(1) RECLAIMING YOUR HEALTH

 

 

Food is a very touchy subject. I get it. I grew up in a culture where pretty much everything was a sin, EXCEPT eating. It was all we could do, and we did it enthusiastically! (2) But now we are living with the consequences. Just listen to the prayer requests in any given church. The majority is for sicknesses and illnesses. And most of it is for chronic disease that we have brought on ourselves: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, memory loss, cancer, and the list goes on. Most of these are preventable diseases.

 

 

So the big questions is this: Why do we avoid talking about food and health and how it affects us? When information is presented to us, why do we ignore, laugh, or dismiss the information? The answer is simple…we don’t want to hear. Health is not dealt with in the church. We think God will take care of me, He’s got this. And we keep doing what everyone else is doing.

 (3) Romans 12:1 says to present your bodies a living sacrifice….”living” means be among the living, enjoy real life, active, fresh, strong, efficient. Holy, acceptable, meaning well pleasing, fully agreeable. We can’t help the body of Christ if we don’t take the time to take care of ourselves. We need to be able to function in the capacity that God has called us to.

 

 

We are in a war, both physical and spiritual. There are two types of people in a war…..Those who are sucked into it without realizing. Think of the Jews led into the camps. And those who are aware of what’s going on around them and are ready to respond….Think of Pearl Harbor. There was no denying war that day.

 

 

One way to stop an enemy is to make them believe they are not in a fight. The enemy is a deceiver. The Bible calls him a lion seeking whom he may devour. Who does the lion attack….the one who is not paying attention. He deceives us into thinking everything is ok.

 

 

And that is what is happening in the war for our health. It’s called the Great American Food Fraud.

 

 

You may say, “What’s the big deal? I ate fast food, candy, etc, growing up and I turned out ok.” The food that we grew up with in the 70’s and 80’s is NOT the same food on the shelves today. McDonald’s fries used to have 3 ingredients: potatoes, beef tallow, salt. Now they have 12 ingredients! (4) The truth is we can’t eat those same foods and neither should our kids. The truth is that the foods we buy in America are completely different from the same food bought in almost every other country.

 Why? The chemicals, ingredients and dye are not allowed in their food. That’s why you can take a trip to another country, like Italy, eat all their pasta, and feel fine and probably not even gain weight on your trip.

 

 

Food has become a science. A very precise, targeted, science. That box of cereal, bag of chips, soda, or whatever it may be, has had a considerable amount of time and money spent on it being studied, developed, tested, and advertised. All with one goal in mind: to get you to buy it. Not just once, but over and over again. The goal is not to make it nourishing for your body, but to get you hooked on the flavor by any means possible. That includes adding chemicals, sugar, artificial colors, forever chemicals, and anything else to appeal to your appetite. (5) I John talks about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It’s almost like the advertising companies read the Bible!

 (6) In the early 90’s, the American Dietetic Association was funded by Sara Lee, M&M’s, and McDonalds. Today it’s even worse.

 

 

So who is behind all this? (7) The kids of the 80’s were the last generation to grow up without social media. During that time, the Tobacco companies saw the writing on the wall, that the truth was coming out that smoking caused cancer. They had the best marketing machine. They could market to adults and make them buy something that was not good for them. Remember the Marlboro Man? Camel Joe? But what were they to do with the truth coming out? They started buying up food companies and used the same, definitely brilliant, marketing strategy, and started targeting kids with foods. (8) RJ Reynolds bought Hawaiian Punch and Camel Joe became Punchy. Hawaiian Punch used to just have too much sugar. Now it has sugar and over 100 added chemicals. (9) In 1995, Phillip Morris bought Kool-Aid and the Marlboro Man became the Kool-Aid Guy. (10) In 1998, Phillip Morris bought Kraft. The same chemicals that they added to tobacco to get you addicted, they added to foods to override you body’s response to say “I’m full, I’ve had enough to eat.” They override your cravings, disrupt your endocrine system (hormones), and lower your immune system. (11, 12)

 

 

We are paying the price for eating nutritionally deficient foods. The US ranks 13th in overall health, last in every category of healthy system performance, highest in infant and maternal mortality, and we have 5 years shorter life expectance according to the Commonwelath Fund and foundation that provides independent research on todays key healthcare issues.

 

 

(13) If you wanted to get all the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals, you would have to eat 27,000 calories a day! If you decided to do that, you would gain about 6 pounds of fat per day.

 

 

So we take supplements to fill the gap. But now the Pharmaceutical companies are buying up the supplement companies and producing cheap, synthetic supplements. We need whole foods and whole food supplements. There are only about 4 companies that still produce whole food supplements. Your body can only absorb 10% of synthetic supplements. But it’s a lot cheaper to manufacture synthetic versus whole food. Remember, they are not in business for your health.

 

 

(14) There is a new disease called Ultra Processed Food Disorder (Seriously). (15, 16, 17) The solution: SSRI’s, Antidepressants (Seriously). (18) Ultra Processed Food Disorder does not cause a deficiency of anti-depressants. (19) There were 1 billion drugs prescribed in America last year. (Some are needed) The population of the US is 334.9 million people. Most people are on 5, 6, & 7 drugs.

 

 

The chemicals added to processed foods cause 2 things: (20)

 

 

1. Endocrine system disruption (hormones)

 

2. Disruption of the Gremlin Leptin receptors (tells the body you’ve had enough or not enough food)

 

 

(21) The same chemicals that were added to cigarettes to get you addicted, were added to foods. Have you ever tried to each one Oreo? One Dorito?

 

(22, 23) We need to return to common sense food habits. (24) It really does matter what we put in our bodies and the bodies of our kids. There really is a connection with the health of the gut and the health of the body and mind. (25) Our kids are suffering immensely. Obesity, ADD/ADHD, diabetes, autism, cancer, are all on the rise. We really do need to eat our fruits and vegetables. It is where the nutrition for our bodies comes from. Sadly, for far too many, satisfying the craving is more important than satisfying the need. The struggle IS real. Sugar is more addicting than cocaine. When we can’t go one day with that coke, that diet soda, or that cup or cups of coffee, when food or drink is an ever-present temptation to which we constantly yield, then it is clear we are addicted. And that is the goal of the food companies.

 

By allowing food to control us, we are doing the enemy’s work for him. He doesn’t have to make us ineffective for the Kingdom, we have done that to ourselves. (26) We are too sick and tired to do Kingdom work. Too sick to do outreach. Too sick to help our brother or sister. Too sick to come to church. Not all illness is our fault, but the majority is preventable.

 We have no trouble praying, “God heal me of….”. But then we don’t want to give up what is causing that sickness or disease in the first place. If God were to heal us today, are we willing to change our lifestyle to keep the healing, or would we go right back to making ourselves sick again?

 

Start today. (27) Make small changes. Every bit helps. Drink more water. Eat less processed foods. Use apps like “Yuka” to help make good decisions with the food and products you buy. Read the label of the food/drink you are consuming. If the ingredient list is longer than the preamble of our Constitution, it’s probably not good for you. 3-5 ingredients is best. The body has an innate ability to heal when given the nutrients it needs. Fasting is a great way to start as the benefits are not just physical, but spiritual also. If you’ve never fasted, start with one meal. For those more experienced, a three-day fast is excellent.

 

Some may say it’s too hard. Let’s say you have abused your body for 10 years. Fair would be that it would take 10 years to repair the damage. But our bodies are amazingly designed and instead of 10 years to heal, the body can heal in 1/10th that time, 1 year. What a blessing!

 (28) God created us. Jesus died for us. The Spirit dwells in us. I should do everything in my power to make sure this temple is in as good as shape as possible for His glory.

 

It really does come down to the old, simple saying: “Are you eating to live, or living to eat?”