This is the second in a series of blogs about food and our diet and the impact it has on our health. Each week I want to start with the definition of food, as that is the foundational subject around this series of blogs. I also want to give you “food for thought” – common sense realities and truths to ponder each week. Last week we started off with breaking down the different nutrient types and defining them a little bit.
Definition of Food
Food: substance consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to furnish energy. The absorption and utilization of food by the body is fundamental to nutrition and is facilitated by digestion. (Britannica)
Food: material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy (Merriam Webster).
Function and purpose of food: …to sustain growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy.
We have found ourselves so far down a path of myths and deceptions when it comes to our health, the foods we eat, and our reasons for doing so, that we have lost sight of common sense and why we are supposed to even be eating.
I would like to also point out that God is the creator of all things. He is the creator of man, He is the creator of the earth and everything from it, and He is the creator of all real foods on this planet – plants, seeds, even the animals – and He created them specifically for our sustenance. So far so good? Now, while each and every one of us is made in His image, He also created each and every one of us totally unique from any other human being on this earth. With this in mind, the food that He created for every single one of us to sustain us, and for the repair and vital processes to furnish us with energy, does not mean that we are each to consume the exact same foods, every day, in the exact same quantities, at the exact same time every day. It’s our uniqueness that determines what each of our individual, unique bodies need, at any given point in our lives. But the fact that He created real food for us is our commonality.
The Theory of Genetics
It has become common practice, especially stemming from the conventional medicine world, that the majority of our chronic degenerative diseases have nothing to do with the food-like-substances we put into our bodies, but has everything to do with genetics. Your mom had diabetes, your grandmother had diabetes, your great grandmother had diabetes and you too are just doomed to have diabetes. There is nothing you can do about it except to take this magic prescriptive pill for the rest of your life. Once you have been diagnosed with it, you are doomed. And oh, by the way, “don’t worry about what you eat or don’t eat, it won’t make any difference because it’s genetic. Nothing you can do will change this – no exercise, no eating healthy and avoiding processed sugars – nothing, so don’t even try.”
Sound familiar? Not only is this the lie we have been fed for decades now, it has also become our license to not take authority, and responsibility with our health. In fact, at times, it even seems to become an individual’s badge of honor that they are now able to carry on the family tradition. And let’s not stop there, let’s start passing this theory onto our children, and our grandchildren – primarily through our examples and the words we speak.
If this theory of genetics were true, would it not stand to reason that every single person in you family lineage would have diabetes? How did that one person in your family avoid it? Could it be that they were the odd one with a gene mutation? Would that explain it? No, it wouldn’t.
Now, there certainly can be family tendencies because these are learned behaviors. You learned to cook like mom learned to cook. And she learned to cook like her mother before her. It might even be a cultural thing – you live in the south and so you swap recipes with your southern neighbors and friends, and these recipes keep being passed down. Your ethnicity could have influence – you are Italian, and your family has always eaten the pastas and breads. Or your heritage is Hispanic and meals always were accompanied by floured tortillas. Your culture might even revolve around food – let’s take the Christian church for example – especially here in the south – every little celebration revolves around food, and nothing healthy is laid out on the buffet table.And of course, sugary desserts accompany every meal regardless of where you live or your ethnic background.
But food, in and of itself is not necessarily the bad guy. Especially if it is the food that God created for us to consume. In fact, food can be a wonderful component to being involved in community and family. Where the problem lies, is in the kind of food we are consuming.
The Theory of Lifestyle – Our Diet in Particular
If it’s not genetic, then what is it? If God is always good, and He is. And if He only ever wants the very best for us, and He does. And if He created the food of the earth for us, and He did. Then why are we still sick? One, we live in a fallen, sinful world. The only thing that is perfect is God. But let’s set that aside for a moment and let’s work with what we’ve got.
There are all kinds of “diets” out there, and even Christians with differing views of what we should or shouldn’t eat according to the Bible, have their differing views. The point of these blogs is to not look at what we should or shouldn’t eat from a “sin” perspective. This is not about stating that you are sinning if you eat meat, or if you drink wine, (make this a pull quote)or any of the many other debatable views. The point of this, and the following blogs is simply about common sense and truth – both of which God gave us as well. Why something is healthy or not is what we will be discussing here.
Going on the theory that it’s not genetic but diet that causes us to be plagued with the many chronic and degenerative diseases, let’s break it down a little more.
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What is Real Food?
Going back to our definition of food – and the function of it in particular — “…to sustain growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy.” It’s the plants, grains, seeds, and the edible parts of fish, fowl and animals, including eggs that provide the functions the body needs for good health. Food consists of things made by God, not man, that sustains growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy for our bodies. Let’s just keep it simple. But unfortunately, where the health of our bodies starts to break down, is when we consume these foods, over time, that have been altered by man. It’s what we are primarily exposed to, otherwise known as conventionally raised and grown. And in that is where a big problem lies.
Conventionally Grown
You most likely have heard the term “genetically modified organism” or GMO for short. It’s food that has been altered, by man, from its original form – the form God created – to make foods bigger, and grown faster, under the guise of “feeding more people – the starving populations in the far corners of the world.” In addition to altering the seed, and retaining it for a monopoly on the seed so it cannot naturally multiply as it was designed by God to do, (think seedless foods), they also spray these foods with highly toxic herbicides and pesticides, made from none other than the drug companies, of course. We will delve deeper into the difference between conventionally grown and organically grown in another blog, but for now, here is the most important take-away from this: foods that are grown to be made bigger and faster, also make us bigger, faster. And the pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones and antibiotics that contaminate the food sources, are highly toxic and are also contaminating our bodies to a point that our body cannot eliminate these toxic substances like it is made to do.
Organically Grown
Organic food is simply food in its natural form, the way God intended and created it. Not monkeyed with by man. It’s just real food. Unfortunately, the United States is the only country in the world that makes organic farmers identify organic food as such. Making it appear as though something greater has been done to it, and therefore more expensive, so that only “rich” people can afford it and eat it. This could not be further from the truth. In other countries, foods need to be identified as genetically modified if they have been. But not in this country. We have the big agricultural businesses and their collaboration with our government and the pharmaceutical industry to thank for this, not the organic farmer.
What are Packaged and Processed Foods?
And then there are the packaged and processed foods that do not fit the definition of “food” in any way, shape or form, and yet we have become so accustomed to these products being called food, we are deceived into believing that at times they are actually “healthy” and “nutritious” for us. And this could not be any further from the truth. And it’s here, in these two deep deceptions: GMO foods and packaged & processed foods, that the root cause of our chronic and degenerative diseases lies. Not in our genes, but in the downright lies we have been fed, the deceptions we have bought into, and the choices we make of what we are putting into our mouths and our bodies every single day, day in and day out, for years on end.
In Summary
We will delve deeper into all of this in the coming weeks. I just want to lay out the foundational basics of truth so that you don’t get lost in the details of semantics – after all, the devil is in the details.
For now, know that the chronic degenerative diseases that are plaguing our country, including our children are not due to “genetics.” The problem lies largely, in part, to the food-like-substances we are consuming under the guise of “food.” We just need to remember what the real definition of food is and have that as our north star.
The good news is, your health IS in your control. You do not have to be plagued with these diseases for the rest of your life. And the best news is – when you take authority with your health, you begin to walk in freedom!
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