Healthy

Since I haven’t written anything in a couple months, I thought I’d take things in a bit of a different direction. I thought I’d tackle the tofu part of the title. More specifically, I’ll roughly iron out a couple connections that I’ve begun to explore in my own life.

So, let’s get crackin. I’m sure we’ve all heard the cliche, you are what you eat. The older I get, the truer that statement becomes. Especially in light of the work of Max Gerson and his daughter Charolette, among many others. In short, their convictions are that, though many of us would not readily admit it, we are killing ourselves by the food we are eating. Namely the heavily processed, genetically modified, trans-fat saturated, not-at-all-naturally-growing matter that fills our refrigerators and restaurants that we call food. And to top all that off, most of us are awfully sick with one ailment or another for most of the year, so we go to the doctor and get things like an antibiotic for our cold, or flu. Or we schedule a regime of chemo and radiation therapy for our cancer.

First of all, are we really that ignorant? Antibiotic?? Is there anyone else in the world who realizes that there is such a things as healthy bacteria? An antibiotic, simply put, kills ALL bacteria. Do you see the connection? The antibiotic kills the good along with the bad, which, just take a look around at the health of people around you, and you’ll notice that those antibiotics are likely doing more damage than they are doing good. But that’s neither here nor there, right?

Let’s take cancer as an example. Max Gerson was curing cancer and other debilitating diseases in 1928. Yeah, that’s right, 1928! How, you might ask? Through a raw, organic regime of massive amounts of juices and other naturally growing foods. He had almost a 98% success rate. Let’s compare that to our modern medical practices. Pretty much our only answer for the problem of cancer is, LET’S RADIATE! or chemo… This may be a shock, but according to the Abilene Reporter News today, radiation may cause cancer. But, that’s ok. Someone has cancer so we’ll treat it with an agent that also…causes cancer… brilliant idea! Here are a couple figures from globalhealingcenter.com:

• “Percentage of cancer patients whose lives are predictably saved by chemotherapy – 3%
• Conclusive evidence (majority of cancers) that chemotherapy has any positive influcence on survival or quality of life – none.

So, to take the discussion through a different door, specifically speaking to folks who would label themselves as Christian, in the broadest sense of the word, what does this mean? I would suggest that its awfully difficult to have a healthy spiritual life (be honest with yourself) and NOT have a healthy physical body. Further, I would suggest that it’s equally difficult to treat your illnesses, either medically or naturally, if the food you eat is counteracting or suppressing the desired effect of the medicine. Now, I could be lynched for this one, but I would further argue that the “medicine” you take for common and crippling diseases is in fact not helping your body heal, but making it far more difficult for your body to fight off the infections.

Essentially what I’m saying is, is that there must be some inherent connection between the health of our physical bodies, the health of our spiritual selves and the food that nourishes us. Are you finding real nourishing food or are you simply filling your stomach artificial, chemical imitations of food? Do you think you can be a chronically ill, sickly, and malnourished person and have a flourishing spiritual life? Are we so naive to think that the food we eat doesn’t have some sort of effect on our body, whether good or ill?

Just a couple thoughts. It seems to me that there are some basic assumptions that we make about our bodies, in their entirety, that are not really based on anything other than, if I die, I want to die happy (with my face buried in a hormone laced, genetically modified bacon cheese look-a-like burger). To top it off. Are you food choices sustainable, or are you supporting some sort of bigger, more global destruction of life?

 

Food

I figured today, I’ll keep in line with the namesake of my blog and steer away from the directly, or traditionally religious jargon I’ve been known for lately.  That’s assuming I’m actually “known” in the vast landscape that is the blog-o-sphere.

So let’s discuss food.  Have you ever considered where your food comes from?  Have you ever considered the purpose of food?  Is there any sort of spiritual, or even sacramental element to food?  (by sacramental, I mean, a window into the sacred)  Is it possible that there could be some sort of connection between the previous questions?  I’ll offer up a simple scenario and we’ll see where things progress from there.

If we consider the current landscape of food, especially in western culture, primarily in America, food closely reflects the values of society as a whole.  We want it now, we want it cheap and we really don’t want to have to participate in any sort of long term interaction with anyone in order to secure the purchase of these commodities.  Essentially, we accept our lot as excessive consumers and food becomes nothing more than another industry, a product, something else we buy and consume.

In my opinion, there are several issues with that line of thinking.  I’ll try to be as concise as possible here.

First of all, when we choose ignorance, we are just as guilty as if we are willfully disregard something as true and beneficial.  This refers to my original question, “have you considered where your food comes from?”  Are you aware that much of the food you “enjoy” is brought to you by the sweat of slaves?  Products like coffee and rice, among others, are largely farmed, grown and harvested for pennies on the dollar.  Many of those farmers don’t even make enough money off their product to put food on their family’s table.

Another large portion of the food we eat contains corn, and it’s probably true that most everything has some sort of corn related product in it.  You may be thinking, well, corn is a vegetable, so at least I’m getting some veggies.  That would be a solid argument if the corn that’s in everything was actually a natural product.  It’s been so massively genetically modified, that it will no longer grow in the the wild.  I mean, do you really want to be eating something that is also used to fuel your vehicle?

Then there’s the issue of the meat we eat.  The beef and chicken we eat are fed the leftovers of the corn crop.  The reason for that is we can grow them to market weight in a third of the time that natural growth allows.  That’s then were the antibiotics come in.  Animals aren’t given those to fight off infections, they boosted with antibiotics and steroids to keep them alive long enough to get them to the market for the maximum price.

Okay, so all this begs another question.  What is then the purpose of our food?  It’s my opinion that it was originally intended to bring life and healing to our bodies.  But now, I think it does just the opposite.  It sucks the life from our bodies and really doesn’t offer any sort of healing properties.  I mean, what would we look like, if when we caught a cold, if we sipped herbal tea and ate only dark, leafy greens and naturally dark colored fruits and vegetables instead of popping a pill and washing it down with a glass of hormone laced milk and genetically modified (what’s labeled as) chicken noodle soup?

That brings me then to my third question, is there something spiritual about food?  My answer is yes.  There is a connection between all these arguments.  When I am aware of where my food is coming from, purchasing only those products that were fairly produced and traded, I am participating in the life and well being of the farmers who produce my food.  I’m making sure that I’m not enjoying a delicious meal at their expense.  That is a deeply spiritual experience.  Further, when I consider the purpose of my food and the nutritional value, or lack thereof, it becomes some much more than just a routine filling of my stomach.  When we think about our food either bringing life or sucking it from me, either through bloating or Montezuma’s revenge, I’ll always choose those things that give life.

We all want to know what our purpose here on earth is.  I believe that one of the elements of our purpose is to bring life, and that, across the board.  Food is one of those ways.  I choose to support local or fairly paid farmers, I choose not to eat beef and chicken, mainly because the production of those “foods” does not in any way bring life because of the massive amount of pollutants emitted during the production process.

So, do I know where my food comes from?  For the most part, yes.  Have I considered the purpose of food?  Absolutely, and I feel so much better eating naturally, organically and fairly traded.  And do I believe there is some sort of spiritual element to food?  Without a doubt!  Would I rather be intimately connected to a farmer and his family or a production machine and hospital bed.