Are You Really Concerned About Your Health?

It is a fact that sicknesses and disease are a major problem in our age. About half a million people die of the various forms of cancer, and another half a million people die from various forms of heart disease in the United States alone every year. And even as we have prospered materially, so many of our problems with ill-health seem to have increased.

We have ALL been exposed to cancer-causing substances and influences. We have ALL been exposed to foods that contain toxic substances. We have ALL been exposed to foods that have been nutritionally depleted of vitamins and nutrients. We have ALL been exposed to polluted air and polluted water. We have ALL been exposed to various forms of radiation. Even one of the better-known experts on nutrition back in the 1950's and 1960's, Adelle Davis, ended up dying of some form of cancer while still in her 60's.

So any of us, certainly including me, can die of some form of cancer or heart disease or any other disease at very short notice, no matter how healthy and fit we may appear to be today. As I once read in a book written by a doctor: "The most common FIRST SYMPTOM of underlying heart disease is SUDDEN DEATH!" In other words, many seemingly healthy people die without ever having had any warning that they had heart disease. I don't for a moment believe that I am any less vulnerable to dying from sickness or disease than anyone else. I have no guarantee that I will be alive tomorrow, next month, or next year.

I say these things to make quite clear that I don't think of myself as "better off" than anyone else on this subject. My motivation in writing this article is to help you understand that, if you ARE suffering from any health problem of any kind, THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN DO THAT WILL WORK TOWARDS RESTORING YOUR HEALTH. In fact, there are things that God WANTS us to do to restore our health. And there are preventative measures we can take to minimize our chances of getting sick. They will not guarantee us good health, but they will certainly improve our chances of good health. And in many cases these things are VERY EASY for us to do.

When I was at Ambassador College in the 60's, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong frequently made the following statement, which appeared in the "Personal from the Editor" in the December 1967 Plain Truth Magazine, as well as in several other publications:

"One physician said to me: "We doctors are kept so busy treating sicknesses and diseases that we simply have no time to study and research into the CAUSES." (Mr. Armstrong's own emphasis)

That statement was mostly true in the 1960's, and it was still true in the 1970's and even in the early 1980's. But that statement is NOT REALLY TRUE ANY MORE TODAY!

In the 50's, 60's and 70's a very few medical doctors started to study into the effects of vitamins and various minerals on human health. They started to examine THE CAUSES of diseases. And they started to treat various diseases with various vitamins and minerals. But they were only a very tiny minority of their profession and they were generally regarded with much scepticism by most fellow-doctors. And even until about the mid 1980's (or about the time that Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong died) the vast majority of doctors still viewed any fellow-doctor who attempted to treat diseases with FOODS as fanatical and unbalanced.

But today, and starting from about the mid-1980's, LARGE NUMBERS OF MEDICAL DOCTORS have carefully studied into the CAUSES of sicknesses and how those sicknesses can be cured with ORDINARY COMMON EVERY-DAY FOODS! And today doctors who use common foods in their treatments are no longer viewed as being extreme ... today there is hardly an issue of the major medical journals which does not carry an article outlining the success achieved by carefully monitored nutritional therapy (i.e. using some common FOOD item as a medicine) for the treatment of some major disease or other.

For example, in a quick search I came across the following examples:

1) Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Rimm EB, Colditz GA, Rosner BA, Speizer FE, Hennekens CH, Willett WC. reported in the British Medical Journal in 1998; 317: 1341-1345 (and posted on the Internet on December 16, 1998) the following:

"WOMEN WHO ATE MORE THAN 5 OUNCES OF NUTS PER WEEK HAD A SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER RISK OF CHD (both fatal and non-fatal) than women who ate less than one ounce per week, after adjusting for age, smoking, and other known risk factors." (my emphasis)

In other words, here is a team of medical doctors who have shown that eating a mere 5 ounces of nuts per week (i.e. about 150 grams) can lower the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in women. "Nuts" are a very common ordinary food.

2) Wolk, A.; Manson, J.E.; Stampfer, M.J.; Colditz, G.A.; Hu, F.B.; Speizer, F.E.; Hennekens, C.H.; Willett, W.C. reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999, Jun 2, v281, n21, p1998-2004 (and posted on the Internet on September 9, 1999) the following:

"Context: Epidemiological studies of men suggest that dietary fiber intake protects against coronary heart disease (CHD), but data on this association in women are sparse.

Objective: To examine the association between long-term intake of total dietary fiber as well as fiber from different sources and risk of CHD in women.

Conclusions: Our findings in women support the hypothesis that higher fiber intake, particularly from cereal sources, reduces the risk of CHD."

Here a team of medical doctors reported that eating more fibre also reduces the risk of CHD in women. Cereals are a very common food, hardly something we have tended to think of as "a heart medication".

3) Gann, P.H.; Ma, J.; Giovannucci, E.; Willett, W.; Sacks, F.M.; Hennekens, C.H.; Stampfer, M.J. reported in Cancer Research, 1999, Mar 15, v59, n6, p1225-1230 (and posted on the Internet on October 11, 1999) the following:

"Dietary consumption of the carotenoid lycopene (mostly from tomato products) has been associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer."

Here a team of medical doctors reported that eating tomatoes can lower the risk of prostate cancer for a man. Tomatoes are also a very common food.

4) S. Gandini, H. Merzenich, C. Robertson, P. Boyle reported in the European Journal of Cancer, March 2000 (and posted on the Internet on July 19, 2000) the following:

" Epidemiological studies reveal patterns of decreased breast cancer risk with consumption of A DIET HIGH IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES." (my emphasis)

Here a team of medical doctors reported that women can reduce the risk of breast cancer by eating lots of fruits and vegetables, very ordinary foods.

5) Ahmed RS, Sharma SB of the Biochemistry Department, University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India reported: (I didn't copy where this was first published)

"... compared to garlic/ginger alone. Hence, a combination of garlic and ginger is much more effective in reducing blood glucose and serum lipids."

Here a team of doctors in India established that a combination of garlic and ginger in the diet will lower both, the blood sugar and the amount of circulating fat in the blood. Pharmaceutical companies produce drugs to achieve some of these things; yet eating garlic and ginger can achieve the same thing.

There are multiple tens of thousands of articles, like the above five examples, that have been published by teams of medical doctors around the world over the past 15 years or so, where they are reporting on the use of common, ordinary, every-day foods to treat and to prevent a vast range of sicknesses and diseases, many of them MAJOR health problems.

I have a book which is based on over 10,000 scientific studies into the medicinal qualities of food as used to treat a whole host of sicknesses and diseases. The book, which was first published 8 years ago, in 1993, is titled "FOOD -- YOUR MIRACLE MEDICINE" and the author is Jean Carper. This book is not the important thing at all. The point is: since the mid-1980's well over 100,000 scientific studies have been conducted around the world BY MEDICAL DOCTORS, examining the causes of diseases and looking into using common foods "as medicines" to eliminate the causes of those diseases. If you have access to the Internet, there is a huge database of scientific and medical articles at "the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland", known as "MEDLARS". And the University of Illinois at Chicago has a large database on the pharmacological properties of foods and plants, called "Natural Products Alert" (NAPRALERT); they have over 100,000 entries on the pharmacological attributes of plants worldwide, many of them edible.

There are in fact many hundreds of websites on the Internet that are devoted to health and nutrition. While most of them are obviously based on financial motivations (i.e. they want to sell us something and we should therefore be at least "cautiously on our guard"), there are nevertheless very many websites which carry very helpful information. Information is available "out there". For example, the website "www.mothernature.com/ency/Index/" gives a list they call "The 100 Top Foods for your Health" with some extremely helpful information.

It is not my intention to advertise the book I referred to above or any other book. There may well by now be other books which are equally or even more helpful than the one I have in my possession? What I really want to do is help you understand GOD'S MIND in this whole matter. There is after all A REASON why many common foods are in fact powerful medicines for certain health problems.

I also don't want to repeat what the Church has published in the past. Most of us are probably familiar with the old booklets the Church previously published, like "The Seven Laws of Radiant Health" and "Principles of Healthful Living". The points covered in those booklets were not really "laws"; but they were good principles. There is no question in my mind that the Church back in the 60's was "ahead of its time" regarding health and nutrition. And I am extremely thankful that I was exposed to these principles already over 30 years ago now. "Laws" would imply automatic penalties for transgressions ... but "Cleanliness and Dress" (law #2) and "Sunshine and Fresh Air" (law #3) and "Sleep and Rest" (law #5) and "Avoid Bodily Injury" (law #6) were not laws at all. There is no penalty for staying up all night in prayer (as Jesus Christ did on occasions); the tiredness you might experience the day after staying up all night is not really "a penalty". But the principles expounded in these booklets and others like them are certainly sound and good and valuable. And those of us who have largely lived by those principles have certainly benefited from them.

I don't want to here talk about those principles. Most people have probably heard all those principles before.

But what if YOU are sick right now? What if you right now have very clear symptoms that you are very likely to get sick ... symptoms like high blood pressure, like high cholesterol levels in your blood, like small cholesterol deposits in the soft tissue around your eyes or even small yellow cholesterol deposits in the white of your eyes, like being anaemic, like kidney problems and gall bladder problems, like breathing problems, like stiff, painful arthritic joints, like the first stages of cataracts on your eyes, etc., etc.?

If you have some health deficiency or other WHAT CAN YOU DO? Are drugs, developed by the rich and powerful drug companies your only option? In many cases they charge several dollars for every single pill that you buy. To call that "a rip off" is putting it mildly! Using common ordinary foods as medicines is obviously "bad news" for the drug companies. After all, they can hardly take out patents on carrots and on onions and on oranges, etc..

[Comment: Here in South Africa we have just had the situation where every single pill of a certain anti-AIDS drug costs US $15,00 and where the exact same generic drug can be imported from Thailand for US $0,25 per pill ... at one-sixtieth of the price charged by the drug company. And as I write a large group of drug manufacturers has just withdrawn their court case against the South African government over some of these import questions around generic drugs.]

What does GOD expect you to do? Did God in any way PROVIDE for you to deal with such health problems?

ONE CAUTION

There are also quite a number of organizations out there that claim to bring you "the latest information about health and diet" in the form of direct mail brochures that unexpectedly arrive in your mailbox. Be careful about using them. They usually want anything from US $50 to US $150 and more from you and the most prominent section on the back of these pamphlets is usually the box in which they want you to insert your "VISA" or "MasterCard" or "American Express" number.

I have a relative who has over the years passed a number of these publications on to me for my evaluation. They include things like "Alternative Medicine Journal" and "Health Sciences Institute" and "Health & Longevity" and "International Living" and a few others of which I don't recall the exact titles (I threw them away). Mostly they make dramatic claims for the information they will provide. (Many are written by highly-paid professional copy writers, whose only purpose is to persuade you to send your money to the organization they are writing for. Then they gloat about how much money each of their letters managed to pull in.) There are also some others that represent good value for the price they charge. Usually these are more reasonably priced and they don't withhold any information on the subjects they cover.

When you carefully examine these types of pamphlets, and a few small books thrown in, you will often, though not always, find the following things:

1) The whole 12-page or 24-page booklet is nothing more than a gigantic sales promotion. They actually provide VERY LITTLE REAL information in such 12-page or 24-page pamphlets. They use endless repetition to pressure the reader to send in money to buy "a subscription" at an exorbitant price for some cheap-looking pamphlets. They resort to endless "testimonies" from people whose existence you don't have the slightest chance of ever verifying. You'd be better off looking for a snowball in Hong Kong than ever trying to locate those "testimonies". They appeal to your feelings and your emotions. The little information that they DO provide is usually already common knowledge. The real information is withheld until you send them money. [Often you can find the same information free of charge on the Internet, if you know how to search for it and where to look for it.]

2) The publications to be sceptical about almost always appear without any kind of date on the publication. That allows them to use the same publications over and over again, without appearing to be "dated". In some cases they send you "the latest findings" ... and you'll find that 3 years earlier you received the identical 24-page publication, because those publishers typically use their "direct mail letters" for up to five years. So if you ever see one of these undated pamphlets, then you know you are looking at something written by a professional copy writer for a huge fee, and very likely even a commission on the total income generated by that pamphlet.

3) But to me the really unsavoury thing is this: OTHER DOCTORS have published their research results free of charge in the medical journals around the world. The doctors who "discovered" the fantastic information these publications will send you (upon a substantial payment!) receive nothing from the sale of the information they published. The people who publish these pamphlets simply copy the information from various medical journals and then sell this information at an exorbitant price. And they are making huge profits from other people's work. And in many cases the information which was touted with such grand claims in these pamphlets turns out to be nothing more than "to cure this condition you should eat more broccoli or garlic or onions or tomatoes, or this secret South American plant, etc.".It doesn't seem right to me that someone can charge US $10 or more just to tell me to eat more cauliflower or some brazil nuts or an extract of olive leaf.

It is far more honest to produce a 500-page book for about US $14, which openly presents the most striking information that has come to light in over 10,000 scientific studies. The health pamphlets sell the information from perhaps 8 or 10 scientific studies, presented in highly dramatized ways, for the same price, or even for more than you would pay for the whole book.

So beware of expensive journals that promise you the latest information about arthritis and blood pressure and heart attacks and energizing your libido, etc.. Be on your guard!

But let's now go back to the beginning.

WHEN GOD CREATED MANKIND

When God had first created Adam and Eve, He instructed them as follows:

And God said, Behold, I have given you EVERY HERB BEARING SEED, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, AND EVERY TREE, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; TO YOU IT SHALL BE FOR MEAT. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30 AV)

The Hebrew word here translated as "herb" means "green plants", a word that includes all the plants smaller than trees. The word translated as "meat" really means "food". And so these two verses are translated in Green's Literal Translation as follows:

And God said, Behold, I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY PLANT SEEDING SEED which [is] on the face of all the earth, AND EVERY TREE IN WHICH [IS] THE FRUIT OF A TREE SEEDING SEED; IT SHALL BE FOOD FOR YOU. And TO EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH, and to all birds of the heavens, and to every creeper on the earth which [has] in it a living soul, EVERY GREEN PLANT [IS] FOR FOOD. And it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30 LIT)

Here we see God's ORIGINAL INTENTION for life on this planet ... both, human beings and all animals were to be vegetarians. That was God's intention ... until Adam and Eve sinned and rejected God's way of life. God's intention, in other words, was that ALL LIFE-FORMS would live at peace with one another, side by side. When Adam and Eve sinned, then God also changed what we may eat, even as God at the very same time changed the diets for many animals. And so we have Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 expanding on the original instructions of Genesis 1:29.

I eat meat (though with mad cow disease spreading throughout Europe, and with chronic wasting disease, which is nothing other than a variation of mad cow disease, spreading amongst American deer and elk, it may get to the point where it will become dangerous to continue eating meat?). And I have never thus far been a vegetarian, but I recognize that God's ORIGINAL intention was that neither man nor any other living creature would ever eat another living creature. All would eat only plants (perhaps including eggs and dairy products??).

When Jesus Christ comes to rule on this Earth, He will restore God's intentions in every area of life. That is why wolves and leopards will not eat lambs and calves; like the lion, they too will eat "straw" and other vegetable matter ...

THE WOLF also shall dwell with the lamb, and THE LEOPARD shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and THE LION SHALL EAT STRAW LIKE THE OX. (Isaiah 11:6-7 AV)

I realize that many people ridicule the idea that these verses are to be taken literally. Their intellect does not allow them to accept that a lion, with its jaw structure and its digestive tract, could possibly ever become a vegetarian. I don't have to understand HOW God is going to achieve this. If Isaiah 11:6-7 was indeed inspired by God, THEN MOST ASSUREDLY all carnivorous animals will become herbivores after Christ's return, back to what God had intended in Genesis 1:30, before man sinned. It does seem, however, from various Scriptures, that man will continue to eat meat during Christ's millennial rule here on Earth? For our purposes here it doesn't really make a difference whether physical human beings during the millennium will eat meat or not.

Then, after the time of the second resurrection and after the lake of fire has consumed the wicked, when God will have brought the New Jerusalem to this Earth, THEN all the eating we as spirit beings will ever do, will be VEGETARIAN ... fruits (and perhaps leaves?) will be the only things we will eat:

In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare TWELVE [MANNER OF] FRUITS, [and] yielded her fruit every month: AND THE LEAVES of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2 AV)

The word translated as "healing" is "therapeia" and it also means "WELL-BEING" and "SERVICE" and "SERVANT ATTENDANTS". It is not at all implied that "the nations" referred to in Revelation 22:2 are in any way "sick" or "in need of healing". But the things mentioned here are "fruits" and "leaves".

As spirit beings we will only be eating "for enjoyment"; good food makes us "feel good" and it enhances our feeling of "well-being". The point is that from Revelation 22 onwards there will be no meat-eaters anywhere.

Whenever anything goes wrong with our "well-being" (i.e. with our health), then it is almost always THE PLANTS GOD CREATED, which contain "medicine" for us, as it will be during the millennium ...

And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat (i.e. for food), and THE LEAF THEREOF FOR MEDICINE. (Ezekiel 47:12 AV)

MODERN MEDICINE IS NOW DISCOVERING THAT MANY PLANTS ARE FAR MORE POTENT IN THEIR MEDICINAL EFFECTS THAN SOME OF THE MAN-MADE DRUGS ... AND THE PLANTS DON'T HAVE THE ADVERSE SIDE-EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH MAN'S DRUGS!

And so you now commonly find statements like the following one from the "MotherNature" website:

"Good news: You can easily get cheap, good-tasting medicine that helps ward off cancer, heart disease, and stroke—without even going to the pharmacy. These disease-preventing substances are in the everyday, garden-variety foods available in any grocery store.

The secret lies in eating a wide variety of foods that contain an assortment of disease-fighting substances. That way, you create a protective mosaic of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other substances that help you stay disease free. So be sure you get the five-plus servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the National Cancer Institute and leading nutritionists.

The following 100 foods stand out as top-notch disease fighters, easily found in the supermarket." [Comment: They do include some unclean items in this list of 100 foods, which we would obviously avoid.]

A GOD OF MERCY

The Bible tells us many times that God is a God of mercy! Right within the context of the second Commandment God tells us:

And SHEWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS OF THEM THAT LOVE ME, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:6 AV)

And further:

For THY MERCY [IS] GREAT UNTO THE HEAVENS, and thy truth unto the clouds. (Psalm 57:10 AV)

The LORD [is] MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS, slow to anger, and PLENTEOUS IN MERCY. (Psalm 103:8 AV)

Now when Adam and Eve sinned, then God also brought penalties into existence. And one of the categories of penalties was the creation of sicknesses and diseases. As God later spelled out to Israel, if they disobeyed God ...

The LORD shall smite thee with a CONSUMPTION, and with A FEVER, and with AN INFLAMMATION, and with AN EXTREME BURNING, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. (Deuteronomy 28:22 AV)

The LORD will smite thee with THE BOTCH OF EGYPT, and with THE EMERODS, and with THE SCAB, and with THE ITCH, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee with MADNESS, and BLINDNESS, and ASTONISHMENT OF HEART: (Deuteronomy 28:27-28 AV)

The LORD shall smite thee IN THE KNEES, AND IN THE LEGS, WITH A SORE BOTCH that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. (Deuteronomy 28:35 AV)

What God was here telling Israel is that A HOST OF SICKNESSES AND DISEASES would be the consequence if they chose to disobey God. As God had already told them shortly after they had started to leave Egypt ...

And said, IF THOU WILT DILIGENTLY HEARKEN TO THE VOICE OF THE LORD THY GOD, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I WILL PUT NONE OF THESE DISEASES UPON THEE, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26 AV)

Both these passages (in Exodus 15 and in Deuteronomy 28) show that God will use sickness and disease as a penalty for disobedience. God punished King Uzziah with leprosy for his arrogance and his presumptuousness (see 2 Chronicles 26:19).

But here is the point:

Even when God has punished us human beings with sicknesses for our sins, in many cases GOD HAS PROVIDED "A MEDICINE" that will promote a cure, even without God divinely and spontaneously healing a person. And even when there is no "cure" available, in many cases God has STILL provided "some medicine" that will at least alleviate the pain and suffering to some degree. And that "medicine" is very often in the form of a natural and very ordinary FOOD, as doctors are now discovering.

There is a principle which Abraham understood very clearly when He told Isaac ...

And Abraham said, My son, GOD WILL PROVIDE himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:8 AV)

The point is:

THIS IS WHAT GOD DOES AND HAS DONE IN EVERY AREA OF LIFE!

With the "penalties" for disobedience God has also "PROVIDED" ways for us human beings to cope with these penalties. That is a part of "God's mercy". And so when God brought sicknesses and diseases into existence as penalties for our transgressions, He ALSO saw to it that there were answers, solutions, "medicines" available to sort out these penalties. God IS faithful ...

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but GOD [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but WILL WITH THE TEMPTATION ALSO MAKE A WAY TO ESCAPE, that ye may be able to bear [it]. (1 Corinthians 10:13 AV)

For very many of the health problems that plague us human beings, God has in fact provided A WAY OF ESCAPE, to help us cope. However, we human beings haven't really wanted GOD'S "way of escape"; no, we've said to God "we can do it OUR WAY" ... and so we have created thousands of drugs, when all along God had provided the solutions HIS WAY, right in the foods that God had created for us. Bear in mind that all of our foods were SPECIFICALLY CREATED for us by God Himself ... and God had very clear purposes in mind when He created our vast array of foods ... there is nothing haphazard in the multitude of fruits and vegetables and nuts and grains and herbs and spices that God provided for us to eat.

As God created it, "a single food contains hundreds or thousands of chemicals, most unidentified, that make up each bite's varied pharmacological activity" (quoted from "Food -- Your Miracle Medicine" by Jean Carper, page 6). When scientists learn that some food (e.g. garlic) has had a powerful medicinal effect, THEN they try to isolate the one chemical they think is responsible for that medicinal effect. However, there is no guarantee that numerous chemicals they have not yet identified have not also contributed towards that medicinal effect, that a number of the chemicals within that food actually have a synergistic effect. And so, as scientists identify more and more of the chemicals present in our common foods, so more and more of them are being identified as very powerful disease-fighters.

For example it is now known that garlic kills or cripples at least (!) 72 different infectious bacteria; 6 different compounds in garlic help to lower cholesterol; onions and garlic contain more than 30 different enemies of cancer-causing substances between them; at least 300 different plants (many of them edible!) possess "estrogenic activity", i.e. they help to regulate the female hormone estrogen; etc.. This list could go on and on.

IT IS A MATTER OF MOTIVATION

But let's just go back for a moment.

In Genesis God very clearly stated that He provided the fruits and nuts and vegetables for us to eat. Each of these multiple THOUSANDS of foods was individually designed by God Himself and each contains multiple hundreds of different chemical compounds (most of which have at this point in time not yet been identified by scientists), which together make up that one fruit or vegetable or grain or herb or spice. Collectively, all of the plants and their fruits that God created for us to eat contain well over a million different chemical compounds, illustrating the careful planning God put into the foods He prepared for us to eat. At any typical meal we take into our bodies multiple thousands of different chemical compounds; many of them will be broken down by the digestive processes into other compounds and these will then have certain effects upon our bodies as a whole and upon our health or lack of health.

Many fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices have been used for medicinal purposes over the centuries and over the millennia, many with great success. The modern pharmaceutical industry has closely examined many of these "medicinal foods". Where a desirable medicinal effect has been demonstrated, they have gone to great length to isolate "the main component responsible for the desired effect" (e.g. to lower blood pressure, reduce the LDL cholesterol in the blood, etc.). They then synthetically (in most cases) produce a compound with the same molecular structure as the component they isolated from the food and then test this, first in test tube experiments and then in human trials. Then they try to persuade us, through massive advertising campaigns, to buy this new "miracle medicine" they have "discovered". It goes without saying that they have already "patented" their new "miracle medicine".

Now consider the motivation.

Their research started out with observing that onions or broccoli or turmeric or leaves from the olive tree or the consumption of fresh fruits had a certain effect for a specific health condition. But they OBVIOUSLY could not make any money, let alone take out a patent, on things like onions and broccoli and turmeric and olive leaves and fresh fruits. THEREFORE recommending that people EAT onions or broccoli or turmeric or fresh fruits or brew a strong tea from boiling the leaves of the olive tree, etc., to combat a specific health problem was SIMPLY NOT AN OPTION FOR THEM!

Can you understand this?

The only possible way for them to cash in on the medicinal properties of some plant or other is for them to "ISOLATE THE RESPONSIBLE COMPONENT IN THAT PLANT", and to then either clone that component in the laboratory or to produce "AN EXTRACT" from that plant which "CONCENTRATES" (a favourite word in their vocabulary) that key component. In other words, for them to take out a patent and to cash in on the medicinal qualities of a fruit or a vegetable, they have to in some way ALTER the product from the way that it grows out of the ground ... it must be in a form other than a plain fruit or vegetable.

Once such a "medicine" has been produced by a pharmaceutical company, THEN they have to persuade us to buy it from them. This they do in various ways. These ways include:

- trying to persuade us that we don't need the whole fruit (or vegetable) as long as we get that ONE key component (e.g. vitamin C, alpha lipoic acid, etc.) which they managed to isolate for us, because that one key component is all that matters;

- trying to persuade us that we couldn't possibly get enough of the key component by simply eating the fruit, and that we therefore NEED their product which has CONCENTRATED this key component;

- presenting endless testimonies from satisfied customers who have been healed and helped by their product, which isn't the same as scientific proof, but is supposed to be accepted as "proof" by the general public.

But in their headlong rush towards astronomical profits they overlook (or ignore?) that God has presented this key component to us in "A WHOLE PACKAGE" in combination with multiple hundreds of other compounds. God did not plan for this one key compound to work in isolation from the hundreds of other compounds with which God had packaged it. Stated in another way: God planned for key compounds to work SYNERGISTICALLY with all the other compounds in the same "package" (i.e. in the same fruit or vegetable).

Let me give you an example!

On June 22, 2000 researchers Marian V. Eberhardt, Chang Yong Lee and Rui Hai Liu from the "Department of Food Science, 108 Stocking Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-7201, United States" published the following in "Nature":

START OF QUOTATION:

"Objective: The antioxidant activity of 100 g of fresh apple has been found to be equal to that of a 1,500-mg dose of vitamin C. This study assesses the growth inhibiting effects of whole apple extracts on in vitro colon- and liver cancer cells, based on dose dependent comparisons. The natural antioxidants found in fresh fruits may be more effective than the antioxidant properties of dietary supplements."

"A total oxyradical-scavenging capacity (TOSC) assay was used to measure apple-antioxidant capacity. This data reveals that a 1g portion of apples with skin contains a total antioxidant capacity of 83.3+8.9 TOSC. The TOSC value unveils the antioxidant capacity of 100 g of apple to be equal to that of 1,500 mg of vitamin C. Apples with skin contain a mere 5.7-mg of vitamin C, therefore leaving almost all of the antioxidant activity in apples to be due to phytochemical content."

"The phenolic acids and flavonoids found in apples with skin provide the fruit with its natural antioxidant properties. These phytochemicals significantly enhance the antioxidant activity attributed to apples and their capacity to act as an inhibitor of in vitro tumor cell proliferation."

END OF QUOTATION!

MY COMMENTS ON THESE PUBLISHED RESEARCH FINDINGS: Here we see an example of the synergistic power that is contained in whole natural products. A 100-gram portion of apples (that's less than four ounces, less than a whole apple) contains only 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C, yet when eaten as an apple it has the same antioxidant power as 1500 milligrams of vitamin C ... the synergistic effect of "the whole apple" in the area of acting as an antioxidant is increased over 250 times! By "significantly enhance" the authors mean "make 250 times more powerful"!

Now the producers of drugs and vitamins would argue that you couldn't possibly get 1500 milligrams of vitamin C from eating apples ... you'd have to eat more than 100 BIG apples to get that much vitamin C. They overlook the fact that the way God designed the apple "the packaging" multiplies the effect of the mere 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C by over 250 times! So you could take a massive dose of 1500 milligrams of vitamin C as pure powder on a teaspoon ... or you could eat a small apple with a mere 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C in it ... and achieve the same antioxidant result!

This research result is less than one year old. I am convinced that, if researchers are willing to look into it, in due time it is going to be found that in virtually all fruits and vegetables the medicinally active compounds are "significantly enhanced" (i.e. multiplied by 100-fold and more!) by "the packaging" in which God created these medicinally active compounds. The way "the packaging" of vitamin C in an apple is responsible for vastly magnifying the power of the vitamin C present in that apple is only the tip of the iceberg. That's the way God works!

Pharmaceutical companies use a vast amount of "filler" to present their pills and capsules and extracts. Such "fillers" are things like milk powder, soy flour, or some substance deemed to be "neutral". But that is not what God does! God didn't add hundreds of "neutral fillers" to the vitamin C He packaged into an apple! God doesn't work with "empty filler material".

Every single one of the multiple hundreds of different compounds in every single plant and fruit and vegetable was placed there for a very specific purpose by God when He created that plant or fruit or vegetable, whether we are aware of that purpose or not. And where the "filler" in manmade pills is largely due to greed and is intended to be neutral in effect, the other multiple hundreds of compounds in every God-created plant "significantly enhance" and compound the efficacy of every other chemical compound in that plant.

Mathematically we know that one plus one is equal to two. But when it comes to THE EFFECT that God achieves, then one plus one is not just two; it isn't even merely four; with God the effect of one plus one will many times be ONE HUNDRED OR MORE! When Jesus Christ works with God the Father it is not just a matter of doubling what God the Father could have done on His own; I am convinced that when those Two Beings work together the effect is many times greater than merely "doubling" what One of them could have achieved on His own. God is glorified when we bear MUCH FRUIT (see John 15:8). That is the pattern throughout God's creation. When ONE acorn sprouts and grows into a new tree ... it will produce multiple thousands of new acorns.

When something is done in a way that is right before God, then it always produces vastly compounded good results! And when something is done in a way that is WRONG before God, then that will likewise produce vastly compounded BAD results ... the world all around us is evidence of this principle that God uses.

And we should be able to see and understand this principle even from the humble little fruits and vegetables God created to be "food for us" (Genesis 1:29 again). Eaten as whole fruits and vegetables they are of far greater benefit to our health than taking all those same compounds individually would be. It is God's way of "GIVING MORE" than what He appears to be giving to us at face value. And it is more than man is ever able to give. No man has ever yet devised a way for a mere "5.7 milligrams of vitamin C" to give AS MUCH as when God gives a mere 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C!

As we look at the following list of health problems and the foods that are therapeutic for each problem, it would be good to keep some of these points in mind.

I will give you a rather long, but by no means exhaustive, list of specific conditions of ill-health that respond favourably to various foods. This information is mostly taken from the book I referred to earlier. The information contained within this article is meant to be used to educate the reader and is in no way intended to be providing individual medical advice.

MY PURPOSE in providing this information is NOT to give you some kind of "doctor's prescription" for all these conditions. My purpose is to help you see THE INCREDIBLE SCOPE that ordinary foods have in combatting a vast range of health problems. It is not a matter that some foods can help us overcome a few sicknesses; no, the range of health problems that can be eliminated or at least combatted with the correct foods is absolutely staggering. And medical research into THIS field, to any great extent, only really took off about 15 years ago! Who knows what additional information researchers could find out if they had another 20 years or another 50 years?

When we are sick, then God holds us ourselves responsible. I know that some people don't like me to say this, because they have argued against this. But we need to face up to our responsibilities, and we need to also take responsibility for responding to sicknesses. It is a mistake to view ourselves as "innocent victims" in the process of ill-health (though sometimes there really ARE situations where we are indeed "innocent victims" of the wrong actions of other people, but that is not really the norm).

So if we are serious about doing something to improve our health, then let's not just take the easy way out ... by relying on the long list that I will now present. If we are really serious, then WE OURSELVES will search out the relevant information ... it is a simple matter for most of us to go through the one or two shelves in a bookstore that deal with "health and nutrition and foods", and we are likely to find more than one book with this type of information. For those who have access to the Internet, they themselves can look at the websites I referred to earlier and at many others besides.

A return to good health is not achieved by spoon-feeding, and I don't want this list to be viewed in that light. There are by now many other bits of information available, that apply to health problems that I have NOT addressed in this list. They may apply to something that affects YOU?

Do we really ever apply 1.Corinthians 6:20?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20 AV)

Have you EVER, since coming into God's Church, tried to do this ... to GLORIFY God "in your body"? HOW would you go about doing this? This Scripture is certainly not in any way referring to being vain or proud about our physical appearances ... that would go against the second part of this verse ... to glorify God in our spirit. To glorify God "in our spirit" we need to have a repentant, humble and teachable frame of mind, willing to eagerly put into practice everything we learn about God's instructions and intentions for us. But how do we glorify God "in our bodies"?

Have we ever actually looked at this verse and then said to ourselves: "I am from now onwards going to do my level-best to apply this command in my life"? The chances are fairly great that we have never done this ... at least not beyond the barest minimum of saying "I don't eat unclean things and I try to get a bit of exercise when I am able to fit it in; so I should be okay". Now you may indeed be a part of the minority that has taken this instruction seriously; but if you are, then you should also be able to see that the vast majority in the Church in this age have viewed this instruction in a very casual and relaxed way.

Do we really understand that good health is the most precious thing, on the physical level, that we could possibly have? If God were to give some of us "a thorn in the flesh" as He did with Paul, that is different. But we have A RESPONSIBILITY to look after whatever health God may have blessed us with. If God were to lend us a luxury car for 5 years, would we return it dirty, with the paintwork scratched, the doors dented, the upholstery torn and the backseat littered with spilled peanuts and popcorn? Or would we do our utmost to maintain the car in a spotless condition, regularly cleaning it and regularly having it serviced, keeping in mind who the real owner is?

The French philosopher Camus (he was actually from Algeria) wrote: "By the age of 50 a man has the face he deserves" (quoted by George Sheehan in his book "Dr. Sheehan on Running"). We don't really like statements like that, because they make us feel bad and guilty, like the speaker is judging us. Or else, at the other extreme, we may become proud and arrogant about our appearance. But the point is that God created us in such a way that HOW WE LIVE is reflected in how we look in later life. The face is the mirror of the soul, and how we have lived is frequently reflected in our faces (and in our bodies!) in later life.

For example: when people have abused alcohol for any length of time, this is reflected in their faces and in the texture of their skin; when people have become drug addicts, that too is reflected in their faces in later life; when people live grossly immoral lives (e.g. a prostitute), this too is often discernible in their faces; life-long cheats can often be identified by their faces ... that's what movie producers and directors know when they choose actors to fit certain parts ... some people just look like untrustworthy individuals, and many of us spontaneously recognize such "looks". We talk about "a look of innocence" and "a hard and callous look", traits we identify in people's faces. Now obviously, we can also be deceived, and sometimes people with the most innocent-looking faces turn out to be the biggest crooks. However, that will be the case more often with younger people where how they have lived has not yet been etched into their faces.

Recall also that the Bible tells us ...

THE SHEW OF THEIR COUNTENANCE DOTH WITNESS AGAINST THEM; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide [it] not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. (Isaiah 3:9 AV)

Isaiah 3:9 is not that much different from what the philosopher Camus had to say. Once we are older our faces "witness" how we have lived. We need to live in integrity before God so that, if anything, our faces witness "FOR" us before God, rather than "against" us ... Isaiah 3:9 is after all GOD'S statement.

So what can we do to glorify God in our bodies?

While we should certainly not be fanatical, we do have a responsibility to look after the body and the health God has given us. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25) is certainly primarily about spiritual growth and development. But is THE PRINCIPLE not also valid on the physical level, when we are told so very plainly to glorify God "in our bodies"? In other words, if God gave us five or two talents or even just one talent in the physical area, do we at Christ's return say: "Here is what You gave me, no more no less, except for 'natural' wear and tear"? Or have we actually put out some effort to maintain and perhaps even improve our health?

There are numerous examples where people started out with incredible handicaps, or were faced with such handicaps at some point in their lives, and through sheer hard work and diligent perseverance they were able to again attain to the state of health that most of us simply take for granted. Is it just the people who are faced with great obstacles and with physical handicaps that "strive to improve" on what they have to work with? It's like they are improving from one talent to five talents (physically speaking), while we start with five talents and never improve on that; if anything, we gradually slip down to four talents and then to three talents.

Shouldn't we show God that we too are desirous of giving Him back MORE than we started out with? Shouldn't we be responsible in putting into practice everything we learn? It's not a matter of some minister dictating to us that ... "white bread and white sugar are bad for us". It's really a matter of in a responsible way eliminating those things from our diets and from our lives that we learn, over a period of time, are detrimental for our well-being. Are we desirous of pleasing God even with the things we eat and drink (1.John 3:22)? Or do we feel that, as long as we don't eat any of the unclean things, God isn't really concerned with what we put into our mouths? If He isn't concerned, why would He possibly have inspired the statement that we are to glorify God "in our bodies"?

As we look at this list of potent "food medicines", it would be good to also keep 1 Corinthians 6:20 in mind. Now let's look at some recent medical research results. We'll look at a list of physical conditions and see which foods have been tested to help with those conditions.

I will only present the results of the research. I will NOT here present the proof, as established by reputable medical research. If any one of these areas is of interest or concern to you, then I would strongly urge you to obtain your own reference material with this type of information. And at the end I hope you can see the VAST, VAST RANGE of conditions for which common foods have been shown to be powerful medicines.

SOME PHYSICAL CONDITIONS INFLUENCED BY COMMON FOODS:

To help us fight off sicknesses and diseases, God equipped our bodies with several lines of defence. The first line of defence are the white blood cells, the "neutrophils", which surround and kill bacteria and cancer cells, and the "lymphocytes", which include "T-cells" and "B-cells" and

"NK cells" ("natural killer cells"). The "B-cells" produce critical antibodies that rush to destroy foreign invaders, like viruses, bacteria and tumour cells. The "T-cells" direct many immune activities and produce two chemicals that help ward off infections and cancer. The "NK" cells are the body's first line of defence against the development of cancer by destroying cancer cells and also virus-infected cells.

Now what we eat can in a very powerful way influence these different parts of the white blood cells! For example, at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg they discovered that the white blood cells of vegetarians were TWICE AS DEADLY AGAINST TUMOUR CELLS AS THOSE OF MEAT-EATERS! In another study, a few years ago Dr. Tarig Abdullah and some colleagues at the Akbar Clinic and Research Centre in Panama City, Florida ate large amounts of raw garlic (up to 15 cloves a day) and they found that the blood from the garlic eaters had more NK cells, and also that such NK cells destroyed from 140% to 160% more cancer cells than did the NK cells from non-garlic eaters. Garlic (as just one example) is in many ways a powerful medicine!

So here is a list of health conditions together with the foods that can help us overcome or minimize these conditions. For the sake of brevity I will just say "eat ..." and "avoid ..." with the clear understanding, as already stated earlier, that this in not intended as individual medical advice, but simply as a summary of information gleaned from scientific studies as presented in the book I referred to earlier.

1) CANCERS IN GENERAL: eat all vegetables, especially garlic, onions (red or yellow but not white), cabbage, fruits, especially citrus, broccoli, cauliflower, soybeans, carrots, tomatoes.

Avoid: high fat foods, vegetable oils (corn and sunflower type oils), and excessive alcohol. The more fruits and vegetables people eat, the less likely they are to get cancer.

2) BREAST CANCER: eat cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, high vitamin C fruits, wheat bran, beans, olive oil, soybeans, vitamin D foods (esp. fish).

Avoid: excessive meat, fatty foods, Omega-6 oils (sunflower, corn oil, etc.), excessive alcohol, coffee, tea, colas and chocolate (the last four all contain methylxanthines, which have repeatedly been shown to cause breast lumps).

3) COLON CANCER: eat lots of fibre (wheat bran), lots of vegetables, raw cabbage and broccoli, calcium foods (milk), pectin (apples), and yogurt.

Avoid: high fat foods, beer, excessive red meats, excessive alcohol.

4) LUNG CANCER: eat broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, all fruits, beans, green leafy vegetables and oranges.

5) CANCER OF THE PANCREAS: eat all fruits, especially citrus, tomatoes, water melon, and legumes (beans).

Avoid: red meat and coffee.

6) STOMACH CANCER: eat cabbage, garlic, onions, fruits (for vitamin C) and vegetables (especially raw), celery, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, and soybeans.

Avoid: excessive salt, cured meats and smoked meats.

7) ANTI SKIN CANCER: eat Omega-3 fatty acids (especially olive oil), garlic, onions and fish oil. Avoid: Omega-6 fatty acids (corn oil, sunflower oil, etc.).

8) CERVICAL CANCER: Need more folic acid. Therefore eat especially broccoli and tomatoes.

9) CANCER OF THE LARYNX: eat carrots, pumpkin, green leafy vegetables (for beta-carotene).

10) PROSTATE CANCER & PROSTATE PROBLEMS: eat pumpkin seeds, cucumber seeds, watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, carob, soybeans, flaxseed, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts and peanuts.

Avoid: full-cream milk, excessive amounts of cheese, eggs and meat.

11) ANXIETY & STRESS: eat starchy foods, in moderation. Avoid coffee and alcohol.

12) HEADACHES: eat ginger, fish and fish oils

Avoid: coffee, chocolate, foods containing MSG, red wine, cured meats, ice cream.

13) FOODS THAT BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY: eat yogurt, garlic, a low-fat diet, foods rich in beta carotene and zinc.

Avoid: a high-fat diet, especially polyunsaturated vegetable oils (corn, soybean oil, etc.).

14) COLDS, FLU, BRONCHITIS, SINUS, HAY FEVER: eat garlic, hot chili peppers, yogurt, vitamin C rich foods, hot curry spices, horseradish.

Avoid: full-cream milk.

15) ASTHMA: eat garlic, onions, hot chili peppers, fish oil, vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables.

Avoid: animal foods, various food allergy triggers (colas? nuts? eggs?).

16) BLADDER INFECTIONS: eat cranberries, blueberries, drink lots of fluids.

Avoid: coffee and chocolate.

17) THE HERPES VIRUS: Eat foods high in the amino acid "lysine" and low in the amino acid "arginine". Foods high in lysine are: milk, soybeans, beef (only because lysine is often added to animal feeds).

Avoid: eating chocolate, nuts and gelatin (Jell-O).

Comment: not everyone gets herpes symptoms from eating nuts (they are high in arginine).

18) RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: eat ginger, a vegetarian diet, fatty fish.

Avoid: Omega-6 oils (corn, sunflower, etc.).

19) ANTI-OSTEOPOROSIS: eat high calcium foods, nuts and fruits, pineapple juice, Vitamin D. Avoid: coffee, excessive salt, alcohol.

20) SEX HORMONES AND FERTILITY: eat fruits and vegetables, folic acid foods, foods high in vitamin C. Avoid: high fat foods.

21) MENSTRUAL PROBLEMS: eat yogurt, carbohydrates, high calcium foods, high manganese foods, soybeans.

Avoid: coffee, a very low-fat diet.

22) DIABETES: eat onions, garlic, cinnamon, high fibre foods, beans, lentils, fenugreek seeds, fish, barley, broccoli.

Avoid: fat, and don't give cow's milk to infants.

23: ACNE: Avoid fast foods (they contain excessive amounts of iodine) and kelp.

24) AIDS: Dr. Alton Meister at Cornell University Medical College found that "glutathione" blocked 90% of the spread of the AIDS virus. Glutathione is concentrated in avocado, asparagus, watermelon, fresh grapefruit and oranges, fresh peaches, raw tomatoes, broccoli. Cooking, grinding and juicing destroys some glutathione. Eat lots of garlic. Shiitake mushrooms were found to be more effective against the HIV virus than the drug AZT.

25) NURSING BABIES: If the mother eats some garlic before breast feeding her infant, the infant is likely to take MORE MILK from the breast. Drinking alcohol before breast feeding decreases the amount of milk the infant will drink.

26) CATARACTS: eat lots of fruits and vegetables (esp. spinach, avocado, asparagus, watermelon and oranges).

27) CHRONIC FATIGUE: This could be "a delayed food allergy". The most common culprits are: wheat, milk and corn.

28) CROHN'S DISEASE OF THE COLON: Most often strikes children and young adults. Appears to be due to food intolerances. Test for food intolerances and then eliminate those foods.

29) EAR INFECTIONS: In infants and youngsters often due to food allergies. Establish which foods are the problem and eliminate them.

30) GLAUCOMA: To prevent it, eat fish and fish oil.

31) GUM DISEASE: Eat fresh fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C.

32) MACULAR DEGENERATION: eat more fruits and vegetables, especially carrots and blueberries.

33) TO SPEED UP YOUR METABOLISM: eat hot spicy foods, like chilies, mustard, ginger.

34) MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: eat a low-saturated-fat diet, and Omega-3 oils.

Avoid: dairy fats and meat fats,

35) NEURALGIA: Avoid coffee. Sometimes the herpes virus is implicated, so also avoid chocolate and nuts.

36) PARASITES: Eat garlic, a very potent killer of parasites.

37) PARKINSON'S DISEASE: A deficiency of the antioxidant vitamin E in early life may set people up for this disease in later life. Eat seeds and nuts rich in vitamin E. Massive doses of vitamin E may slow down the progression of this disease.

38) TO GIVE UP SMOKING: In India boiled oats have long been used to treat opium addiction. Eating oats for one month diminished cravings for cigarettes in one test performed on "committed cigarette smokers". Foods to eat in addition to oats: spinach, beet greens, raisins, figs, almonds.

Foods to avoid: alcohol, red meats, liver, chicken, eggs, cheeses, coffee.

39) PSORIASIS (SKIN INFLAMMATION): eat fish rich in oil.

Avoid: omega-6 type oils (sunflower, corn oil, etc.).

40) VAGINITIS: eat yogurt with live active acidophilus bacterial cultures in it.

41) KIDNEY STONES: eat fruits and vegetables, high fibre grains, drink lots of water.

Avoid: excessive meat, salt, high-oxalate foods (spinach and rhubarb). Eating calcium foods does NOT dump as much calcium in the urine as does eating protein!

42) GALLSTONES: eat lots of vegetables, soybeans, olive oil, a little (!) wine, nuts, beans, lentils, fruits, fibre.

Avoid: coffee (even half a cup is dangerous in this regard) and sugar. Avoid being overweight.

43) ULCERS: eat bananas, cabbage juice, hot chili peppers, licorice (real, not imitation!), green Japanese tea, garlic.

Avoid: any excessively hot liquids (even though they don't SEEM to cause any problems!), coffee, beer, milk.

44) DIVERTICULAR DISEASE: eat bran (2 or 3 tablespoons per day).

45) SPASTIC COLON: eat more fibre (2 or 3 tablespoons of bran per day).

Avoid: coffee, milk, sugars (including fructose), chocolate, perhaps certain individual food triggers?

46) INFANT COLIC: if breast feeding, the mother should eat a little garlic before feeding the infant. A little fructose mixed into some water may alleviate the colic.

Avoid: giving the infant cow's milk.

47) HEARTBURN: This affects about 10% of Americans on any given day.

Most likely causes include: coffee, chocolate (the methylxanthines are the problem), alcohol, raw onions. Don't lie down for 3 hours after eating. Cut back on fatty foods and protein.

48) MILK (LACTOSE) INTOLERANCE: eat yogurt.

Avoid: plain milk, butter, cheese, frozen yogurt (the bacteria have been killed).

49) REMEDIES FOR GAS: eat ginger, garlic (in moderation), peppermint.

Go easy on: beans and milk (a lactose intolerance) and excessive fibre. Doctors will tell you that "if you don't have gas, you're not alive", because everybody has gas and the normal healthy person passes gas about 14 times a day. Excessive gas (flatulence) may indicate an intolerance to something that is regularly consumed.

50) UPSET STOMACH: eat bananas, ginger, a warm salty bouillon.

Avoid: coffee, carbonated drinks, fried foods, mayonnaise. If vomiting occurred drink something slightly salty.

51) DIARRHEA: eat yogurt, drink starchy cloudy fluids (a thick soup or drink made from any starchy food ... lentil soup, rice porridge, carrot soup, tapioca pudding, chicken noodle soup).

Avoid: milk, coffee, sweet drinks, fruit juices.

52) IF YOU ARE IN A CHOLERA-AREA: drink caffeine-free and sugar-free CARBONATED drinks (carbonation makes water acid enough to kill most microorganisms).

53) ANTI-CONSTIPATION: eat coarse wheat bran, fruits and vegetables, prunes, figs, dates, drink lots of water. For some people coffee, milk and cheese are also a problem.

54) STROKES: eat lots of fruits and vegetables (carrots, dark green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkin), fatty fish, drink a little wine.

Avoid: salt, excessive alcohol, animal fats.

55) HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: eat celery, garlic, fruits, vegetables, fatty fish, olive oil, vitamin C foods, potatoes, avocado, yogurt, orange juice, peanuts.

Avoid: salty foods, alcohol, fatty foods.

56) FOODS TO FIGHT BLOOD CLOTS: eat garlic, onions, hot chili peppers, ginger, cloves, olive oil, small amounts of red wine, black mushrooms.

Avoid: high fat foods, excessive alcohol.

57) ANTI-CHOLESTEROL DIET: eat beans, oats, apples, carrots, olive oil, avocados, almonds, garlic, walnuts, onions, fruits and vegetables, high fibre grains, small amounts of red wine.

Avoid: high-saturated-fat foods, high-cholesterol foods, refined flour, refined sugar, dried fruits (high in sugar).

58) HEART DISEASE: eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, onions, garlic, grains, legumes, foods high in vitamin C and in beta carotene.

Avoid: meat and dairy products, excessive alcohol.

59) PELLAGRA: eat brewer's yeast, wheat germ and liver (for the niacin in these foods).

60) HAIR FALLING OUT AND BECOMING GRAY: eat brewer's yeast, wheat germ and liver (for the various B vitamins), peanuts, leafy vegetables, and foods containing the mineral copper.

Well, that should do for a start. I know that in some ways this doesn't look impressive because I have not given you the information that shows how powerful some of these foods actually are, and exactly which components in these foods have the disease-fighting abilities (because I would rather focus on the whole foods rather than on specific components). But that information is readily available today.

You could go through the same research and present a list of foods, and then list for every food ALL of the medicinal effects that have been documented for each of those foods ... starting with "Almonds" and going all the way to "Yogurt" (A - Y). You might be amazed to see how many different medicinal attributes foods like garlic and onions and broccoli and olive oil and yogurt, etc. actually have.

And then you could list all of these foods divided into major categories, such as: antibiotic foods, anti-cancer foods, anti-coagulant foods, anti-depressant foods, anti-diarrheal foods, blood pressure lowering foods, foods with strong anti-oxidant activity, anti-inflammatory foods, anti-thrombotic foods, anti-ulcerants, anti-viral foods, cholesterol-modifying foods, foods with diuretic powers, foods with decongestant powers, foods to regulate hormones, foods to stimulate the immune system, foods with painkiller abilities, foods that work like salicylates (i.e. aspirin-like), and foods with tranquillizer properties.

I have lists like that. But I am not going to give them to you here. To do so would miss the point I am trying to get across.

The point is: There are a staggering number of foods that can help heal or at least alleviate or retard the progress of very many sicknesses and diseases. And that is how God Almighty designed it. We human beings in our modern age haven't wanted the solutions to health problems that God in His mercy built right into our food-chain. No, we have wanted to develop "scientific" medicines our way ... by producing an endless supply of synthetic drugs. And so in our wisdom we look to things like the urine of pregnant mares (the name of the sex hormone "PREMARIN" is a contraction of the words "PREgnant MAres uRINe") to sort out hormonal problems for women, rather than simply eating broccoli and cauliflower and soybeans and flaxseed and tofu and soy milk and grapes and dates and raisins and nuts and honey and legumes, to name just a few of the things that will help with hormonal problems at the time of the menopause.

[COMMENT: The 26th Edition of MARTINDALE Pharmacopoeia states on page 1679, top of column 2 the following: "PREMARIN: A mixture of orally active, water-soluble, conjugated oestrogens, derived from the urine of pregnant mares; available as tablets of 0.625, 1.25, and 2.5 mg." I present this quotation to make quite clear that I didn't make up the origin of this name.]

Many of these "medicine foods" have been used since antiquity with great success. And now, with our modern scientific research, tens of thousands of doctors are finding that these long-used food remedies are based on firm scientific foundations.

CAN WE SEE GOD'S HAND IN PROVIDING ALL THESE "MEDICINES" FOR US IN ADVANCE?

Can we see that with every trial God somehow, somewhere, in some way provides us with "a way of escape"? This is on top of "divine healing". You see, in His mercy God knew very well that the vast majority of human beings never would look to Him for healing. And it is not in God's nature to just leave His creation helpless when faced with pain and suffering. God sends His rain on the just and the unjust alike ... that's mercy and compassion. Jesus Christ died for us "while we were yet sinners" (Romans 5:8) ... that's mercy and compassion. And God provided us with common foods that also exhibit extremely powerful anti-disease qualities when we need those qualities to heal our sicknesses. All we have to do is look to the medicines that HE provided, rather than striving to concoct our own at the exclusion of what God has provided.

To clarify something: I am NOT in any way trying to detract from looking to God for healing when we are sick. The instruction in James 5:14 is very clear, and is also well-known to all of us. But once we have been anointed for a sickness, we should ALSO do everything we are reasonably able to do to overcome the problem. And sometimes our lousy diet and our deficiency of some nutrient or other may very well be one of the causes of our problem, a cause that we need to rectify ourselves. And at other times eating certain foods may powerfully strengthen the body's ability to fight against disease. To change our diet, to add certain foods to our diet and to remove other foods from our diet is one of the EASIEST things God could possibly ask of us. The information is available "out there", but we ourselves have to put forward some effort in finding it.

We "glorify" God in our bodies by what we ourselves do to work towards achieving and maintaining good health. The Apostle John expressed God's feelings of mercy and wanting to see the best for us when he wrote ...

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper AND BE IN HEALTH, even as thy soul prospereth. (3 John 1:2 AV)

One other point I want to make quite clear: DON'T CONTACT ME ABOUT WHAT FOODS YOU SHOULD EAT OR AVOID FOR YOUR PARTICULAR PROBLEM! I AM NOT AN EXPERT ON "NUTRITIONAL THERAPY"! THERE IS NO PARTICULAR VALUE TO THE ADVICE I MIGHT BE ABLE TO GIVE.

My knowledge here is simply based on what I have read. And if you are REALLY interested and motivated, then you should make the effort to read these things for yourself. My intention in providing this list is simply to show you that there is hope out there ... God has not left you helpless, destined to suffer sicknesses and diseases as "an innocent victim". The list I have provided simply illustrates the vast scope of sicknesses that can be positively influenced by eating the right foods. And the vast, vast majority of those foods happen to be "things that grow out of the ground".

Motivation is always the key!

The warning from the Surgeon General that is printed on all cigarette packets is a total waste of time. Do you really think that a smoker, upon buying a pack of cigarettes, actually READS that blurb in small print? The only ones who would ever bother to read that warning are committed non-smokers ... and they don't need that warning. But the ones who need it don't read it!

If you are suffering from some health problem, then you should look to God for healing. But God would expect you to ALSO make diligent efforts to find out what you can do to resolve the problem, what you can do to prevent the problem from recurring later, what you can do to glorify God in your body. This does not in any way prevent you from getting competent help from people qualified to help you with your particular condition (e.g. there are now literally thousands of medical doctors somewhere out there who will tell you what foods you should eat to rectify a specific health problem, etc.). And if we are not sick, we need to tread lightly (the principle of 1 Corinthians 10:12). Seek to learn more about what you can do to prevent as many health problems as possible from ever afflicting you. Seek to have as balanced and as healthy a diet as possible.

And do your own research into this subject!

Frank W. Nelte