Here it is. I said I was gonna write it and I finally have. Food and Common Sense.

In an earlier post I mentioned how I thought so much of eating well is just common sense. Unfortunately, I think many people today lack common sense. I really think that it is a gift from God. I know that I do not always have it in all things and sometimes more than others.

First, I would say that things God has blessed us with in nature are to be our sustenance. When we take something God made as good and twist it, corrupt it, adulterate it… then our minds, our conscience, dare I say, our common sense should instruct us that it will not promote the same life and fuel in the body that God’s untampered sustenance would.

Naturally then, one can see that if we, in addition to ruining good food, also presume to eat or ingest things that are man-made, artificial, and/or manufactured then our God-made bodies will not function appropriately on the artificial (read fake) food.

Since we all approach life and learning with different presuppositions, let me tell you where I am coming from. I am not a vegetarian, vegan, or all raw food advocate. I strive to eat the diet of the Bible while recognizing, as I mentioned in my ‘About Me’ section, that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

In Genesis 1:29 it says “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.” From the beginning God gave us good food from that which He created.

Later, after the fall of man, God instructed Noah saying “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” This was a change in that God gave man freedom to eat meat.

Later, when giving the law to Moses in Leviticus 11, God instructed the Israelites on foods they could eat by the cleanliness. While we are not under the law of Moses today the wisdom that God gave then still applies today. There are foods that are more excellent than others. There are meats that are better than others. There are clean and unclean things.

So common sense looks at what God has made. It looks at what God has revealed in creation and revealed to people throughout the ages. Wisdom with regard to food has been passed down such that we can know with common sense that cooking food is ok, eating meat is ok, and enjoying God’s creation is good.

There are new things to consider though. Governments and corporations try to tell us what is good when they have no clue. Don’t buy it. If you don’t know what something is on an ingredient list don’t just eat it thinking it will be ok. Go learn about it. So how does this play out in a practical way? Let’s say you pick up that can of diet soda and see ‘high fructose corn syrup’ and ‘aspartame’ on there. Do you know what that is? Really? Go look it up and read about them. After learning I hope that you will not drink that anymore.

In our day and age many great foods are not the same. Take the example of fish. So much fish is contaminated with mercury that one must be careful in choosing (and not to choose farmed fish either… ha). Also, the soil of many industrial farms is not the quality of a small private organic farm. Also, one farm may let their animals out on pasture eating greens as God intended while another farm may never let their animals outside of a barn. The quality in the food from these animals is drastically different.

Life gives life. Eat food that promotes life and you will be giving life to your body… you will be eating today to live tomorrow. Remember though, we are body, soul, and spirit. I believe our bodies are the weakest of the three. If you ask God, the Giver of Life, to give life to your spirit then He will and you will never die.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Food and Common Sense.

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Food and Common Sense… numero dos

Per my previous post, here are some of the things I do when I am under the weather.

- pray

- sleep

- eat easily digestible foods to conserve the bodies energy (have broths and lots of liquids, stay away from sugary drinks, juices, no pasteurized products)

- get lots of antioxidants

- drink Kombucha

- drink green and white tea

- eat extraordinary foods (see below)

- peroxide in the ears

- clean out the nose with saline solution

- take oregano oil

- herbs (turmeric, garlic, echinacea, licorice root (glycyrrhiza glabra), astragalus (I have never taken this one), etc)

Some pills that I find helpful:

RM-10 (Garden Of Life)

Seasonal Relief (Garden of Life)

Vitamin C

Now… for some further explanation.

Sleep is huge. This should be obvious, but many people including myself, find it hard to stop, take time off work, and just rest.

One of the most (probably the most) energy consuming tasks of the body is digestion. By eating easily digestible foods you allow your body to have more energy to fight the sickness that is ravaging your body.  So if you can have some broth or make some fresh vegetable juice all the better. Green tea, white tea, and kombucha provide lots of antioxidants.

When I said “eat extraordinary foods” I am referring to foods that are excellent for health all around. These are foods that are beneficial all the time but especially when you are not feeling well. Foods like extra virgin coconut oil, broccoli sprouts, blueberries, bee pollen (unless you are allergic of course), dark leafy greens, and herbs provide so much nutrition and immune support that your body can recover much quicker. As far as dairy goes I only stick to raw dairy and when I am sick in limited amounts. Raw cow’s milk is excellent but it will provoke an immune response and you may have some additional mucus. Raw goat’s milk is much more easily digested by the body and would be much better when sick ( or anytime for that matter),

Some things like cleaning out your nasal passages, peroxide in the ears, and oil pulling… I know they work. I have done enough reading and have enough experience with them to know they work in my body… but that’s all I know. I have read all the “they do this, that, and the other” but that doesn’t really cut it for me. I like a little more concrete evidence. So with these things I would say proceed with caution. Read books. Do some research and see what you find. Listen to your body. I feel really funny saying “listen to your body”.  Strangely enough, I had the feeling on Friday that I was getting sick. By Monday it hit. I should have taken preemptive measures sooner, buuuuuut I didn’t.

As far as pills go, I prefer only whole food supplements. Garden Of Life is great for that so I usually stick with them for the quality, although there are some others that provide whole food supplements and are good as well.

The last couple of days the advanced hygiene, sleep, and broccoli sprouts were very helpful. Welp, that is all for now. I hope that this blog may help you if you ever experience ‘under the weatherness’. Get below deck.

So I was “under the weather” the past couple of days. Yeah… me… under the weather… who would a thunk it.

I found it kind of amusing actually… well, before and after… not during my “under the weatherness”. Since I changed my diet I rarely get ill, especially when compared to my pre healthy diet days. I used to get sick about 4-6 times a year on average. Now it has been more like once every two years with the past year being the exception. Since I have moved to Nashville I have felt more under the weather than usual… like 2-3 times.

The past couple of days was the only time though that I felt drained of all my energy. The other times I had energy and was able to be up, out, and about. On this past Monday, I was so dead… I felt like I could hardly move. I hardly ate and slept for around 15 hours.

The amazing thing was to watch my body recover. On Monday, as I mentioned, I mostly slept. I tried to promote a fever as that is the body’s natural way of fighting off infection. I dressed up in several layers and went to bed hoping to sweat it out. On Tuesday I woke up feeling about the same but I knew I would be recovering. I had some congestion and I watched my mucus go from brown to green to clear within about 6 hours. As the day went on I started feeling more and more energy and started to have an appetite again.

By Tuesday evening I had way more energy and knew that I was on the way up. I still have some leftover congestion but I can tell my body is getting rid of it in normal fashion. Also, it is so much better to feel good and have energy with congestion than to feel like cutting your head off with congestion. I think it is rather amazing how our body works to heal itself.

I have a list of many things I do to help my body heal. I put them in this separate post here. That way I can bookmark it. I always have to re-think what I should do when I am not feeling well and thinking is the last thing I want to do when I am feeling bad.

If you eat extremely well… will you still get sick? That is for a future post.

Since this is the first blog of the site, I thought I would talk about the reason I even started this blog. Sure it could go in the About Me section… but really I find that it continues to change day by day and therefore I will probably blog regularly about the purpose of this blog.

The majority of people who grew up in the USA have no clue when it comes to food. We have grown up with supermarkets with all types of manufactured foods. We think pop-tarts and fruity pebbles are normal breakfast foods. The fact is, they are not food. Food is a nutritious substance that we consume to maintain life and growth. Yeah, textbook definition.

What many consider to be food is just manufactured ingredients or food that has been so processed, refined, and adulterated that our bodies do not recognize it as food. I remember an international student visiting one of my Econ classes in college and during the Q&A somehow the subject of food came up and the student, when asked about food in the U.S. said “It all tastes like plastic”. She went on to say that it didn’t have much flavor. She was right.

So in 2004 I started changing my diet. I changed for several reasons. My mom passed away in 2002 and that played a big part of it. I remember studying several alternative healing methods and trying to find the connection between food and health because I knew there was one. My sister was also making changes and that motivated me to study it further. Gradually I kept learning about food and changing things that I could. I am still learning today and this blog is just another part of that journey.

I have found that the more I learn about food, the more I enjoy eating food. Not living to eat, but eating to live.

There is lots more to share… lots more to come.

-Tim