“God has set eternity in the hearts of men…” Ecclesiastes
3:11
Don’t we all love a good story about immortality? The
Elves, of Lord of the Rings, who
lived hundreds or thousands of years, fascinate us with their depth of wisdom
and their ageless beauty and strength.
Then there’s the Highlander
TV series (of the 1990s)about a race of immortals who spend their time hunting
each other down and cutting off their heads. The newest installation in this
genre is Forever, a story about a
medical examiner who reemerges in the Hudson river every time he gets killed.
We seem to have an obsession about living forever, in
spite of the fact that most people, if questioned about it, will tell you they
wouldn’t want to. What about you?
According to the Bible, humans did in fact used to live
very long lives. Adam, the first human, is recorded to have lived 930 years
(Genesis 5:5). In fact, all the people recorded in Genesis prior to the Great
Flood lived hundreds of years—the oldest being Methuselah, who died the year of
the Flood at 969 years of age (Genesis 5:27).
The aging process didn’t seem to change significantly
until after the Flood. Prior to the Flood, we were all vegetarians. It wasn’t
until after the Flood that God gave us meat as an acceptable food (Genesis
9:3). Furthermore, in the end, we will again be vegetarians, according to
Scripture: “The wolf and the lamb will
feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox…” (Isaiah 65:25). If the
lion and the wolf are eating vegetation, you can be sure that humans will too. But
in between the Beginning and the End, we have leave to eat anything we want…as
far as God’s concerned, at least. And we shouldn't consider any kind of food that He has made and given to us as being wrong to eat (Acts 10:15).
We have lots of choices and lots and lots of
“experts” telling us what is healthy and what is not. There are the Vegetarian
proponents who think killing animals for food is somehow evil. You have the
Vegans who won’t eat anything remotely related to an animal. And you have the
Paleo group who believe our ancestors were cavepeople who ate only meat and a
few nuts and berries. There’s the “organics
only” crowd who will eat it if and only if it says “organic” on the label.
Finally, there’s everyone else, who just eats whatever happens to find its way
into the local grocery store. Have you
identified yourself in this list?
There are probably a number of reasons people don’t think
they want to live a long time, the biggest being that we associate old age with
illness and incapacity. But what if we could grow old without falling prey to
chronic illness? Would that change the way you feel about long life?
I propose a new way of eating – which is actually an old
way of eating. I’ll call it the Food of God Diet.
The Food of God Diet bans anything that has been
adulterated by man…or more precisely, by man-ufacturers, and contains only
foods actually made by God, in their original form. Some of you may be smiling
now, because you’ll recognize this as a “whole foods” diet. And you are exactly
right.
This diet has been around for thousands of years, and is
surprisingly different from culture to culture. On it, people thrive well into
old age. The now famous, Dr. Weston Price, discovered this simple truth in his
research of primitive cultures eating traditional diets – many different in the
extreme – but all similar in one respect-- that man-made or man-altered
(refined) foods were nowhere to be found among them.
What Dr. Price concluded was that the human body is
amazingly resilient and can adapt well to any natural diet. It is only when
refined, denatured food products (processed foods) are introduced that we begin
to have problems with our health – dental problems, difficulty resisting
illness, and trouble with chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes.
So what does this mean for you?
·
Vegetarians: Start with whole fruits and vegetables. Take
the trouble to learn about traditional methods of preparing them. All fruits
are healthier whole and uncooked. Some vegetables can be toxic until you cook
them. Some are healthier raw. Avoid refined grains. If you eat legumes, sprout
them first or follow soaking protocols that will help neutralize the phytic acid present in this type of food. Use traditional methods to prepare your
food. Avoid any processed foods. Milk products should be consumed raw or
fermented. Eggs should come from chickens ranged properly in the sunshine on
grass and bugs. (Also, see Organic below.)
·
Vegans:
Same as above (disregard milk & egg advice).
·
Paleo:
Meat should come from animals raised on their natural foods (grass-grazed beef,
lamb, and chicken and wild-caught seafood). Vegetables and fruit should be clean (avoid GMO and pesticides).
·
Organic: My first food rule is that food
should be uncontaminated by chemicals and raised in a way that honors God’s
creation. Having an “organic” label helps, but organic labels come with a price
tag, thanks to government regulation. Know your farmer. If you don’t know where
your food comes from, buy organic. That said, there’s a ton of food products
out there labeled “organic” that are processed to the point there is no
nutrition left in them. If they are processed, they are not whole. Avoid those
things.
·
Whole Foods (God-food): Keep doing what you’re doing and be careful to buy clean, uncontaminated food (avoid GMO and pesticides).
·
Standard American Diet (SAD), a.k.a. everyone
else: Throw away everything in your
pantry, fridge, and freezer and start over with one of the above diet protocols,
unless you’re okay with having a very short, sick life.
Two notes about grains—
1.
They are almost always processed. If grains are
a part of your diet, the best way to eat them is to buy the whole grain and
process it yourself just prior to eating. Whether that’s oats, or rice, or
wheat, never buy already ground up grain. The reason for this is oxidation. The
fatty acids in the germ will go rancid quite quickly—within a day or two,
causing toxic oxidation in your body when you eat it. There’s no such thing as
fresh wheat flour.
2.
Watch out for gluten, especially wheat gluten.
It is known to damage the gut, and there is evidence to suggest that it is responsible for neurological problems as well. It is quite possible that just about
everyone who eats wheat eventually develops intolerance of some degree to
gluten (read Grain Brain). Any grain containing gluten should be eaten only rarely and in small
doses. If you grind your own, like you should, the trouble that you need to go
to in order to prepare it properly will be a deterrent to eating it too often.
Alternatively, choose wheat alternatives with less gluten, such as einkorn or
spelt.
Ultimately, our lifespan and our health are in the hands
of God, and the food we eat is only one aspect of good health. It is not magic, and it won't heal all our ills. Still, avoiding the things we KNOW are harmful
to good health just makes good sense. Man
cannot come close to replicating what God has made. Stick to the real thing…and
I wish you a long and healthy life!
A final thought…
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
