There are over 7.5 billion people alive right now. Although each person is uniquely made, God doesn't have a thousand or more designs for the human body. The human body's response is predictable. God created each of us in His image. Spiritually, our greatest longing is for a relationship with God but He also created us physically in His image. God, the Son (Jesus) walked this Earth and His human body was formed with the same "parts" as yours and mine. Jesus ate bread, fish, and turned water into wine. He knows our physical needs for nutritious food.
Of any blog I'll ever write, this one was completely prompted by my husband, Alan. From the time I met Alan in 1984, he struggled with being overweight. He had a love for Diet Rite soda and he would drink those regularly.....and I bought them regularly for him. Neither of us ever reflected on the foods God had created and provided for our nourishment. Oh, we were thankful for food but we didn't think analytically about food and whether what we were eating and drinking made sense. It was after Alan's eyes (and mine) were opened about food & drinks that we came to understand that the soda he had been drinking continued to make him heavier. The "empty drink" attempts to fool the body with the hopes that you can drink something that doesn't count.
Unfortunately for Alan and all the diet beverage drinkers out there, God wired in intelligence when He created our bodies. Our body doesn't know whether we're experiencing a feast or a famine. All the diet soda (and every other artificially sweetened food) is our "trick" but the body responds as God designed it. As Jeff Primack explains in his book titled, Conquering ANY Disease, "Your body believes it is starving because of the empty calories, so in response the body holds on to calories and converts more to fat to compensate. Want to GAIN weight? Drink diet soda."
I don't know about you, but I have plenty of food in my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. There's no famine coming in my home anytime in the next day or two.....but our bodies don't know that so they respond as God created them to respond. When we changed our diet in early 2014 after his diagnosis, Alan no longer had any foods or drinks containing artificial sweeteners. And his body responded as God designed it by shedding the extra weight.
You might think that DIET soda is the awful one so I'll just switch to regular soda. Regular soda doesn't have the artificial sweetener but it has refined sugar AND both regular and diet sodas have two chemicals (phosphoric acid & carbonic acid) that give them the "fizz". Those chemicals when combined can be used to clean off rust so just imagine what they could be doing to your body......the Temple of the Holy Spirit! Our loving God surely never intended for us to fill our bodies with these chemicals......He provides real food and real drink.
Alan knew we had learned so much on our journey. As a banker, Alan was an analytical thinker and many would tell you that he was an amazing teacher within the bank. He told me, "You have to tell them!" When he told me this just before he died, neither of us knew what that would look like but he wanted you to learn from our poor food & drink choices. A number of times, he said to me, "How could I have been so blind?" We had begun to grasp the realization that God is IN CHARGE of His creation but just as a loving parent is in charge, God allows each of us to choose. He has given each of us free will (control) to choose daily what we will eat & drink (and of course many other choices, too).
As a mom who has raised four children, I can understand the parent/child relationship. Looking back, I can remember times when I was very much in charge of my children but I was NOT in control of the choices being made. Several episodes with a toddler pitching a tantrum in the JayC while shopping for groceries were clear examples of who was in control of the chosen behavior - and it wasn't me! As the parent, I was in charge but at the moment, my toddler was in control. It grieved me to see my child "out of control" in the grocery and today, it surely grieves Jesus to see His children making daily choices that lead to chronic disease. Just as my child received his or her consequences at home for their chosen behavior while in the grocery, so we receive the natural consequences for our "out of control" lifestyle choices. God is still in charge but He has graciously given control to each of us.
Alan and I reminded each other then as I remind myself today, "We didn't know what we didn't know!" But.....today I do know and I'm so thankful that my eyes have been opened and I'm seeing the effects of daily food & drink choices in a more informed way. God has been so gracious to me. He has brought and is continuing to bring amazing physical healing to my body through the pure food He is providing. Food IS medicine!
As we're moving into the Christmas season, we're bombarded with plenty of opportunities to make poor food and drink choices. As I wander through stores and see the displays, I'm reminded of Alan's words to me, "If there was one single thing that I could have done differently regarding my diet, it would have been to never drink a soda". I'm asking you to reflect on Alan's statement.
Maybe you just have the "occasional" soda thinking that it really doesn't matter since it's not a daily habit. Or maybe you're like I was for so many years, providing soda (and lots of other "junk") to children as a "special treat" during the Christmas season. Over the Thanksgiving week, I ate a few foods that I knew were not nutrient dense. Having a piece of pie (actually two slices!) on Thanksgiving was a special treat but eating those sweets is not part of my daily or weekly lifestyle any longer. Today, I better understand the consequences of consuming poor food or drink choices. I am also experiencing the positive consequences of consuming pure nutrient dense food. My body is responding as God designed it!
Every single day, we choose to be one step closer to vibrant health or one step closer to disease. We each get to choose. Each choice matters to our body as it provides nutrition or "junk" that the body must eliminate. Maybe your poor choice isn't soda but another food or drink that's putting a heavy burden on your digestive system. Maybe today your eyes are being opened and you are realizing for the first time, "I didn't know what I didn't know." Each day, God gives us a new day of beginnings.
Since Alan passed away in June 2015, God has continued to teach me so much more about food than what we knew at that time. True wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit. Our human body is His living temple. God doesn't provide junk to nourish our bodies. God provides what our body really needs to be nourished and to heal. That's what Alan would want you to know!
