journey that God’s spiritual children take, in all ages, to leave this world of sin behind and arrive in the spiritual promised land.

All through the desert wilderness, God kept the children of Israel on a vegetarian diet—almost entirely vegetables, as you can read in the Bible. They also had food from heaven—angels’ food according to the Bible.

“Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day … .” Exodus 16:4

“Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.” Psalm 78:23–25

Sadly, the children of Israel were not satisfied with the food of angels. They said, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!” Exodus 16:3, first part

“Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!’ ” Numbers 11:4–6

Their diet of angels’ food was so good that the Psalms tell us there was not one feeble person among all their tribes. They were all healthy. But here we find them, not longing for the promised land, but whining for the flesh pots of Egypt.

God heard their cries and gave them what they desired—quail, hundreds, thousands of them. Many of the people indulged their food lust and ate until they were stuffed. What was the outcome? Those who yielded to their craving for meat, while it was still between their teeth, were struck with a great plague and they died and were buried in the wilderness. (See Numbers 11:31–33.) However, they were not done complaining about their food, as you can read in Numbers 21.

Next, we see that while God allowed them to eat flesh foods, He put strict prohibitions on the foods that they could eat. He told them they were not to eat any blood or fat, and that certain meats were dangerous. The Lord said these meats were unclean, and that they would be defiled by them. This is not talking about ceremonial defilement, but defiling your body by consuming something that would have a destructive effect on it. The Lord told them not to eat these unclean foods.

But, the Devil …

Satan loves to get people to do anything that God has said not to do. He is totally against your soul. He is responsible for making the very foods which the children of Israel were forbidden to eat—unclean foods as identified in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14—the most popular foods the world over. But Paul tells us that the experiences of the children of Israel in the wilderness were meant to be an example for those of us living right now, at the very end of the world.

“These things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” 1 Corinthians 10:6. Then, in verses 10 and 11, he says, “Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Paul was living in the end of the ages, as far as the ancient world was concerned, but he was making a prophetic statement about the end of all ages. To put it very plainly, God will have a people who are following Him out of Egypt [the world] to Canaan [heaven]. These people will have adopted the original diet, just like He gave to the children of Israel in the wilderness. It is a clear prediction that God will lead His people back to the original diet in the last days.

An Example

“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Daniel 1:8

“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you. … And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.” Verses 12, 13, first part, 15, 16

What was the result? “Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king.” Verse 19

Over 2,500 years ago, this group of young men had adopted the original diet given by God to Adam and Eve and were prospering with it. When taken captive to Babylon, they remained firm in adhering to it, even against the direct command of the king. This example of following God’s “owner’s manual” for the bodies He created, and the courage to do it against the most difficult circumstances, is our examples for the last days.

Let me share with you some reasons to adopt a vegetarian diet, not when you get to heaven, but right now. This is not at all an exhaustive list.

  1. Those who regularly consume flesh foods have been shown to have six to seven times greater risk of cancer compared to those who do not. There are many reasons for this.
  2. Vegetarian diets greatly reduce the risk of heart attacks by lowering cholesterol and other factors.
  3. If you want to avoid plugged or blocked arteries, the best diet is one with zero cholesterol, zero animal protein, and zero caffeine. You also will want a high fiber intake and a high polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio, and a high amount of complex carbohydrates. Achieving this is impossible with a meat diet, but almost automatic with a diet—from natural food sources—of whole grains, fruits, and nuts at breakfast, and grains, vegetables, and legumes or nuts at lunch. And do not try to live on chocolate, coconut, or cashew nuts.
  4. The diet that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden was a low-sodium diet. He increased their sodium intake by modifying their diet after they sinned. The Bible says that both salt and sugar are good, but they are only good when used in moderation. This diet, along with a physical exercise program, would solve, for many, the problem of high blood pressure.
  5. A vegetarian diet is high in fiber.
  6. Meat contains too much of the wrong kind of fat, too much protein and iron, but is deficient in fiber.
  7. A low-protein diet tends to arrest kidney failure, reduces urine protein, and increases blood protein in diabetics, and helps to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. This, of course, is easily accomplished on a diet of plant food, and leaving off of meat.

Whether you are talking about heart disease, cancer, blocked arteries, diabetes, high blood pressure, or cholesterol levels, a vegetarian diet is the best therapeutic answer. Did God know what He was doing when He gave to man a plant-food diet? Did He know what He was doing when He altered the diet slightly after sin entered the world? Can we improve on this diet? No! Man has not evolved into a creature that is healthier on a carnivorous diet. Rather, the evidence has become overwhelming that God’s original diet is superior to every other diet developed by man.

This will be the diet of the saved in heaven. Would you like for your whole life to be changed, to come into harmony with the rest of the universe of God?

Out of the myriad of worlds that God has made, with all their inhabitants, this world is the only one in rebellion. This world chose to forsake the tree of life and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we have all eaten of this tree. Evil is about to destroy this world. We are living in the midst of an epidemic of crime, war, strife, disaster, and sickness that has thinking men and women aghast all over the world, asking, “What will happen next?”

The darkest period of earth’s history is fast approaching. But in this darkest period, Christ will return to take His children out of this place. If you are going to be ready, you need to be willing to surrender your heart to Him and follow His teaching exactly in your life, your diet, your speech, your thoughts. Your entire life must be in harmony with His laws.

Jesus is coming, and He will take His children out of this evil world. However, every child of God will be without spot or blemish, living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Will you be one of them? The choice is yours.

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at 316-788-5559.

Health – What’s in Your Mouth?

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Think about this: From the 1930s to 1950s doctors heavily promoted cigarettes as a healthy activity, a treatment to relax and even a useful mechanism with which to open our lungs for improved breathing.

Today we know this “good health” advice is ridiculous. In years to come, we will likely look back and say the same thing about doctors promoting animal-based foods. Unfortunately, most doctors do not have expertise in the healing properties of food.

This is not always our doctors’ fault. There is very little focus on preventive care throughout medical school and training. As cardiologist Joel Kahn, MD, relates, “During the 1980s when I completed medical school and cardiology fellowship, there was no discussion about nutrition and health in the halls of academic medical centers.”

Though the medical world has mostly focused on diagnosing disease and treating with technology and drugs, some doctors have devoted careers to understanding the relationship between health and food. Their conclusions: our “evolution” to an omnivore diet coincides with our rise in disease.

“The greatest medical discovery of the last 20 years is the understanding that our Western diseases are largely lifestyle-related,” Denis Burkitt, MD, said in 1992. But what’s exciting? “They must be preventable and potentially reversible.” And there’s good evidence he is right.

Famed doctor and author Dean Ornish, MD, convincingly proved that a plant-based whole food diet coupled with exercise and stress management could reverse the atherosclerotic plaques and indolent prostate cancer.

And renowned doctor Neal Bernard, MD, has demonstrated that a diet devoid of animal products is very effective in reversing diabetes. Of his diabetic patients, 71 percent were off their oral medications within four weeks and with normal sugar levels.

Ornish and Bernard are in good company. As the following doctors attest, the answers to our leading health woes are not at the bottom of a pill bottle, but at the end of our fork.

Reversing Heart Disease with Plant-based Foods

“We were born with clean, flexible arteries, and they should stay that way throughout our lives. The arteries of most Americans, however, are clogged with cholesterol, fats and calcium. The cause of coronary artery heart disease is no longer a mystery. We know that cultures whether by heritage or tradition that consume plant-based nutrition have virtually no cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis only became more apparent in Japan and China with the import of the rich Western diet laced with meat, eggs and dairy products.

“Atherosclerosis-related diseases are not a ‘natural’ way to go, and individuals with established coronary artery disease who completely transition to plant-based foods can halt and reverse their diseases.”—Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD.

Where Disease and Eating Habits Intersect

“The statistics are convincing. Cardiovascular disease and cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, and lungs are now claiming every third and fourth American life, respectively. In the early 1900s fewer than ten percent of deaths in the United States were attributed to cardiovascular disease. Now it is the number one killer. And consider this: In spite of newer and refined forms of insulin and bioengineered medications, diabetes has gone up 700 percent since World War II.

“What can help explain these changes? In the 1900s, Americans got 70 percent of their protein from plant foods. Today, they get 70 percent of their protein from animal products that are high in saturated fat, cholesterol, trans fat and devoid of fiber.”—Dr. Hans Diehl.

Diet Has the Power to Address the Root Cause of Illness

“Because I suffered from hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and pre-diabetes (I have a long family history of Type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease), I decided to try this lifestyle approach and became a vegetarian. Although I was told being vegan would be most effective, I decided to try being vegetarian first and my experiment worked. Within a few months my blood pressure and glucose levels were well within the normal range. I no longer required my diuretic for hypertension and my dose of Lipitor had been cut by more than half. Excited by my success, I decided to take the full plunge and see what would happen to my numbers if I became a complete vegan. On a vegan diet I was able to get off all medication, including Lipitor!”—Dexter Shurney, MD, MBA, MPH

Physician, Heal Thyself, Eliminate Animal Products from Your Diet

“I did not know that my diet high in animal products deprived my body of antioxidants, vitamins, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals, enzymes, minerals, essential fatty acids, fiber and many other important ingredients that are only found in plants. My animal-based diet was inflammatory and acid forming—deteriorating my body, causing rapid aging and an array of diseases. I started to gain weight and feel tired and fatigued. My mood started to change. My brain was foggy and my body felt heavier and heavier. More importantly, I didn’t even know it was not normal to feel that way. After getting bigger and sicker every day for two to three years, I finally decided this was not how I wanted to treat my body and my mind.

“As I changed my diet, my weight started to normalize, my energy increased, my fatigue and depressed mood improved, and my heartburn and stomach problems disappeared. I felt much lighter and better physically and emotionally after I changed to a plant-based diet. Thousands of scientific studies prove that the best and the most health-promoting diet is plant-based and devoid of animal products.

“The majority of the diseases afflicting human societies today can be cured by a shift to a plant-based diet. As a gastroenterologist whose first line of theory for her patients is a plant-based diet, I experience and observe this transformation every single day. Illnesses can potentially completely heal or improve significantly with a change of diet. The power of our own healing is in our hands.”—Zarin Azar, MD, Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist

Plant-based Diets Deter Atherosclerosis

“Many patients with atherosclerosis are surprised at the bulk of their plaque, which can be seen and felt without magnification. When enough arteries are blocked, ulcers and gangrene occur in the toes and feet and are the leading cause of leg amputation. Complications of arterial disease are the most common reasons for the estimated 65,000 leg amputations performed in the U.S. each year. Studies have evidenced that a plant-based diet is associated with lower rates of atherosclerotic disease.

“Plant-based diets demonstrate lower serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels, decreased incidence of cardiovascular events, and even reversal of arterial atherosclerosis. In general, vegetarians have lower incidence of atherosclerosis, cardiac events and all-cause mortality.

“A cross-cultural large trial, the Cornell China Study, showed how rural Chinese had a fraction of the death rate from heart disease compared to Americans. American men had almost 17 times the death rate from atherosclerotic heart disease and American women had 5.5 times higher mortality from the same cause. The average Chinese dietary fat intake was less than half as a proportion of diet, fiber intake was three times as high and animal protein intake was comparatively very low at less than 10 per cent of that in the U.S. diet, and vegetable intake was much higher. The rates of atherosclerotic disease were positively associated with meat intake and sodium intake, but decreased in relation to consumption of green vegetables and plasma levels of monounsaturated fatty acids.

“Although the project did not set out to study vegans or plant-based diets, the conclusion was that a plant-based diet is the most preferable way to avoid atherosclerosis.”—Kristofer M. Charlton-Ouw, MD, FACS, Vascular Surgeon

Convinced Yet? What’s on Your Plate

“Doctors are trained that it is a waste of time to talk about nutrition, but I can assure you that it is not a waste of time. The only time I have ever been able to decrease insulin dosages in diabetics or stop blood pressure pills in patients with high blood pressure, it has been because the patient has modified his or her diet to be plant-based.”—Mary Went, MD

Thrive, Health and Wellness, Shushana Castle, vol. 26, 14–16.

“Meat consumption has conclusively been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other chronic and deadly diseases. God’s people should dispense with flesh foods. Those who are seeking to become pure and holy cannot continue to use as food anything that has so harmful an effect on soul and body.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 386.

Bible Study Guides – Mental and Physical Health

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May 9 – 15, 2021

Key Text

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2).

 Study Help: The Sanctified Life, 18–33; Education, 195–206.

Introduction

“Between the mind and the body there is a mysterious and wonderful relation. They react upon each other.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 485.

Sunday

1 HARMONIOUS INTERACTION NECESSARY

1.a. In the creation, what requirements were placed upon man that were not required of other creatures? Genesis 1:27, 28; 2:16, 17.

Note: “The harmony of creation depends upon the perfect conformity of all beings, of everything, animate and inanimate, to the law of the Creator. God has ordained laws for the government, not only of living beings, but of all the operations of nature. Everything is under fixed laws, which cannot be disregarded. But while everything in nature is governed by natural laws, man alone, of all that inhabits the earth, is amenable to moral law.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 52.

1.b.      How are Christians exhorted to strive for sanctification, both mental and physical? Romans 12:1; Philippians 2:12, last part, 13.

Note: “The life of Daniel is an inspired illustration of what constitutes a sanctified character.” The Review and Herald, January 25, 1881.

“[It presents] a lesson for all, but especially for the young. A strict compliance with the requirements of God is beneficial to the health of body and mind. In order to reach the highest standard of moral and intellectual attainments, it is necessary to seek wisdom and strength from God, and to observe strict temperance in all the habits of life. In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God’s requirements, even though it cost them a great sacrifice.” Ibid.

“The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character.” The Ministry of Healing, 130.

Monday

2 THE BODY AFFECTS THE MIND

2.a. How is mental effort affected by good physical health? 3 John 2; 1 Corinthians 9:27.

Note: “We should seek to preserve the full vigor of all our powers for the accomplishment of the work before us. Whatever detracts from physical vigor weakens mental effort. Hence, every practice unfavorable to the health of the body should be resolutely shunned. …

“We cannot maintain consecration to God and yet injure our health by the willful indulgence of a wrong habit. Self-denial is one of the conditions, not only of admission into the service of Christ, but of continuance therein. Christ Himself declared, in unmistakable language, the conditions of discipleship: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Matthew 16:24).

“Yet, how many who call themselves Christians are unwilling to exercise self-denial, even for Christ’s sake. How often the love for some pernicious indulgence is stronger than the desire for a sound mind in a sound body. Precious hours of probation are spent, God-given means squandered, to please the eye or to gratify the appetite. Custom holds thousands in bondage to the earthly and sensual. Many are willing captives; they desire no better portion.” Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2, 380, 381.

2.b.      What is the effect of fleshly lusts on the mind? 1 Peter 2:11.

Note: “Study is not the principal cause of breakdown of mental powers. The main cause is improper diet, irregular meals, a lack of physical exercise, and careless inattention in other respects to the laws of health. When we do all that we can to preserve the health, then we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 299.

“By allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness. By neglecting physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we unbalance the nervous system.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 346.

Tuesday

3 DIET AND THE MIND

3.a. What effects do temperance and discipline have on the mind? 1 Corinthians 9:25, 27.

Note: “True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as they should how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 562.

“There are ample reasons why there are so many nervous women in the world, complaining of the dyspepsia, with its train of evils. The cause has been followed by the effect. It is impossible for intemperate persons to be patient. They must first reform bad habits, learn to live healthfully, and then it will not be difficult for them to be patient. Many do not seem to understand the relation the mind sustains to the body. If the system is deranged by improper food, the brain and nerves are affected, and slight things annoy those who are thus afflicted. Little difficulties are to them troubles mountain high.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 434.

3.b.      How can a person’s dietary practices affect and influence the faith of others? Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 8:13; Daniel chapter 1.

Note: “We are composed of what we eat, and eating much flesh will diminish intellectual activity. Students would accomplish much more in their studies if they never tasted meat. When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately. A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded.” Medical Ministry, 277, 278.

“I frequently sit down to the tables of the brethren and sisters, and see that they use a great amount of milk and sugar. These clog the system, irritate the digestive organs, and affect the brain. Anything that hinders the active motion of the living machinery, affects the brain very directly. And from the light given me, sugar, when largely used, is more injurious than meat. These changes should be made cautiously, and the subject should be treated in a manner not calculated to disgust and prejudice those whom we would teach and help.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 328.

Wednesday

4 THE BEST MEDICINE

4.a. What forces does happiness release? Proverbs 15:15, last part; 16:24, first part.

 Note: “The pleasure of doing good animates the mind and vibrates through the whole body. While the faces of benevolent men are lighted up with cheerfulness, and their countenances express the moral elevation of the mind, those of selfish, stingy men are dejected, cast down, and gloomy. Their moral defects are seen in their countenances.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 534.

4.b. What are the best practices/habits for diseased bodies and minds? Proverbs 3:1–8.

Note: “The consciousness of rightdoing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. The special blessing of God resting upon the receiver is health and strength. A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 502.

Thursday

5 MIND AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

5.a.       What effect will following Jesus have on the mind? Malachi 4:2; John 14:27.

 Note: “When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin. … Not all that this world bestows can heal a broken heart, or impart peace of mind, or remove care, or banish disease. Fame, genius, talent—all are powerless to gladden the sorrowful heart or to restore the wasted life. The life of God in the soul is man’s only hope.” The Ministry of Healing, 115.

5.b.      How are reason and grace bound together? Romans 6:1,2; Isaiah 1:18, 19.

Note: “The body is a most important medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here often means the surrender of the whole being to evil. The tendencies of the physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death. The body is to be brought into subjection to the higher powers of the being. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of reason, sanctified by divine grace, is to bear sway in the life.” Prophets and Kings, 488, 489.

Friday

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS

1    Discuss co-dependence of the physical and mental powers.

2    How does temperance relate to physical and mental strength?

3    How does what a person eats affect his intellect?

4    What is the best medicine for sick bodies and minds?

5    What is the cure for spiritual disease originating from the commission of sin? How does this affect spiritual health?

Copyright 1995 Reformation Herald Publishing Association, 5240 Hollins Road, Roanoke, Virginia 24019-5048, U.S.A.

Not One in One Thousand

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After working in the health field and observing people over many years, I have come to the conclusion that not one in one thousand Seventh-day Adventists are following the complete health reform information that has been given to us as a people in the Scriptures and the writings of Ellen White. We are counseled in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God so we can resist the devil (verse 13). Numerous times throughout the writings of Ellen White we have been told that the health reform message is the right arm of the gospel. My question for many years has been, How does one put on a suit of armor with one arm? IMPOSSIBLE! Yet that is the condition of the vast majority of Seventh-day Adventists. Since not one in one thousand carefully and prayerfully observe the total health message, not one in one thousand has both arms available to put on the “whole armor of God”.

Although we have more than 2,500 pages written by God’s last day prophet on health and lifestyle, the majority continue to seek guidance from secular sources.

We are told in the book, Medical Ministry, on page “x” in the preface to the second edition that “The promulgation of the health message was for fifty years a topic of major concern to Ellen White. She wrote more in the field of health than on any other single topic of counsel.” Yet still the vast majority of Adventists, especially pastors, continue to believe that diet and lifestyle have nothing to do with one’s salvation. The question was posed by the pastor of my local church to the congregation, “Is diet and lifestyle a salvational issue?” The overwhelming response from the congregation was a resounding, NO!

How blind, deceived and ignorant can we as a people be? We have all heard or read the statement from Christ’s Object Lessons, page 69, “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Then there is the statement in Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 22, “It is impossible for those who indulge the appetite to attain to Christian perfection.” So I ask the question, “If we must have Christ’s perfect character before He can come to receive us to Himself at the second coming and it is impossible to have that character when we are not fully practicing the total health reform message, then how do we expect to be ready for His coming?” IMPOSSIBLE!

We need to take a long hard look at just exactly what comprises the total health message. Top of the list is the consumption of the flesh of animals. Notice this quote:

“Meat should not be placed before our children. Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions, and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers. Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 352.

Many Adventists look at Leviticus, chapter 11, which discusses clean and unclean meats when it comes to what is acceptable to eat. However, there is much more recorded in the rest of the book regarding meat consumption.

If someone in the camp of Israel ate something that was unclean he was to leave the camp, wash his clothes and himself, wait until sundown, and only then could he return to the camp and to his family. (See Leviticus chapter 22.)

But if someone ate some meat, even clean meat that contained the fat and/or the blood, it says in at least three places in Leviticus, in chapters 7, 17, and 18, that such an individual would be “cut off’ from among his people.

The Hebrew word for cut off used here is karath, the same word that is used in Daniel 9:26, where it says that in the middle of the week Messiah would be “cut off.” We all know what happened to Jesus in the middle of the 70th prophetic week of Daniel 9. He was crucified and suffered the second death. I am pretty sure that a McDonald’s hamburger has not had the fat and blood removed nor has the steak that you buy at the local meat market been ritually slaughtered so as to remove all fat and blood.

When God gave Noah and his family permission to eat animal flesh, it was due to the fact that all plant life had been destroyed in the great flood. The use of animal flesh for food was to only have been for one, maybe two years, until the plant kingdom had reestablished itself on this earth. I would also surmise that as intelligent as the antediluvians were, Noah took quite a large quantity as well as selection of seeds onto the ark so that he could reestablish his vegetable garden after the flood. After that, mankind was supposed to return to the original diet given by God to man.

Let’s consider next animal products other than meat. Top of the list is dairy.

True, dairy in the form of milk and soft cheeses are mentioned in the Scriptures. However, animals were kept by the owners and ate natural foods which had been designated for them from the beginning. As we near the end of time we are told that animals will become more and more diseased as sin increases and that the time will come that it will be unsafe for health to use these products.

“Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 135.

I was a child during the Second World War. During that time, if my mother needed something from the grocery store, we would walk a few blocks to a local “mom & pop” store. There was no such thing then as Walmart or any other supermarket. Milk was delivered by a local dairy to your doorstep in glass bottles. Eggs were produced by a local egg farmer. All vegetables and fruits were grown by local farmers, mostly without pesticides.

Shortly after the war ended in 1945, the first supermarket that I ever saw opened in Denver. The big food conglomerates began to appear, which for most people saw the end of pure food grown locally. Now only 4 or 5 mega-conglomerates control the production of almost all foods, animal and plant.

From the very beginning all the way through to your table every aspect of whatever food is being produced is controlled, and most of the time not for your health benefits. The food is to be produced as rapidly and as cheaply as possible—the dollar is paramount, not your health. That is why foods, for the most part, particularly foods of animal origin, are now unsafe for human consumption.

Milk contains at least 57 bioactive hormones. These hormones are mostly female hormones since a cow is female. During the last 100 years, the age when a girl reaches the menarche has dropped from an average of 17 years to 9.5 years, all due to female hormones that cause little girls to develop years before they should. Boys don’t fare much better since one of the most active of these hormones has the designation of IGF-1. This hormone is a growth hormone that is 200 times more potent than natural human growth hormone.

When I was in high school in the 1950s, a big boy might be 6’ tall and weigh 180 pounds. Today it is not unusual to find high school boys that are 6’4” and weigh in excess of 250 pounds, all due to this growth hormone. This is not natural and has proven to be very harmful. In fact, this hormone has been found in the tissue of every one of the nearly 200 different kinds of malignancies known to affect humans. After all, it makes tumors grow fast as well.

Saturated fat and only cholesterol are found in animal products. These substances lead to the most common diseases that affect humans: cancer, heart attacks, strokes, osteoarthritis, diabetes, hypertension, macular degeneration, hearing loss, and a host of others.

These fatty substances not only promote these diseases, but are primary in the need for hearing aids and joint replacement. How? In the eye, ear and joints of one’s body are very tiny capillaries that provide the nourishment for these structures. When they get plugged up with these fatty substances, they cease to work. In every joint of one’s body there is cartilage that makes the joint work smoothly. Surrounding the joint is a sack known as a bursa, composed of a tough sack lined with a synovial membrane that secretes synovial fluid which provides nourishment, oxygen and removes metabolic wastes. The cartilage in the joint has no blood vessels, but is living tissue supplied by the synovial membrane. When the capillaries in the synovial membrane become plugged by fats, the cartilage dies and gradually wears away until one has nothing but bone on bone. That is painful and requires a joint replacement.

Many people think that because they use unsaturated oils that they are safe. Sorry! There have been at least 6 recent studies on the use of olive oil which show that cardiovascular disease (the plugging up of capillaries with fat) progresses at the same rate as it would with the use of solid animal fat. Many have swallowed the advertising campaign of the food companies instead of looking to inspired writings and/or scientific studies. Popular in recent years has been what is called “The Mediterranean Diet,” which is supposed to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Just what is a Mediterranean Diet? Let’s take a little trip around the Mediterranean Sea, starting with Morocco in North Africa. We will travel around the sea in a counter clockwise direction. Next we come to Algeria, then Tunisia, then Libya, then Egypt, then Israel, then Lebanon, then Syria, then Turkey, then Greece, then Albania, then Bosnia/Herzegovina, then Croatia, then Trieste, then Italy, then France, then Spain. Within the Sea we find Cyprus, then Crete, then Sicily, then Malta, then Sardinia, then Corsica, then the Balearic Islands. Now the diet of which of these countries are you going to choose? All are Mediterranean.

In the writings of Ellen White on health and diet, you will find the following statement with slight variations 114 times. It is basically this: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts (sparingly) prepared in as simple a manner as possible, free from grease of all kinds, constitute the best diet for mankind.

Notice that this diet is not a fat free diet, as some who obviously can’t read and correctly assimilate what has been written assume. It is the preparation of the food that is to be grease and oil free. After all nuts, seeds, and many vegetables and fruits have oils and fats in them—for example: avocados, olives, as well as seeds and nuts. Ellen White mentions the benefits of olive oil three times, each time she states that olive oil as taken in the olive is beneficial to the digestive tract—not poured out of a bottle.

Now to the two items of diet that are killing more Seventh-day Adventists than any other thing—cheese and ice cream. It takes about 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese or ice cream. All of the harmful substances found in dairy are now concentrated by a factor of 10 times. It was no wonder Ellen White said: “Cheese should never enter the stomach” and “Cheese is wholly unfit for food.” These statements are found in The Ministry of Healing, 302, and in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 368. I now ask the question, “What part of never don’t you understand?” Cheese also has three times the acid producing properties of a steak and is a main cause of osteoporosis, since the body has to pull calcium from the bones to neutralize the acid produced. Eggs are also very high on the list to cause acid production in the body and they are loaded with cholesterol.

The dessert table at an Adventist gathering is next. George Vandeman, of “It Is Written,” wrote me a letter years ago which I still have. In it he said that the dessert table at most Adventist potlucks would put to shame the table of ‘delicacies’ set before Daniel and his friends by Nebuchadnezzar.

Sugar is one of the most detrimental items in anyone’s diet. Numerous studies have been done which show that even a small amount of sugar inactivates one’s white cells, the body’s first line of defense against invading organisms. How much does it take to damage one’s immune system?

An average adult has about 5 liters (5000 ml) of blood. A normal blood sugar has 1 mg of sugar in each ml of blood. So one’s total blood sugar in 5000 ml would be 5000 mg of sugar which amounts to one rounded teaspoon. That is all. A single glazed donut has 6 teaspoons of sugar. A serving of chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream has 12-15 teaspoons of sugar. A banana split has 25 teaspoons of sugar. Now you can see how sugar has the potential to do damage to one’s immune system. And people wonder why they catch a cold or the flu. It is because they pursued it until they caught it.

Chocolate is actually worse for one than coffee. I have had many ask me, “If it is worse than coffee, then why didn’t Ellen White write about it”? She very clearly states that coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco use is a sin. There are many things she never mentioned such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, as well as many other harmful substances. There is a very logical reason why she said nothing about chocolate. It wasn’t until 1904 that Hershey started making chocolate products in Hershey, Pennsylvania. By the time of her death in 1915 chocolate still was not as common as it is today.

Chocolate contains at least 10 substances that are harmful. They are: Sugar (chocolate in its natural state is very bitter and requires a lot of sugar to make it palatable), Caffeine (chocolate has about 1/3 the amount of caffeine that coffee contains), Theobromine (theobromine is a methylxanthine and is a first cousin to caffeine. Chocolate contains more of this substance than any other source), Cocoa Butter (this is a saturated fat which plugs arteries), Phenylethylamine (this chemical is a neuro-excitotoxin and has the same effect as an antidepressant that a psychiatrist might prescribe for a depressed patient), Oxalic Acid (this substance binds calcium and forms calcium oxalate which is insoluble and precipitates out in the kidneys, contributing to kidney failure), Purines (these substances are also found in red meats and are the excitotoxins and stimulants), Tyramine (this is also an excitotoxin that has, in some people, been known to cause dramatic rises in blood pressure), Tannic Acid (this harmful substance is what is used to tan leather. It is very irritating to the stomach lining), Bugs (due to the way that chocolate is harvested, all chocolate averages from 10%-15% insect parts, rat and mouse droppings, bird droppings, dead bugs and worms).

The principle that should govern our lives is not whether the Scriptures or the Spirit of Prophecy say anything about something, but whether or not it is harmful. Also remember the verse in 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Notice that specifically mentioned here is “eating and drinking” and then everything else that one might do in his life is listed under “whatsoever.” Only “eating and drinking” are specifically mentioned; so this must have been important to God.

Most people are very lax when it comes to the time for eating, with many who are constantly snacking. I have often asked people to name a healthful snack. The correct response is that there are NONE. Anything eaten between meals as a snack is harmful though many think nothing of having some “light refreshments’’ at any number of gatherings and at any time of the day or night. There are dozens of statements by Ellen White as to the harmfulness of eating between meals, after meals, or before going to bed. She says that not even an apple should be eaten between meals. Eating between meals is particularly harmful to growing children.

All meals should be at a specific time and this time should vary by no more than one-half hour. The human body functions best when it has developed certain rhythms known as circadian rhythms. When these activities vary by more than one­-half hour the body suffers to the point that the immune system is affected.

Studies have been done in this area and have shown that when someone eats breakfast and then snacks an hour or two later that digestion stops completely until the new item eaten has been assimilated by what is already in the stomach. Then and only then does digestion begin again. Most have put something else into their stomach before that can occur and thus endoscopically identifiable foods are still in the stomach as much as 14 hours after ingestion. This leads to putrification and fermentation.  Sleep is also disturbed when there is digestion going on during the nighttime hours.

All of the above reasons and more are why I say that not 1 in 1000 Seventh-day Adventists observe the counsel that we have been given on health reform. That is also why, when we have availability to this information in the volumes written under inspiration, that most Adventists will not be ready for the second coming. Remember, “it is impossible to develop a Christ-like character while indulging in unhealthful practices.”

‘’Sanctification—how many understand its full meaning? The mind is befogged by sensual malaria. The thoughts need purifying. What might not men and women have been had they realized that the treatment of the body has everything to do with the vigor and purity of mind and heart.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 909.

Gene Swanson was an Adventist pediatric anesthesiologist in a large pediatric hospital. He retired in Montrose, Colorado, before he passed away.

Health – The Rise of Veganism

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Browsing the grocery store aisles, one can’t help but notice the rise of veganism in the United States. There are more vegan products on the shelves by the week. Multiple documentaries have been released on Netflix, such as The Game Changers in 2019, or HOPE – What You Eat Matters in 2018 on YouTube. People are turning to the vegan lifestyle because the future of our planet is at stake.

Meat and dairy production is the single largest contributor to global warming. Rainforests, the lungs of our planet, are being cleared to graze cattle or cultivate cattle feed, such as soybeans. Only 2% of soy produced worldwide is consumed by humans. Seventy percent is cattle feed, 28% biofuel.1 Animal agriculture consumes more precious water than all the other world’s industries combined.

 

NETFLIX YOUTUBE
What the Health H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters
The Game Changers Food Choices
Cowspiracy Super Size Me
Vegucated Diet Fiction
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead Forks over Knives
Food, Inc. Eating You Alive
Plant Pure Nation
Let us be Heroes

 

Environmental agencies had traditionally focused on plastic waste and car pollution, but the largest threat to our planet was a taboo. Why? Food is a sensitive issue. People react with anger when someone tells them what to eat or not to eat, especially when we’re talking about meat. As a society, we have been fed the meat industry lie that meat and dairy are essential for our nutrition. Only recently, these taboo questions are being answered and the public is learning the truth.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we have known this truth for 150 years. Yet, we have been unable to convince the public with our health message. Not only that, we have been abandoning these truths in order to be more “mainstream.” According to the PBS research, only 30% of Seventh-day Adventists practice some form of vegetarianism.2 Even with just 30%, we achieve better health and longevity than the general population. Imagine the difference if all church members adhered to the health message. The results would be worth bold letters in every news outlet.

As Adventists, we should be on the cutting edge of nutritional science, plant-based culinary arts, and exemplary lifestyle. Yet, quite the opposite has been the case. Those of us who adhere to some form of vegetarianism have earned the reputation for bland food preparation. I often get inspired by one of my favorite cuisines – Indian food, which is considered one of the world’s best ethnic kitchens. Why? The Hindu people of India have been on the vegetarian diet for thousands of years. They have had all these years to perfect their recipes to the gourmet level of today. Various vegan movements turn to Hinduism as the poster child for humane treatment of animals and saving our planet.

Shouldn’t it be the Seventh-day Adventists that the world is turning to? At one point in history, Seventh-day Adventists changed the way America eats breakfast. How did it happen that we are so behind modern food trends? Sadly, we have abandoned our health message.

If we had upheld the health message that was given to us in the 1800s, the world today would be at our feet asking for help and expertise. What a tremendous evangelism opportunity lost! I can’t think of a greater opportunity lost in the entire history of Adventism. The entire world would learn of Seventh-day Adventists and their message via mainstream media. For free! Instead, it’s the Hollywood stars who are spreading the health message. Every week I hear of a new Hollywood star going vegan.

When watching the various documentaries on veganism that have become popular in recent years, I see the Adventist health message being preached. I can’t help but notice that many of the nutritional experts take their knowledge directly out of Spirit of Prophecy, down to the last letter. The history is being repeated as in biblical times. If God’s people abandon the message that God gave them, He can raise someone else to do the work—in this case, saving our planet from an ecological collapse. This could have been our role that God had in store for us, but we turned it down. God gave us decades of preparation time for this moment in history. We have had over 100 years to perfect our nutritional science, culinary arts, and natural medical treatments. Yet, we have lost the opportunity. As today’s vegan movement is gaining momentum, no one knows that this message has existed for over 100 years, gathering dust on the bookshelves of Adventist households.

Is it too late? As the saying goes, better late than never. Although the health food world is light years ahead of us, we can still come to the forefront and say: “Hey, we have known all this for 150 years! But nobody paid attention.”

There are various diet trends such as the Atkins diet, gluten free diet, ketogenic diet, etc. But veganism is not a temporary fashion. It is here to stay. Let’s dust off our treasured publications such as The Ministry of Healing, Counsels on Diet and Foods, and Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene. People will be astounded to find out that this information has been available for over 100 years. Although the majority of Seventh-day Adventists are indifferent to the health message, there are a few who adhere to it. Let’s talk to people, let’s share the newest documentaries available (see table for list) as a conversation starter. No one will say that this is extreme anymore. People accept this message because the very existence of our planet is at stake. Let’s share our recipes with people. Let’s forge strong friendships. Relationships are created around food in all of the world’s cultures. We have forgotten this reality in our country. Let’s start cooking at home and share with friends and neighbors. You can make a difference.

I live in a condominium unit in a large city and have made friends with my neighbors. Lately I had overseas visitors staying in my home. I enjoyed cooking for them and one night we just had too much food left over. I called one of my neighbors, explained the situation, and asked if I could bring her a take-out box of food. She happily accepted and said that she hadn’t had her dinner yet and was thinking what to eat, but her fridge is empty. I delivered the box promptly; she said a big thank you. The next day, I received a phone call. The lovely lady asked from what restaurant I ordered the meal. Hah! It was made from scratch in my kitchen! Ravioli garnished with fresh basil pesto (see a pesto recipe on page 49). Fresh herbs make a big difference and give your dish a gourmet touch.

My neighbor requested a visit in my home for a basil pesto demonstration. She is a successful woman in her ‘70s who operates her own business. She suggested a Saturday morning as it’s the best time for her new boyfriend to come as well, whom she’d love for me to meet. I assured her that her boyfriend is welcome as well and explained that Saturday mornings are not suitable for me because I attend a church at these hours. “On Saturday?” she asked. “Come on Sunday morning and I’ll explain why my day of worship is Saturday,” I replied. She happily agreed. Talking about outreach opportunities! They come themselves if we are friendly to our neighbors!

Large cities also have vegan support groups. Many people want to start this lifestyle, but don’t know how and search for like-minded individuals. These places are great to get involved. You can make friends there, organize potluck lunches, or the like.

But first, we have to return to our roots, to our health message. Once people find out what a treasure we have, they will request visits to our homes. May God bless you and keep you as you live His health message.

1 H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters

2 www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/03/23/march-23-2012-seventh-day-adventists-and-health/10575/

A People Preparing

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In Luke 1:17, the angel said to Zacharias concerning his son, John the Baptist, “He will go before Him [the Messiah] in the spirit and power of Elijah … to prepare a people who are prepared for the Lord.” Jesus told His disciples that “Elijah has come already, and they did not know him” (Matthew 17:12), meaning John the Baptist was the Elijah prophet for the first advent.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful [or terrible or awesome] day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5, 6). Here again it is predicted that before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, God is going to send to us Elijah the prophet.

Again in the New Testament is predicted that before the coming of Christ in the last days, God’s people are going to have the gift of prophecy. Paul wrote, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:4–9, first part). Notice that the people waiting for Jesus to come will fall short in no gift; the testimony of Christ will be confirmed in them.

It is predicted again in Revelation the 12th chapter that God’s last day people are going to have the gift of prophecy. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring [the remnant of her seed], who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (verse 17). The testimony of Jesus according to Revelation 19:10 is the spirit of prophecy. The dragon according to Revelation 12:9 represents the devil. A woman, all through Bible prophecy, in both the Old and New Testaments, represents a church. A pure woman represents a pure church and a harlot woman represents an apostate church.

Whole books of the Bible have been written with this symbolism; for example, the entire book Song of Solomon is a compacted, symbolic prophecy about Christ and the church. The first part of the book of Hosea is a prophecy concerning Christ and His church that has gone astray and committed harlotry. Ezekiel 23 is devoted to the church, where Israel and Judah are likened to two women who apostatized from the Lord.

The same symbolism is used in the New Testament. Paul said to the Corinthian church, “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste [pure] virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). In Ephesians he again uses the marriage relationship as a symbol of the relationship between Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:25–27). Revelation talks about the bride of the Lamb who has made herself ready for the marriage dressed in fine linen, clean and bright (Revelation 19:7, 8).

In the book of Revelation two women are represented, the harlot woman (Revelation 17) and the pure woman (Revelation 12). It says, “The dragon was enraged with the woman” (Revelation 12:17). Translating these symbols this would read: “The devil was enraged with the church, and he went to make war with the remnant [the last church], who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus [the spirit of prophecy].” According to Bible prophecy, God’s last day people will be a commandment keeping people. In the Hebrew language the fourth commandment with the Sabbath at its heart is the longest commandment of all, with 55 words. James says, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The commandments are not ten laws, but one law.

James makes it clear what law he refers to by quoting the sixth and seventh commandments (James 2:11), and God refers to the ten commandments as one law all by itself (Exodus 24:12). Concerning this ten commandment law, in Deuteronomy 4:13, Moses told the children of Israel: “He [God] declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tables of stone.” The commandments are called God’s covenant. In Psalm 89:34, God says, “My covenant I will not break [profane], nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”

When Jesus was on earth, He made the strongest statement possible about the ten commandments. He said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle (just part of a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the smallest stroke in a Hebrew letter) of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). This was spoken by the One who created the heavens and the earth and upholds them all by the power of His word. (See Hebrews 1:2, 3.) This means the One who has all power and authority would destroy the entire universe before He would allow a part of a letter of His law to fail. How audacious for any created being to think that the law is not important after Jesus makes a statement that strong. It is inconceivable that anyone could try to insult the Lord not only to change part of a letter but to change the longest commandment in the heart of the whole law.

In the book of Joel, it says, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders [signs] in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke [timeroth]” (Joel 2:28–30). The Hebrew word timeroth is smoke that comes up in a column and spreads out like a palm tree, a description befitting an atom bomb explosion. Twenty-five hundred years ago before atom bombs were invented, the Lord knew what would happen in the last days.

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (verse 31). Before Jesus returns, certain things are going to happen, a dark day, blood and fire and columns of smoke like palm trees. But during that time the Lord said He would pour out His Spirit in prophecy. He said your sons and daughters are going to prophesy.

“It shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls” (verse 32). When these things happen there will be deliverance and salvation in Mount Zion. Notice what it says in Isaiah 51:16, last part: “Say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ” Zion is God’s people.

There will be deliverance in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call (Joel 2:28–32). The remnant are the people who keep the commandments of God and have the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). When you determine who these people are, join them, for they have the truth that will open the doors of heaven to you.

“Elijah the prophet” appeared in the person of John the Baptist to prepare a people for the first coming of the Lord. The purpose of the Elijah prophet the second time is to prepare a people for His second coming.

Now is the time to take advantage of the writings of this “Elijah” prophet, the special messenger for the remnant church whose writings will help us be ready for the second coming of Christ.

No one eats a pickup load of food in one day, but over a year, the food you eat would fill that pickup. The same principle applies for spiritual knowledge. By reading just a few pages of spiritual food each morning and night you can easily read 1500 pages in a year. At that rate, in a few years you will have done quite a bit of reading. The more you read, the more you will enjoy the spiritual feast and keep coming back for more and still more.

Every wonderful gift the Lord gives to His people the devil perverts into something many people think is awful. People are often afraid to read the Spirit of Prophecy thinking God just wants to take things away from them, like not being able to eat what they want to eat, or do something they want to do, or wear the kinds of clothes they want to wear, or enjoy their entertainment. But He wants to replace the things that harm with habits that will benefit. Wouldn’t it be best to know now the changes that can be made so we will be fit for a holy atmosphere in heaven when Jesus returns?

Ellen White tells us that if we were to study our Bibles well enough, there would be no need of her writings. Interestingly, the man Elijah did not write any books like Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Elijah told Ahab his purpose: “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:18). Elijah’s purpose was to call people back to worship God and keep His commandments. This was also the purpose of John the Baptist and is the purpose of the writings of Ellen White. Those who despise these writings designed to draw the reader to the word of God actually despise the Bible also because the purpose of each is the same—to prepare a people to meet their Lord.

Jesus told a parable of ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). The Elijah message, to get ready to meet the Lord, must be given before the virgins go out to meet the bridegroom because it was at midnight that the bridegroom came and only the faithful ones who had made the preparation of extra oil went into the banquet hall to the marriage feast.

When the ministry of John the Baptist began, the 70 weeks of Daniel’s prophecy were just about completed. This was to signal the Jews that the Messiah was about to come. The Elijah prophet was not sent to the Romans or the Greeks or the Egyptians; the Elijah prophet was sent to God’s professed people. In the same way, when the Elijah prophet came again, it came to those people who were looking for Christ to come the second time. The Elijah prophet arose among the people who were expecting the Bridegroom to come in the year 1844. God rose up his last day prophet, Ellen G. White.

People want to know if Ellen White passes the Bible test of a prophet because Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets” (Matthew 7:15). Notice, He did not say to beware of all prophets, but of false prophets. The test to see if a person has the true gift of prophecy is found in Isaiah 8:19, 20. It says, “And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums [familiar spirits], and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Care must always be taken that the Scripture is not taken out of context. The Scripture here is not talking simply about preachers or teachers, but the test of a prophet. There are many preachers and teachers today who have still not come to the light of the true Sabbath of the fourth commandment who are preaching truth as they know it. Many of the Protestant reformers in the 16th century were also unaware of the true Sabbath, for they had not yet come to that knowledge. Also, none of those early Protestant reformers, Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, to name a few, claimed to be prophets. The Lord used these faithful preachers to bring great blessings to the people of their time who were seeking for truth.

Isaiah’s test of a prophet is to see by which spirit that person is influenced. A false prophet is one who does not teach according to all the law and the testimony. A human teacher can make mistakes. That does not mean there is no light in what he says. We are given Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy to check out what we hear, and only believe what we find in inspired writings. “Truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is harmonious with itself in all its manifestations.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 258.

A true prophet under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is guided and directed by angels in heaven. Their message never contradicts what has already been established as the word of God. It will be in harmony with the law and the testimony.

Ellen White’s writings do not contradict the Bible. In fact, Ellen White says her work includes much more than that of a prophet. (See Selected Messages, Book 1, 32.) There have been three times that I have known of since the history of the world that God has sent to His people somebody who was more than a prophet. The first time was Moses. The second time was John the Baptist. Jesus said that he is more than a prophet (Matthew 11:9; Luke 7:26). The third time is Ellen White.

The book of Numbers reveals another test. The Lord, speaking to Miriam and Aaron, “Then He said, ‘Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face’ ” (Numbers 12:6–8, first part).

There are only a few cases in the Bible where we have record of the Lord speaking to a prophet in a vision and a dream. The most detailed description in all the Bible of this is Daniel’s vision (Daniel 10:1–17). Daniel said, “How can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me” (verse 17). Daniel asks, How is it possible for me to even be talking to you when there is no breath in me? Here is described the condition of a true prophet while in vision.

The word of any person claiming to be a prophet cannot be accepted unless they have had public visions and dreams that can be documented because of this Bible test. It must be seen that the prophet in a vision be not breathing.

Some experienced divers have trained themselves to hold their breath for a little over 3 minutes. To hold their breath much longer than that would cause you to eventually pass out and could cause brain damage.

Ellen White in vision did not breathe for periods of over 4 hours and many times in public she had visions that lasted up to 30 minutes. In the book, Prophet Of the End, Rene Noorbergen, documents some of these occurrences.

The work of a prophet must bear good fruit. In Matthew chapter 7 verses 15–20, Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous [plundering] wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad [rotten] tree bears bad [evil] fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

We are going through the shaking period in earth’s history and the history of the church. We are told that every wind of doctrine would be blowing. Ellen White has told us that the path of truth will lie so close beside the path of error that only by the Holy Spirit will you be able to tell the difference. When you look in her writings you see a balance which is absolutely astonishing, a balance to keep you from going off on tangents.

The writings of the Spirit of Prophecy produce good fruits in the church. When the members take heed of the counsel therein the church comes into harmony and into unity; it comes into line. The members all follow their great Leader and have the same goals. All kinds of problems in the church are solved.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:1–3).

This is an interesting test. Every single spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God. John goes on to say that this is the way you will know it is the antichrist. The antichrist teaches that Jesus did not come in the flesh. In fact, it teaches that Jesus’ mother Mary was born from an immaculate conception whereby she did not inherit any original sin, therefore Jesus did not inherit any original sin; He was immaculate.

This is a principle teaching of the antichrist and is taught in almost all the Protestant churches. It has even found its way into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But a true prophet will confess that Jesus came in the flesh. Now in the flesh is a technical term that refers to coming in a fallen nature, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8). God sent His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Do not say that He came in sinful flesh, which neither Scripture nor Ellen White believe. The Scripture says, He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but it also says that in Him is no sin (1 John 3:5). A true prophet will teach this. Ellen White does teach this.

I found a book in which one of our pioneers documented over 100 predictions Ellen White made that had already come to pass in his lifetime. Jeremiah said, “When the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent” (Jeremiah 28:9). Ellen White made many predictions some of which are coming to pass today.

The purpose of the Spirit of Prophecy is to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. Our work is to get the three angels’ messages to the world. When they accept it and they have the Spirit of Prophecy, they can become part of God’s last day people.

Ellen White predicted that as we draw close to the end of time, the devil’s temptations on appetite would become more severe and more difficult to overcome. That could not be more apparent today.

In 1973, when I started going to the School of Health at Loma Linda University, we were taught in a basic nutrition class that in the United States at that time, we were having an epidemic of obesity. Our instructor said there was a higher percentage of grossly overweight people in the U.S. than in any other country in the world. In fact, it was so bad that there was slightly over 40 percent of Americans significantly overweight. Today it is far worse, with between 60 to 70 percent overweight. Health practitioners are concerned, knowing that the consequence of this obesity will be the skyrocketing incidents of diabetes, cancer, and all kinds of degenerative disease that could absolutely overload the functioning of the health care delivery system.

We are living in solemn times. We don’t know yet what is going to happen during the time of trouble, but we have been told that unless you are under the Lord’s care, it is going to be more awful than one can imagine. Everything that we think we have in place is going to break down. We’re living in the time just before that time and our only protection is that which comes from the Lord. If we had time to do the research, I believe that we would find thousands of predictions that Ellen White made that have been fulfilled but there are certainly hundreds.

Since World War II, the idea of the fast food industry has developed. Today, with fast food outlets open 24/7, you can eat anything you want any time of the day or night, unlike sixty years ago when restaurants were only open during mealtimes. Now, at 9:30 at night or even later, you often see cars lined up, waiting to get their late evening snack. That snack is not apples or oranges or grapes, but burgers and French fries, the very things that are making our country sick.

We are living in the sickest generation, and it has seriously affected our church. We ought to be preparing for heaven, changing our tastes to a heavenly diet, but many are suffering with preventable diseases the same as those in the world. We are a sick generation.  Ellen White said that if Jesus does not come, the human race would become extinct. Seventh-day Adventists have had the health message for over 150 years, but so few are prepared to put these principles into practice. God’s remnant people are the last people that God will have in this world. Concerning the second advent movement, He says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

At the end of time there will only be two groups of people: the remnant and those in spiritual Babylon. They will either be part of the second advent movement, or they will be in Babylon. The Lord has given us precious truth and it is this knowledge that is designed to get you out of this world. When you tell others about it, it can get them out of this world – alive. Study the overwhelming evidence, for it is precious truth for this last generation, not for us to hold onto jealously, but to share with others.

The world is going to end soon and when everything comes to pass and Jesus returns, I want to be one of the remnant. Do you? “In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2:32).

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Food for Life – Habits of Diet

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My, what a winter this has been! So many records broken and it is still possible that it will continue in the same way. But isn’t this prophecy? Just what does the Spirit of Prophecy say about the last days and what we may expect? In Last Day Events, 18–31, Sister White has chapters entitled Signs in the Heavens, Signs on the Earth, False Prophets, Gluttony and Intemperance, Deeds of Violence, Wars and Disasters, Earthquakes and Floods, Crimes, Famines, and Pestilences. However, despite all that has happened, we know that God has a purpose in all these calamities, and these events are in His hands. We should never fear or be distraught, but look up, for our redemption draweth nigh!

This month, we are going to look at what inspiration has to say about food preparation on the Sabbath day and the importance of temperate eating habits. The following excerpts are taken from The Ministry of Healing, 307–309:

“We should not provide for the Sabbath a more liberal supply or a greater variety of food than for other days. Instead of this the food should be more simple, and less should be eaten in order that the mind may be clear and vigorous to comprehend spiritual things. A clogged stomach means a clogged brain. The most precious words may be heard and not appreciated because the mind is confused by an improper diet. By overeating on the Sabbath, many do more than they think to unfit themselves for receiving the benefit of its sacred opportunities.

“Cooking on the Sabbath should be avoided; but it is not therefore necessary to eat cold food. In cold weather the food prepared the day before should be heated. And let the meals, however simple, be palatable and attractive. Especially in families where there are children, it is well, on the Sabbath, to provide something that will be regarded as a treat, something the family does not have every day.

“Where wrong habits of diet have been indulged, there should be no delay in reform. When dyspepsia has resulted from abuse of the stomach, efforts should be made carefully to preserve the remaining strength of the vital forces by removing every overtaxing burden. The stomach may never entirely recover health after long abuse; but a proper course of diet will save further debility, and many will recover more or less fully. It is not easy to prescribe rules that will meet every case; but, with attention to right principles in eating, great reforms may be made, and the cook need not be continually toiling to tempt the appetite.

“Abstemiousness in diet is rewarded with mental and moral vigor; it also aids in the control of the passions. Overeating is especially harmful to those who are sluggish in temperament; these should eat sparingly and take plenty of physical exercise. There are men and women of excellent natural ability who do not accomplish half what they might if they would exercise self-control in the denial of appetite.

“Many writers and speakers fail here. After eating heartily, they give themselves to sedentary occupations, reading, study, or writing, allowing no time for physical exercise. As a consequence, the free flow of thought and words is checked. They cannot write or speak with the force and intensity necessary in order to reach the heart; their efforts are tame and fruitless.

“Those upon whom rest important responsibilities, those, above all, who are guardians of spiritual interests, should be men of keen feeling and quick perception. More than others, they need to be temperate in eating. Rich and luxurious food should have no place upon their tables.”

Food for Life – Sedentary Workers

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Every day men in positions of trust have decisions to make upon which depend results of great importance. Often they have to think rapidly, and this can be done successfully by those only who practice strict temperance. The mind strengthens under the correct treatment of the physical and mental powers. If the strain is not too great, new vigor comes with every taxation. But often the work of those who have important plans to consider and important decisions to make is affected for evil by the results of improper diet. A disordered stomach produces a disordered, uncertain state of mind. Often it causes irritability, harshness, or injustice. Many a plan that would have been a blessing to the world has been set aside, many unjust, oppressive, even cruel measures have been carried, as the result of diseased conditions due to wrong habits of eating.

“Here is a suggestion for all whose work is sedentary or chiefly mental; let those who have sufficient moral courage and self-control try it: At each meal take only two or three kinds of simple food, and eat no more than is required to satisfy hunger. Take active exercise every day, and see if you do not receive benefit.

“Strong men who are engaged in active physical labor are not compelled to be as careful as to the quantity or quality of their food as are persons of sedentary habits; but even these would have better health if they would practice self-control in eating and drinking.

“Some wish that an exact rule could be prescribed for their diet. They overeat, and then regret it, and so they keep thinking about what they eat and drink. This is not as it should be. One person cannot lay down an exact rule for another. Everyone should exercise reason and self-control, and should act from principle.

“Our bodies are Christ’s purchased possession, and we are not at liberty to do with them as we please. All who understand the laws of health should realize their obligation to obey these laws which God has established in their being. Obedience to the laws of health is to be made a matter of personal duty. We ourselves must suffer the results of violated law. We must individually answer to God for our habits and practices. Therefore the question with us is not, ‘What is the world’s practice?’ but, ‘How shall I as an individual treat the habitation that God has given me?’ ” The Ministry of Healing, 309, 310.

“Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions, and not violate the law of God. Therefore He has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may see our sin in violating the laws which He has established in our being. All our enjoyment or suffering may be traced to obedience or transgression of natural law. Our gracious heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men, who, some knowingly but many ignorantly, are living in violation of the laws that He has established. And in love and pity to the race, He causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes His law, and the penalty that will follow the transgression of it, that all may learn, and be careful to live in harmony with natural law. He proclaims His law so distinctly, and makes it so prominent, that it is like a city set on a hill. All accountable beings can understand it if they will. Idiots will not be responsible. To make plain natural law, and urge the obedience of it, is the work that accompanies the Third Angel’s Message, to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 69.

Food for Life – Diet in the Beginning

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“Among the changing months, May stands confessed the sweetest, and the fairest colors dressed.” James Thomson What a lovely month this is, so full of promise, and so colorful! Just think what Heaven will be like; eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things our God has prepared for us who are faithful in this life!

This month we will be studying from Ministry of Healing, 311–313.

“The diet appointed man in the beginning did not include animal food. Not till after the Flood, when every green thing on the earth had been destroyed, did man receive permission to eat flesh.

“In choosing man’s food in Eden, the Lord showed what was the best diet; in the choice made for Israel He taught the same lesson. He brought the Israelites out of Egypt and undertook their training, that they might be a people for His own possession. Through them He desired to bless and teach the world. He provided them with the food best adapted for this purpose, not flesh, but manna, ‘the bread of heaven.’ It was only because of their discontent and their murmuring for the fleshpots of Egypt that animal food was granted them, and this only for a short time. Its use brought disease and death to thousands. Yet the restriction to a nonflesh diet was never heartily accepted. It continued to be the cause of discontent and murmuring, open or secret, and it was not made permanent.

” Upon their settlement in Canaan, the Israelites were permitted the use of animal food, but under careful restrictions which tended to lessen the evil results.

The use of swine’s flesh was prohibited, as also of other animals and of birds and fish whose flesh was pronounced unclean. Of the meats permitted, the eating of the fat and the blood was strictly forbidden.

“Only such animals could be used for food as were in good condition. No creature that was torn, that had died of itself, or from which the blood had not been carefully drained, could be used as food. “By departing from the plan divinely appointed for their diet, the Israelites suffered great loss. They desired a flesh diet, and they reaped its results. They did not reach God’s ideal of character or fulfill His purpose. The Lord ‘gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.’ Psalm 106:15. They valued the earthly above the spiritual, and the sacred preeminence which was His purpose for them they did not attain.

“Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct, by eating the food that God provided for our use!

“Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. Those who use flesh foods little know what they are eating.

Often if they could see the animals when living and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.”