— Health from a biblical perspective —

Dear Health-minded Reader,

Having grown up on Franken foods and factory fakes, there are at least two generations in our society who are nearly clueless regarding real food, .  Their idea of preparing a meal “from scratch” has no resemblance to grandmom’s definition.  Nor do they seem to understand the relationship between what they eat and drink, and their health.

By the time many turned 4, plaque had already formed in their blood vessels and their body chemistry was being redesigned for the worse by the food industry.  Seeds of sickness, disease and debilitation were springing up to eventually produce their harvest of ill fruit.

We must become informed and take responsibility if we’re to survive and enjoy any semblance of health after age 30.

Factory Food Fallout

Is it making us crazy?

Sad but true

Increasingly, undernourished, sickly, tired and overweight Americans are turning to specialized diets, health foods, supplements and alternative healing modalities for remedies.  Filtered water is now more frequently chosen over the faucet brew and food labels scrutinized as never before.  By the millions, ernest citizens are taking seriously, official counsel and are switching from processed sugar to artificial sweeteners; from regular to decaffeinated coffee; from the standard fare, to low fat and high protein diets.  Many of them now proudly step out into the morning light believing they’re done a good thing for themselves and loved ones.  In truth, they’ve most likely gone from dangerously bad to abysmally worse.  Sad but true — and this describes the aware and still searching part of our society!

Disfunctional brains

Then there’s the majority who don’t even realize there’s a food problem.  They’re the young; the gullible; the always-do-as-the-credentialed-ones and “experts” say, type.  Mixed in are those who’ve lost the ability to think clearly at all because of toxic or undernourished brains.  Poisoned by medications, “recreational” drugs, foul water, toxic drinks and factory food, these unfortunates are more like the living dead.  With their brains no longer functioning as intended, they’ve become fodder for carrot-on-stick advertisers and pill pushers and potion peddlers of every stripe.  They actually believe good health, perfect weight and vitality can be found in a bottle!  They’ve bought into the pill-for-every-ill pap promulgated by the retail media.  Though as sick, underpowered and overweight as the rest — they don’t realize they’re on the high-speed conveyor to death’s door; secure in their ignorance; hapless victims of brain-function impairment.

Of the factors contributing to this health tragedy, let’s look at food and nutrition.

Carol Simontacchi, a certified clinical nutritionist, begins her book1, The Crazy Makers, with these words of introduction: “Food used to be brilliantly colored fruits and vegetables, rich brown grains, milk and butter, lean game meats, and plump fish wrestled from living rivers and oceans.  Food used to be plucked from the garden after a summer of planting, fertilizing, raking and weeding.  It used to have roots deeply imbedded in soil that nearly pulsated with life-forms that enriched the earth.  Food used to feed on tender green plants and drink out of pristine streams that sparkled with life from the sun.
“Food used to be something we ate to give strength to our bodies, to heal us when we were sick, to satisfy an appetite at the end of a day filled with purpose and work.  We ate to satisfy a need that arose from deep within.  We ate when we were hungry, and savored the food that satisfied that hunger.

“Food is different now.  Now, we are sold packages, boxes, artificial flavors, coloring agents and pseudofoods that strip the body and leave the brain poverty-stricken.  The product is colorful and flavorful, but not from natural goodness.  The colors come from a chemist’s beaker, from FD&C Blue #1, Red #40 & Yellow #5, or from cochineal (the female insect, coccus cacti from the West Indies).  The flavor comes from allyl anthranilate or isopulegol or linalyl benzoate or methyl delta-ionone, while gravies are thickened with wood fiber and emulsified by dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate.  While some of these agents have been tested for carcinogenic properties, virtually none have been studied to learn their impacts on brain chemistry.

“Instead of being eaten when we are hungry, food is now consumed to satisfy artificial cravings generated by a brain that isn’t working right and whose receptor sites beg for synthetic stimulation from chemicals.  We eat, but we’re never satisfied.  We’re full, but aren’t contented.”

Simontacchi raises some important questions: what affect do all these food substitutes and chemicals have on our brains and could they, in part,  be responsible for today’s bazaar thinking and aberrant behavior?  Also, how can our bodies cope with the huge doses of salt and sugar so common in factory foods?

A New Jersey mother

It reminds of Lynne Bush’s story as told at our first Bible-based Health Seminar held in Clinton, NJ.  She detailed how changing the family diet not only helped her lose 60 pounds and drop 14 dress sizes, but how it “transformed her children from horrid to heavenly.” According to Lynne, they regularly ate canned, frozen and prepared foods and consumed soft drinks, snacks and the usual junk foods.  Gradually displacing that C.R.A.P. (Caffeine, Refined sugar, flour, etc., Alcohol and Processed foods) with real, live food ­— to her surprise and delight, the kids not only became healthier, but nicer.  Much saner!  Lynne’s story is detailed in her book; Please, buy some bananas! (see insert).

Potassium/sodium balance

Aside from justifiable concerns over the chemical additives in today’s food, a look at the consequences of all the added sodium (salt) will help make the point.  Real food provides several times the amount of potassium as sodium; on average 7 times the amount.  For example; a stalk of celery contains about 1500 mg. against about 35 of sodium.  One cup of Romaine lettuce gives about 160 mg. of potassium and 5 of sodium whereas a large carrot has about 685 mg. of potassium and 75 of sodium.  Well, you get the idea.

This balance is absolutely vital to proper cell function, namely in its ability to generate energy to operate the whole system.  Potassium on the inside of the cell is delicately proportioned against sodium outside in the blood.  The reaction of their oppositely charged ions create an electric current that drives a “cellular pump” to pull nutrients into the cells and to rid the cell of sodium that leaks in.  A cell contains about 1,000,000 pumps and can move 200 million sodium ions/second2.  The resultant electrical energy (ATP) runs the body, namely the nervous system.  If the potassium-sodium ratio tips toward the latter, it can create a host of problems from heart arrhythmia, enzyme utilization, muscle and other nerve related functions.

So, does factory food give us the 7:1 ratio between potassium and sodium needed for proper cell function?  Not according to Simontaccchi.  Half of a Celeste frozen pepperoni pizza contains 2000 mg. of sodium and only 600 of potassium.  One serving of Stouffer’s Chicken Divan entree has over 800 mg. of sodium and 400 of potassium.  “Sodium loading begins in early childhood with the Oscar Meyer Lunchables and the Campbell’s soup preparations designed for young children, continues through the teenage years with french fries, McDonald’s and Burger King hamburgers, and potato chips.  Foods designed for children and teenagers are loaded with sodium.”

In summary

Today’s factory food is made to look like the real thing but is as different as a hologram is from the original — it looks good but is devoid of substance.  Worse yet, the fake stuff is composed of substances harmful to health and the incidental nutrients are often in the wrong quantity and/or combinations.  Although the blood-brain barrier affords our brain protection from bacteria and viruses invading the bloodstream, it may not be able to guard against some of today’s toxic food additives or combinations thereof.  Nor can this barrier shield the brain from malnutrition — the sure result of regularly eating today’s factory foods and substances.

The safest and wisest course of action for anyone interested in preserving their health is to go back to the most natural, unprocessed food and pure water they can acquire and  to stay away from the fake stuff.

1. The Crazy Makers; Carol Simontacchi - Isbn 1-58542-104-9
2. ibid

— Letters from readers —

Question:  If I have an excellent diet, do I still need to take food supplements? “Excellent” meaning, the finest quality plant-based, organic food with plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and veggie juices, along with lots of pure water. — Clinton, NJ

Answer: Most probably; yes.  If we lived in a perfect world with perfect food and perfect health, supplements wouldn’t be necessary — but that’s hardly the case.  Organic and excellent food may fall far short of supplying all 45 nutrients our bodies consistently need to maintain good health.  Valuable as the organic label is, it provides no assurance the soil in which produce is grown contains all the constituents needed.  Depleted soil cannot supply that which is absent; then there’s the matter of nutrient deterioration of food from farm to home, with enzymes being especially perishable.

Food supplementation is also needed  because of the state of our health.  Even at 20 years old it’s a fair bet our digestive, assimilation and elimination functions are impaired.  If we are over 30, it’s almost a certainty.  Moreover,  if we’re old enough to remember “Slick Willy’s” first inauguration, disease is likely under way, even if symptoms are not yet manifest.  Nutritionally, most of us need to go beyond a maintenance diet to a therapeutic one to first arrest sickness and disease.  Then we should go further yet to have surplus energy needed for the body to rebuild damage done earlier.  This requires efficient, positive energy, nutrient-dense food plus wise supplementation (antioxidants, probiotics, digestive enzymes, green drinks, etc). — ed.

Disclaimer: The Hallelujah Health NEWS newsletter emphasizes nutrition-related health issues, to educate, encourage and provide lifestyle information.  There is no intent to diagnose, treat, prescribe for, cure or prevent disease.  The author or publisher assumes no responsibility for the use or effects of said information.  Hallelujah Health NEWS is a free public educational service, solely to promote a healthier lifestyle.

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