Under the curse of the Fall, our fallen observations often don’t see it and our fallen natures often don’t believe it. We’re tangled and pathologically selfish. We’re out of step in what the Lord in His goodness would have for every tiny, detailed aspect of our human being. Unbelief.
What we tend to believe in are those things that satisfy our appetites, increase our personal prestige, align with our preferences, pleasantly interest our needs, operate within our desired timetable, and are convenient and comfortable for our wants, needs and desires. Selfish.
From childhood through our senior years we’re so often frustrated. We don’t like to be told what to do, what to eat, what not to eat, what to wear, when to go to bed, when to get up, what to study, when to study, where to study, what to clean, when to clean, why to exercise, and on and on. We don’t like limits imposed on us by parents, teachers, bosses, spouses, children, neighborhood associations, government, or God. We go against the controls of morality, ethics, law, and even biology. Irresponsible.
We have an indwelling evil tendency to challenge what is good especially from the Lord. We’re inclined to not believe God that His design for us – which implies limits for us – is best for us (Genesis 3:4 – 6). We have a fallen, innate desire to be self-sufficient, self-determining, sovereign, mean, little gods. The world, the flesh, and the devil does everything it can to get us to nurse every tiny, detailed aspect of our human being at the trash dump…including at the useless table of Gehenna. Evil.
It’s Your Choice and Your Choice Only
Therefore, I present to you that the evil choice of consuming unnatural foods gets us into deep, serious, painful, deadly and expensive health problems because without knowing (or caring) about the good and simple basics of health we will dine, or rather nurse, at the fallen table of Gehenna and suffer its horrifying price during this brief time we have here on Earth.
I’m calling on you to be honest about who you are, so you can be changed from the inside out because without that honesty – health is not going to happen. Are you willing to be honest about what you eat? Are you willing to turn away from the present unnatural foods you’re consuming? Are you willing to eat foods that are not processed?
Having the health, energy and the vitality you desire is much more modest than you’ve been led to believe. The good news is that there are just a few simple rules you need to follow IF you want the power to be well.
When it comes to our body, we have a tendency to over-complicate things just like the food industry does with our foods.
We get caught in the pattern of trying dozens of (expensive) different things to get our health and energy to where we want it, but we end up confused, exhausted, frustrated and more often than not, back to square one or worse than when we started.
It’s Really Rather Quite Simple
The reality is I believe there are just a handful of nutritional rules we need to follow.
Following these simple rules will get us 80% of the way there, with just 20% of the effort required.
A Simple Rule
One of the absolute most important and simple rules to having the power to be well is really rather modest – give up processed foods.
I believe one of the rules of having the power to be well is to eat as close to the Earth and as close to nature as possible…the way God intended it to be. And it all starts with giving up processed foods right now…as quickly as possible. Here are some life-changing reasons that’ll keep you from dining at the terrible table of Gehenna:
#1: They’re Full Of Toxic Chemicals Proven to Harm and Kill Your Body
It’s a simple fact, processed foods – fast foods, microwave meals, packaged foods, ready-to-eat, just-reheat meals, stuff that’s been pre-prepared months ago and then magically infused with chemicals and preservatives so it still tastes okay when someone is ready to eat it – are full of known carcinogens, artificial substances, artificial sweeteners, sugars, salt, wheat, grains, chemicals and all sorts of other substances that should not be in our body.
I believe we intuitively know that the dozens and dozens of ingredients we’ve never heard of that are listed on a food label are not good for our health. Discernment.
But we often overlook it. Or at least most folks try not to think about it. Distraction.
But when you scratch beneath the surface and actually look at what some of these ingredients are it’s shocking and very, very disturbing. Detection.
For example, here are just a few of the thousands of ingredients commonly found in many processed foods:
- Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT): Preservatives that affect the neurological system of your brain alter behavior and have the potential to cause cancer. Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) is a chemical preservative so deadly that just 5 grams can kill you.
- Azodicarbonamide: this is the chemical that food activists exposed at Subway as using in their bread, sadly this very unhealthy chemical still exists in hundreds of products. It’s a product that allows manufacturers to produce breads fast and cheap. It’s been linked to respiratory issues, asthma, tumor formation and cancer and lots more. It’s called the yoga mat additive as it is the same chemical that is used to make yoga mats, shoe soles and lots of other rubbery things.
- Sodium benzoate which is found in most soft drinks, fruit juices and salad dressings, has been found to cause children to become measurably more hyperactive and distracted.
- Sodium nitrite a commonly used preservative in hot dogs, deli meats and bacon, has been linked to higher rates of colorectal, stomach and pancreatic cancers.
- Diacetyl which is often used as a butter flavoring has been shown to have major concerns for brain health and may trigger Alzheimer’s disease.
- And a special mention has to go to that ever popular toxin MSG. Based on peer reviewed studies, there’s no question that MSG is neurotoxic (poison to the nervous system). It’s been shown to cause blindness and many other problems such as headaches, fatigue, disorientation and depression. But the big problem is, even though we’re aware that MSG is terrible, most of the time we don’t even know we’re eating it because it’s so well hidden. Deception.
While most MSG comes in the form of glutamic acid, the chemical’s active component is usually listed on labels under seemingly innocuous names like “natural flavors” or “hydrolyzed protein”. It’s very difficult to really know whether MSG is in your food because it has so many aliases that the food industry wants to hide from you on purpose.
This is just a small number of the names that hides MSG in your food:
- Gelatin
- Yeast Extract
- Malted Barley
- Rice Syrup or Brown Rice Syrup
- Autolyzed yeast
- Calcium Caseinate
- Corn Starch
- Maltodextrin
The list goes on…and on. Eating close to the Earth you‘ll avoid MSG, and by avoiding processed foods you’ll avoid the toxic MSG.
Also, I need to mention “acrylamide” which is a big cancer risk – particularly to children. It occurs in food when its cooked at high temperatures causing it to brown. Coffee, fried potato products, biscuits, crackers, breads and certain types of baby foods are all sources of acrylamide. It’s absorbed into the body by the gastrointestinal tract, distributed to all the organs and extensively metabolized, leaving behind glycidamide which is a cause of gene mutations and tumors.
Why’s All that Junk in there?
Processed foods have to have these (harmful) ingredients in them in order to be what they are. Chemicals, additives, artificial colors, artificial flavorings, fillers, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, preservatives, salt, sugar, grains and wheat are so prevalent in processed foods. Without these, the processed foods would look nothing like they’re supposed to, taste horrific, and date-expire long before they even reach the grocery store’s shelves.
And here’s the scary thing…the study into the effects of these chemicals is still a new practice – and the findings like those above are only scratching the surface.
No one knows what other damage these unregulated chemicals could be causing…but we can only speculate and none of its any good.
Always keep in mind that the more steps your food has gone through to get from the Earth to your plate, from the natural raw material to the product you are consuming, the fewer nutrients survive and the more chemicals there are which always means that if you eat them you’re robbing your health by dining at the Gehenna table of thieves.
#2: They are Chemically Designed to be Addictive
The food manufacturing (and fast food) industry invests billions of dollars each year into finding the perfect chemical combinations to make their foods addictive.
They know the perfect ratios of sugars, trans-fats, wheat, grains, salts and chemicals to get you addicted to their product.
But it goes further than that, too. They also know how to create foods that feel overwhelmingly satisfying during consumption, but give you no satiation – meaning you feel hungry for more of the same kinds of foods very quickly after consumption.
For example, sugar. The optimum amount of sugar in a product is known as the “bliss point.” Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that’ll send us over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves.
When it comes to fat (not the good kind, but the trans-fat kind), the industry calls it “mouth feel.” That’s the warm, gooey taste of cheese, or the bite into a crisp fried chicken that you get. It rushes right to the same pleasure centers of the brain that sugar does.
When it comes to salt, the food industry is totally hooked on salt. It’s the miracle ingredient that solves most of their problems. There’s the flavor burst to the salt itself, but it also serves as a preservative so foods can stay on the shelves for months. It also masks a lot of the off-notes in flavors that are inherent to processed foods.
Changing our lifestyle and health habits can be hard enough, a real challenge, and the last thing we need is for the foods we’re trying to stay away from being chemically designed to be addictive.
But no matter what, we must move away from these processed-sugary-salty-chemicalized foods, these “Franken-foods”, and get back to real, natural foods the way the Lord intends us to nourish our body.
Reason #3: They Strip Out Everything Good and Replace it with Complex, Artificial Ingredients
Producers are less concerned with preserving nutrients than they are with turning a profit. They do so by producing the maximum amount of product at the lowest cost, and manufacturing it to maximize shelf life – none of which happens without taking chemical liberties, tossing in a few more preservatives and sacrificing nutrients along the way.
Again – processed foods without these chemicals would look very unappetizing, be a very strange color, smell bad, and would spoil long before you bought it.
They have to include these ingredients to make their product work, and they have to add all the bad stuff along with “clever” yet fraudulent marketing to fool you into thinking it’s okay to eat. Demonic deception.
This is another big thing to look out for: It’s something you should take offence at. So many companies are still bending the meaning of words, rules and ideas to make you think a food is healthy, “organic”, “all-natural” when the reality is that it’s far from it…it’s fit only for the Gehenna table of death.
#4: They Sap You Of Energy and Age You
Your body is messaging you all of the time 24/7. This is why it’s so important for you to be taking inventory, assessments, of your body all the time during your waking hours. For example, how do you feel after eating pizza, fast foods, chips, ice cream?
Do you feel energized and happy? Or are you tired, irritable, bloated and sad?
The fact that most people end up feeling lethargic, sleepy and even depressed after eating processed food is the body’s way of saying, “This is NOT the way to nourish me.”
These foods are a huge shock to your body. They also age you much more quickly than you’d expect. Your body requires just about all of your energy just to process these toxic foods, digest them (if possible), and keep you barely functioning. And if you do it day after day after day then you’re going to eventually reap what you’ve sown and it always comes at the worse time possible.
Dining at the Gehenna table of sickness always comes with a terrible price you must pay for sooner or later. But you can stop dining there…it’s your choice and yours only.
Listen to your body – see how you feel after eating a meal. Is the food fuel? Does it energize you? Does it make you feel good? Does it enable you to have normal bowel movements? Does it enable you to have restful sleep?
Without exception, processed foods will ALWAYS leave you feeling worse in every way.
Reason #5: They Encourage the Retention of Body Fat
Processed foods are always designed to be impossibly unsatisfying. One Oreo is never enough; one chip is never enough, and so forth and so on.
Processed foods are strategically designed to be loaded with the “perfect” ingredients to guarantee fat retention.
Sugar (and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)…the worst thing EVER invented in the food industry), are in staggering high quantities in processed foods.
It’s a fact that consumption of these “empty calories” will never help you to lose weight or prevent weight gain. Studies and research have proven the devastating effects these highly concentrated sugars have on metabolism which always lead to insulin resistance, high triglycerides, increased fat in the liver, heart disease, cancer, etc.
Plus of course, sugars like fructose (from the HFCS) actually go straight to the liver and are stored as fat. When you consume concentrated fructose like this the brain is not sent any messages that calories have been consumed – so you keep consuming. You can eat large numbers of calories and the brain still thinks you’re hungry.
The food industry is designed and set up to make you unhealthy and keep you that way. Deception.
At the end of the day, processed foods, and their lack of actual nutrition plus their highly chemical, trans-fat, salt, wheat, grain, and sugar-based contents are always going to lead your body to jump into an acidic state, and when you’re acidic the body will always lock down into survival mode and hang onto fat at all costs while increasing the deadly inflammation within your body.
#6 Processed Foods are ALL Highly Acid-Forming
If you want to have the power to be well with the health, vitality, energy, and the body of your dreams then you must avoid these highly harmful acids.
There’s no way around it, sugar, wheat, grains, HFCS, trans-fats, MSG, yeasts, hydrolyzed proteins, chemicals, additives, artificial (and so-called ‘natural’) flavorings, stabilizers, binding agents, bleaching agents, GMO’s, and known carcinogens that are in these fake foods that look real and taste addictive – must be cut from your diet if you want the power to be well.
What You can Do Right Now
Yes, it’s true; people eat processed foods as a quick convenience. We’re so time-poor. But with a few habitual changes and a few tweaks to your daily routine you really can find the time to move away from processed foods and towards real, whole, nourishing foods…that is IF you have a strong “WHY” to do so. Your attitude has to be in alignment with taking the best care you can of your body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
To do this, try to aim, with baby steps (one-by-one), to eliminate as many of these processed foods from your life as possible.
Start by picking the biggest offenders, those few foods that are probably the ones that are causing 80% of your problems. Read the food ingredient labels and you’ll quickly learn that just about everything that comes in a wrapper, box, package, container, etc., has a huge probability that it’s not going to be good for you. Visit your local farmer’s market once a week for fresh, really organic vegetables, fruits, eggs and meat.
But for now, start to be aware of processed foods. Be aware of NOT wanting to dine at Gehenna’s hateful table where it’s served.
Being aware of the processed food problem will help you develop a nose for sniffing out all those sneaky offenders. Discernment.
Ask yourself: What’s in that pasta sauce? What about that seasoning? Is my cereal really as healthy as the packaging suggests? What’s in that frozen pizza? What’s in that packaged diet food meal? What’s in that salad dressing?
You (also) have an indwelling inclination to challenge what is bad. You’re inclined to believe God’s design for you – which implies limits – which is the absolute best for you. As a Christ-follower you have an innate desire to please Him in all that you say and do. He wants you to feed that aspect of your human being with what is good and pure. Righteousness.
Work daily on this honest awareness and you’ll start to make simple changes that will make a huge difference in your life and in the lives of your loved ones as you dine at the Table of His Goodness which gives you the power to be well.
