Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
How many of you enjoy being sick? That's a stupid question, isn't it? Nobody enjoys being sick, everyone wants to be healthy. But do they want health enough to do something about it? I want to share with you today some things you can do to live a healthier life.
Does God care what we eat? We don't live under the Old Covenant, and we have no dietary restrictions, but does that mean that we should eat whatever we want? Should the fact that our body is God's temple cause us to be careful of what we put into it?
There is no prohibition in the Bible about ingesting paint thinner, but I don't think any of you would do it, because you know that it will destroy your body/God's temple. Are the things that we eat today destroying our bodies?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
In it's context, these verses are dealing with sexual immorality, but the principle they present is much broader. Our body is God's temple. Do you treat your body like the dwelling place of God? When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, your body became His home. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul called the church "the corporate body of believers, the temple of God." But here the reference is to the individual believer's body.
May I remind you that because our body is His temple it is His possession, that is what Paul emphasizes in the end of verse 19, "and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price" That price is the blood of Jesus Christ, he died for you, he paid your sin debt. He createdus for Himself, but our sin separated us from Him, then he purchased us with His blood. He literally bought back what belonged to Him.
Your body is his, we are living in rented quarters. Our bodies are His possession to do with as he pleases. "You are not your own" - do you live with that truth? Why do you do the things you do? Most often it's to please ourselves. We have no right to take our body that is simply loaned to us, and use it in a way that would defile it or displease Him. The body is to be dedicated to the Lord.
Do you think that "glorifying God in our body" would include not damaging it by what we eat? Most Christians would cry out against people using cigarettes, because of the damage they do to the body. But what about all the other things we put into out bodies that harm them?
Most Christians take better care of their homes, lawns, and cars than they do their bodies. Let's say that a Christian that we knew was slowly poisoning themselves with arsenic. As they continued to get sicker and sicker, they would constantly request prayer for their ill condition. How would you respond to their prayer request? You might say, "You idiot, you're poisoning yourself, and then complaining that you don't feel good." This may be an extreme illustration, but I think it illustrates the point. We can't keep putting things into our bodies that are harmful for them, and then asking God to make us healthy. If you want to be healthy, stop eating things that are harmful to you.
FIVE THINGS THAT HARM OUR HEALTH
The Page Institute in Tampa, Florida, teaches that in order to live healthy, we need to remove five white foods from our diet, and to switch to a raw vegetarian / fruitarian diet.
What are the five white foods that cause most of our physical problems? I will list them, starting with the most dangerous substance we put into our body - MEAT!
MEAT contains white fat! We have not been told the truth by the meat, dairy and egg industries! And it is these very industries that provide the educational material for our public schools and even for the American Medical Association and American Dietetic Association. For years, the meat, dairy and egg industries, our doctors, and most nutritionists have told us that we need meat, milk and eggs for protein and strength.
The average American meat eater puts over 50 pounds of fat (cholesterol) into their body per year! This fat clogs the arteries, ultimately causing the heart attacks and strokes that will kill approximately 50 percent of our population.
Meat is also the culprit in causing colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and other forms of cancer. Cancer is responsible for 33 percent of American deaths.
And meat is the primary cause of adult-onset diabetes, which kills 9 percent of our population. Meat also causes gout and arthritis and a host of other physical problems.
THE MYTH OF PROTEIN:
We are told that we need meat for protein and strength, but we are not told that the cooking of meat changes the molecular structure of the protein and renders the protein in meat unusable by the body. If we look to nature, we will find that there is not a single animal in the wild that cooksthe flesh it eats!
Modern research has shown that most people have more to be concerned about medical problems caused by consuming too much protein, rather than not getting enough. Protein is an extremely important nutrient, but when we get too much protein, or protein that we cannot digest, it causes problems. In Your Health, Your Choice, Dr. Ted Morter, Jr. warns, "In our society, one of the principle sources of physiological toxins is too much protein."
It may come as quite a shock to people trying to consume as much protein as possible to read in major medical journals and scientific reports that excess protein has been found to promote the growth of cancer cells, and can cause liver and kidney disorders, digestive problems, gout, arthritis, calcium deficiencies (including osteoporosis) and other harmful mineral imbalances.
It has been known for decades that populations consuming high-protein, meat-based diets have higher cancer rates and lower life-spans (averaging as low as 30 to 40 years), compared to cultures subsisting on low-protein vegetarian diets (with average life-spans as high as 90 to 100 years).
Numerous studies have found that animals and humans subjected to high-protein diets have consistently developed higher rates of cancer. As for humans, T. Colin Campbell, a Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and the senior science advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research, says, "There is a strong correlation between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate, pancreas and colon."
Dr. Willard Visek, Professor of Clinical Sciences at the University of Illinois Medical School, warns, "A high protein diet also breaks down the pancreas and lowers resistance to cancer as well as contributes to the development of diabetes."
Because much of what experts once believed about protein has been proven incorrect, U.S. government recommendations on daily protein consumption have been reduced from 118 grams to 46 to 56 grams in the 1980's to the present level of 25 to 35 grams. Many nutritionists now feel that 20 grams of protein a day is more than enough, and warn about the potential dangers of consistently consuming much more than this amount. The average American consumes a little over 100 grams of protein per day.
To illustrate how ignorant "experts" can be, during the time that high-protein diets were thought to be healthy, many experts felt it was a mistake of nature that human females produced breast milk of only 5 percent protein.
One of the easiest ways to dispel the theory that meat is required for strength is to look at the animal kingdom. It is herbivores, such as cattle, oxen, horses and elephants, that have been known for strength and endurance. What carnivore has ever had the strength or endurance to be used as a beast of burden? The strongest animal on earth, for its size, is the silver-back gorilla, which is three times the size of man, but has 30 times our strength. These gorillas "eat nothing but fruit and bamboo leaves and can turn your car over if they want to," the Diamonds note in Living Health. It would be hard to argue that anyone needs meat for strength.
And all protein ultimately comes from plants. The question is whether we get this protein directly from plants, or whether we try to get it secondhand from animals who have gotten it from plants.
Someone in America suffers a heart attack every 25 seconds. Someone in America dies from a heart attack every 45 seconds. Most common cause of death in America: heart attack. Risk of having a heart attack by average American: 50 percent. Risk of having a heart attack by average American vegetarian: less than 4 percent.
Now, some of you might be thinking that in the Bible God allowed men to eat meat. This is true.
Genesis 9:3 (NKJV) "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
For around 2,000 years man ate only vegetables and fruit, and most likely raw (Genesis 1:29). But after the flood, God permitted man to eat meat. Let me say two things about this change; first of all it was at this time that man's life span went from an average of 900 years to under 100 years.
Was this shortening of man's life span due to the fact that he was now eating meat? I don't know for sure, but you have to at least admit that that is a possibility.
Secondly, the meat in Bible days, and the meat our forefathers ate was a totally different animal!"The meat in Bible days, and the meat our forefathers ate was only about 3 percent fat. Beef, the way it is grown today, is 20 to 30 percent fat, while pork is 40 to 60 percent fat! Nor was the meat our forefathers ate full of antibiotics, growth hormones, preservatives, and toxins!
The effect growth hormones are having on the youth of America is producing a social tragedy. This one may shock you. In the year 1950, the age of puberty for a young lady was around age 16 to 17. But something happened during the 1950's that has had a devastating effect on our young people - they started feeding animals growth hormones to make them ready for market sooner - and "fast food" restaurants came on the scene.
Because of these growth hormones and the increased consumption of meat by American youth, due to its easy availability through fast food restaurants, the age of puberty in the past 40 years has dropped from age 16-17 to age 10-11! This capability to reproduce is coming much too early in life, and the young people are not mature enough mentally or emotionally to handle it. This is creating monumental problems for our youth, their parents, and society as a whole. These growth hormones have also found their way into our milk and dairy products.
Remember, our body is His temple. Are you being a good steward of your temple?
DAIRY is the second most dangerous substance we can put into our bodies for many of the same reasons.
In American society, one of the most sacred of all sacred cows is the milk of the cow itself. Cow's milk is more American than apple pie, but that's because apple pie doesn't have Congressional lobbyists and a multi-million dollar advertising budget. Most parents wouldn't think of raising their children without the benefit of cow's milk to help their little bones to grow big and strong. Its silky, white texture is the very epitome of our concept of wholesome purity.
Cow's milk is promoted as the "perfect food" for humans, and especially for our children. This advertising has put such a strong emphasis on the health of our children that some people view milk commercials as more of a public service announcement than an attempt to sell a product. These ads have told us "Milk is a Natural," "Everybody Needs Milk," "Milk is the Perfect Food," etc. This advertising has served its purpose well, because the average American consumes 375 pounds of dairy products a year. One out of every seven dollars spent on groceries in the U.S. goes to buy dairy products.
Despite what the dairy industry has led us to believe, many medical doctors and nutritionists are now saying that cow's milk is not healthy for human consumption, and that it can lead to many serious diseases. When you look at the credentials of the doctors making these statements, it would be hard for the dairy industry to accuse these physicians of being on the lunatic fringe of the medical world.
Frank Oski, M.D., author of Don't Drink Your Milk!, is the Director of the Department of Pediatrics of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 19 medical textbooks and has written 290 medical manuscripts.
In the first chapter of his book, Dr. Oski states:
The fact is: the drinking of cow milk has been linked to iron-deficiency anemia in infants and children; it has been named as the cause of cramps and diarrhea in much of the world's population, and the cause of multiple forms of allergy as well; and the possibility has been raised that it may play a central role in the origins of atherosclerosis and heart attacks.
Dr. Oski comments, "Being against cow milk is equated with being un-American," but still he notes:
Among physicians, so much concern has been voiced about the potential hazards of cow milk that the Committee on Nutrition of the prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics, the institutional voice of practicing pediatricians, released a report entitled, 'Should Milk Drinking by Children Be Discouraged?' Although the Academy's answer to this question has been a qualified 'maybe,' the fact that the question was raised at all is testimony to the growing concern about this product, which for so long was viewed as sacred as the proverbial goodness of mother and apple pie.
When Washington D.C.-based pediatrician Dr. Russell Bunai, was asked what single change in the American diet would produce the greatest health benefit, his answer was, "Eliminating dairy products."
Dr. Oski cites:
A study of over twenty thousand infants conducted in Chicago as far back as the 1930s. The overall death rate for the babies raised on human milk was 1.5 deaths per 1,000 infants while the death rate in the babies fed cow milk was 84.7 per 1,000 during the first nine months of life. The death rate from gastrointestinal infections was forty times higher in the non-breast-fed infants, while the death rate from respiratory infections was 120 times higher. An earlier analysis involving infants in eight American cities showed similar results. Infants fed on cow milk had a twenty times greater chance of dying during the first six months of life.
But don't we need to drink milk to get calcium? No! The best way to add calcium to your diet is to eat more fresh green vegetables. Cow's milk is high in calcium, but Dr. Ellis explains, "The problem is that it is in a form that cannot be assimilated very well by humans." Dr. Ellis states, "Thousands and thousands of blood tests I've conducted show that people who drink 3 or 4 glasses of milk a day invariably had the lowest levels of blood calcium."
Our pervasive dairy advertising has led to one of the most commonly held, and solidly disproved, fallacies about bones, which is that the best way to build strong bones is to increase calcium consumption by drinking plenty of milk (commercial with the old men fighting). Actually, the consensus among leading medical researchers is that the best way for most people to increase their calcium level and strengthen their bones is to reduce their protein intake, and specifically to reduce consumption of animal products. Research has conclusively shown we can do more to increase the calcium level in our bones by reducing protein intake than by increasing calcium intake. The reason is that animal products and other sources of high protein are very acidic, and the blood stream must balance this acidic condition by absorbing alkaline minerals, such as calcium from the bone structure. Thus, numerous studies, including those published in the Aug. 22, 1984 Medical Tribune and the March 1983 Journal of Clinical Nutrition, have found that vegetarians have much stronger bones than meat-eaters. Indeed, the Journal of Clinical Nutrition article found that by age 65, meat-eaters had five to six times as much measurable bone loss as vegetarians.
We are told milk is the perfect food, and needed for calcium. But we are not told that the pasteurizing of milk (heating it to temperatures of 160 degrees or higher) changes the calcium to an inorganic form, which cannot be assimilated by the body.
In nature, no animal drinks the milk of another species, nor does it ever drink milk after the age of weaning. The only source of bad cholesterol (LDL) is animal products! ANIMAL PRODUCTS ARE NOT GOOD FOOD!!! They do much more harm to your body, God's temple, then they do good.
SALT is another white substance that creates untold physical problems and suffering. The body needs sodium, but it must be in an organic form in order to be usable by the body. Table salt, sodium chloride, is an inorganic sodium compound, formed by the union of sodium and chlorine, that is extremely toxic to the body, causing it to retain fluid in an effort to keep this protoplasmic poison in suspension and out of the cells.
SUGAR is the fourth white substance creating our physical problems. Sugar is so changed and concentrated from its original plant form that it is actually a drug! Dr. George Malkmus of Hallelujah Acres says, "Just 10 teaspoons (approximately the amount found in one soft drink) will immobilize the immune system by about 33 percent. Approximately 30 teaspoons of sugar will shut down the immune system for a whole day."
WHITE FLOUR is the fifth white substance that creates physical problems. Let's take a look at white bread: The miller takes the living grain of wheat and removes the outer shell called the bran (fiber), and it is either thrown away or sold in a health food store. Then he removes the germ (which contains all the nutrients) because it gums up his machinery. The germ also is often sold in a health food store. Then he takes what is left, which is called the endosperm, and grinds it into fine powder. But this powder is not pure white, so he bleaches it, often with a bleaching agent similar to Clorox. Now the flour is ready for baking. - but it contains zero fiber and zero nutrition! Knowing the public will not buy a product that does not have at least some nutritive values posted on its wrapper, the bread maker puts into this fiberless, nutritionally-void substance, some artificial, coal-tar derived, vitamins and minerals which have been known to cause cancer. Now he can label it "enriched" and pass it on to the unsuspecting public as something that is supposed to be good food. Yet there is still no fiber and no real nutrition! And it is this type of so-called food, we put into our body / temples. On top of that, there are other poisons added to that loaf of bread - sugar, salt, dough conditioners, preservatives, etc. White flour is not good food... in fact it is hazardous to your health!
WHAT'S LEFT? If we eliminate all these things from our diet, what's left to eat? It could be that the ideal diet for man is raw fruits and vegetables, which was God's original diet for man.
Genesis 1:29 (NKJV) And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
When God created man, He made no mistakes! In the beginning, everything God made was perfect, from placing the earth in proper orbit around the sun (not too close lest we burn up and not too far lest we freeze). To the percentage of oxygen which was just right to sustain life. Even the food supply (fruits and vegetables) - It was all there in perfection. 'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.' (Genesis 1:31)
Dr. Max Gerson developed a diet in 1919 to eliminate his own migraine headaches. He later learned that this diet not only eliminated migraine headaches, but most other physical problems as well, including diabetes, arthritis and even terminal cancers. The diet is very low in fat, protein and grain products, while using large amounts of fresh, raw vegetable juices and other raw foods. The results they are getting - even with terminal illnesses - is spectacular. The important fact that you must get here is the word "raw".
One of the best-known studies of raw versus cooked foods with animals was a 10-year research project conducted by Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, using 900 cats. His study was published in 1946 in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Oral Surgery. Dr. Pottenger fed all 900 cats the same food, with the only difference being that one group received it raw, while the others received it cooked.
The results dramatically revealed the advantages of raw foods over a cooked diet. Cats that were fed raw, living food produced healthy kittens year after year with no ill health or pre-mature deaths. But cats fed the same food, only cooked, developed heart disease, cancer, kidney and thyroid disease, pneumonia, paralysis, loss of teeth, arthritis, birthing difficulties, diminished sexual interest, diarrhea, irritability, liver problems and osteoporosis (the same diseases common in our human cooked-food culture). The first generation of kittens from cats fed cooked food were sick and abnormal, the second generation were often born diseased or dead, and by the third generation, the mothers were sterile.
Much of the same pattern can be shown in humans. In his 1988 book, Improving on Pritikin,Ross Horne notes:
There is an association between the cooking and processing of food and the incidence of cancer, and conversely, it is a fact that cancer patients make the best recoveries on completely raw vegetarian food. This shows that when vital organs are at their lowest state of function, only raw foods make it possible for them to provide the body chemistry to maintain health. It follows then, that if raw food permits an otherwise ruined body to restore itself to health, so must raw food provide the maximum benefit to anybody - sick or well.
Dr. Norman Walker was seriously ill in his early 40s, but healed himself with the juices of raw vegetables, and lived to be over 100 years old, writing his last book when he had passed the century mark. And since the 1920s, the Gerson Therapy, developed by Dr. Max Gerson, has obtained results with fresh vegetable juices that have been unparalleled by orthodox medical practice. "Incurable" diseases are being healed at the Gerson Clinic, such as lung cancer, spreading melanoma, lymphoma, bone cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, severe asthma, emphysema, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, lupus, and more.
So, whether you consider scientific analysis or real-life experience, there is strong evidence of the superiority of raw protein over cooked protein. Scientific analysis of the distinction between the life and death of atoms that become the building blocks of our bodies, the denaturing of protein and the mutagens caused by cooking protein helps to explain personal experiences of the many medical problems caused by excessive amounts of indigestible, cooked protein, as well as the great results people have seen by switching to a raw foods diet.
Many people today believe they can dump anything they want into their bodies, and that this garbage has nothing to do with their physical well-being. Sickness, for the most part, is the result of unhealthy living, and if health is to be restored, we must remove the causes of the illness and supply the conditions for health. Healing is a normal biological process programmed into our DNA, but to make it happen, we must remove the causes of our physical problems. No true healing can take place without first removing the cause, and then providing the body with its simple, basic needs so it can restore itself.
All food, as found in nature, is RAW, and consists of the same basic three elements: (1) naturally distilled water, (2) roughage or fiber, and (3) nutrients. The purest water known to man is found in raw fruits and vegetables, and water constitutes approximately 70% of our body. Roughage is necessary to keep the colon clean and functioning properly, while the lack of it causes constipation. Nutrients make up the smallest part of plant life, but when received into our body in raw natural form, provide all we need to be properly nourished. This is just as true in man as with the rest of the animal kingdom.
Take a look at the physical condition and health of the animals in the wild, feeding on natural raw nutrients as provided by God. Then look at the physical condition and health of man trying to live on tampered and altered food, and you tell me who is the smartest, and who has the most common sense - the donkey who eats the raw grass or the man who eats cooked, artificial, poisoned foods and synthetic vitamin, mineral and protein supplements. Man is foolish to cast doubt on God's eternal wisdom. Every step man takes away from providing the human body with nutrition in its natural, living form is a step toward disease and an early grave.
In his book, The Golden Seven Plus One, Dr. C. Samuel West writes: "The laws of nature are the laws of God. Nature is no respecter of persons. No matter how righteous a person is, if he breaks the mental, nutritional or physical laws of health, he will cause his own destruction."
Dr. Mary Ruth Swope writes:
If it could be expected that all scientists in the world agreed on a single fact, I believe they would agree... 'Life begins, is maintained and ends at the cellular level.' The health of a single cell holds the key to the health of the whole organism. Cells made strong through good nutrition will go a long way in giving you an immune system that will resist the illnesses so prevalent in our society.
Healthy cells require healthy food. Healthy food is food eaten just as close to the way God made it as possible... and that means RAW!!! Every step in the processing of food takes it further from the way God intended the body cells of man to be nourished, and this includes the cooking of food! Man is the only member of the animal kingdom that destroys his food before he eats it!
God built into man's body a line of defense to protect him from being destroyed by an unfriendly environment. The body's defenses are skin, mucous membranes, friendly bacteria, tear glands, fever, lymphatic system, fighter cells, and the immune system. The immune system contains about a trillion cells called "lymphocytes" and about 100 trillion molecules called "antibodies". These cells provide protection against all microscopic enemies seeking to enter the body. We build our immune system by eating raw food and drinking the juices of raw vegetables!!!We immobilize our immune system by putting harmful substances into our body! For example; white table sugar which paralyzes the immune system. High fat intake seriously impairs the immune system's functioning, as does white table salt. Caffeine suppresses the immune system by upsetting the delicate mineral balance, which deprives the immune system of essential minerals. All drugs and pain killers adversely affect the immune system - even aspirin.
Almost all sickness and disease can be corrected by simply cleansing the body of toxins, and providing the cells with the proper building materials. The sickness will usually disappear as the body rebuilds itself! The cause and cure of sickness is not a mystery - it is simply a matter of cause and effect! And the quickest way to restore the body to wellness is by consuming large amounts of raw vegetable juices
Even after we have abused our bodies and experienced physical breakdown, the physical problems will usually disappear if we will simply change to a proper diet and lifestyle!
And that is where the juicing comes in! Because drinking the freshly-extracted juices of vegetables is the fastest way to obtain the nutrients necessary to restore the human body to wellness.
Raw vegetables are the perfect source of nutrition, but eating raw vegetables is not the best way to obtain this nutrition. Compare the benefits of eating raw vegetables versus juicing raw vegetables: When you eat a raw carrot, you must first chew it and digest it. Even if we chew well, this is a less-than-perfect process of breaking down nutrients to make them available at the cellular level. Digestion takes energy, which means part of the energy you are getting from the carrot must be used up to get it. And digestion takes time, which leads to some deterioration of nutrients. And the sicker a person is, the more likely it is that his or her digestive system is not functioning well enough to assimilate raw vegetables.
So, the obvious solution is to juice the raw vegetables. With the pulp or fiber removed, the nutrients do not have to go through the long and energy-consuming process of digestion. This allows the nutrients to pass directly into the blood stream. It is almost like intravenous feeding! Within minutes, these nutrients are feeding the cells and restoring the immune system.
Unlike drugs, which are a foreign substance to the body, these nutrients work with the body to invigorate its own healing capabilities. The juices themselves do not heal! But what they do is provide the body with concentrated building material so that the body can heal itself! And the first part of the body that will restore when given proper nutrients is the immune system. As the immune system restores, it starts expelling poisons within the body and seeking out the trouble spots to heal them.
THE KEYS TO A HEALTHY LIFE ARE:
1. PROPER NUTRITION.
2. ADEQUATE EXERCISE.
So how do we change things? Where do we start?
1. START BY EATING RAW FOODS! Eating living (raw) foods is really the starting point. Living foods will start to normalize body weight and increase our energy. Drink plenty of fresh vegetable juice.
2. THE NEXT THING WE NEED TO DO IS TO START EXERCISING, AND THE BEST WAY TO ACCOMPLISH THAT IS TO JUST START WALKING. Most people can at least do that much, and it can provide wonderful benefits. The minimum amount of aerobic exercise recommended is 20 minutes every other day. If you exercise everyday, along with improving your diet, it will change your life and quite possibly save it.
Exercise, in addition to providing oxygen to the body cells, also causes a flushing of the veins and arteries. This removes obstructions to the free flow of blood. As the arteries and veins become clearer and the oxygen supply entering the lungs increases, an increased amount of oxygen is transferred to the blood for dispersal. This oxygen-rich blood is then carried to the cells throughout the body. When the cells receive this increase in oxygen, they become energized and start vigorously cleaning house, rebuilding and rejuvenating the cells. As healthier cells are produced, they throw off debris and toxic wastes. An increased level of exercise is necessary to carry off this garbage for removal from the body. Couple this with a proper diet, and it doesn't take long before we start to feel better.
Most of this material was obtained from the ministry of Hallelujah Acres. Their web site contains much valuable material.
What is your health worth to you? You can't buy health, but you can have it by eating right and exercising.
Media #133