Guidelines for Healthy Food Choices

These guidelines should help to move us through the murky maze of food and foodstuffs. As you think about making some new choices, focus on the positive behaviors you will be adding instead of dwelling on the ones you will be eliminating. You will find that the harmful, negative habits will be crowded out and fall away. As you incorporate new and better items in your menu, the old, less nourishing ones will simply disappear. You should not only gain better health, but you will most likely feel much better as well. Consider the following suggestions as you ask the Lord for guidance with the changes you should make.

Remember, you are bringing your nutritional habits under the spiritual umbrella of biblical principles. Just as we are unable to embrace numerous spiritual principles all at once, neither can any of us make all the changes that would be ideal for our health and well-being when we first embark on that journey.

There are many real constraints in our day-to-day lives with which we must cope, such as time and money—most people who work have limited waking hours and many others have restricted monetary resources. We all must make choices within our budgets, our schedules, and our location; some people don’t have access to all the proper foods. So let’s keep it simple, doable, and scriptural. The care of your body is a spiritual issue. It first begins with your heart’s attitude. From there go to the Lord and seek his wisdom and way for you. He will make a way, and that way is often one step at a time.

 1. As much as you can, know your food source! We have become almost totally disconnected from our food source. We have no idea where most of our food has come from. Neither do we know what chemical additives and processes have been used, nor how much time has elapsed to actually bring it to market. We do know that what we don’t know can hurt us!

    This has become most evident with the recent exposure of melamine that was added to food products made in China. Thousands of pets died from renal failure because melamine (used to make plastic and fertilizers) contaminated material that was labeled as wheat gluten and rice protein. These substances were shipped from Chinese manufacturers to pet food companies in the United States and elsewhere. To date, four babies have also died, and more than fifty-four thousand babies have been hospitalized from contaminated infant formula and milk products.¹¹⁵ Melamine has since been found in numerous other Chinese-made exports, ranging from candies to yogurt to rice balls.¹¹⁶ This is just some of what we know about.

 2. Buy local organic or from a grower committed to sustainable methods. In supermarkets the PLU produce code for organic has five numerals beginning with 9. Example: 95201. GMO produce has five numerals beginning with 8, such as 82441. Conventionally grown produce has 4 numerals. Remember, however, that GMOs in processed foods are not labeled!

 3. Buy local if possible, even if it is not organic. Check about the use of pesticides, etc.

 4. Buy the rainbow. Choose many different colors of fruits and vegetables.

 5. Choose whole foods like brown rice and various whole grains for hot cereal.

 6. Buy clean meats and organic meat products such as milk and butter. Raw milk is preferable. Clean meats come from animals that have not been given hormones or antibiotics. Artificial hormones contribute to infertility in males, early puberty for girls, and many other undesirable consequences. Antibiotics are linked to increased cancer risk and antibiotic resistance of bacteria within the human body.

 7. Buy grass-fed beef and free-range chickens when you can. Grass-fed beef contains higher levels of Omega-3 essential fatty acids. Animals were not created to live in filthy feed pens or cages that are so overcrowded that the animals can’t turn or move. What kind of stewards have we become?

8. Do not eat farm-raised fish, as they are fed chemicals to give them color, antibiotics to combat their diseased environment, and pellets containing chicken feces and GMOs.¹¹⁷ See the Resource section under General Health Information for other dangerous concerns with farm-raised fish.

9. Use purified water for drinking and cooking. Get a filter for the shower.

 10. Do not use a microwave. Warming your food in a pan takes only minutes.

 11. Increase the proportion of raw foods in your diet. A green salad every day with lots of veggies is a good start. A piece of fruit for a snack is both delicious and nutritious.

 12. Make your own salad dressings. It not only is cheaper but so much better tasting and better for you. A very easy recipe is extra virgin olive oil, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, a little honey, salt, and whatever seasonings you like.

 13. Use cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, NOT polyunsaturated oils. The latter contain excessive amounts of omega 6 fatty acids and are much too highly processed. Both of these factors contribute to the production of free radicals and inflammation that makes them extremely toxic.

 14. Avoid hydrogenated oils at all costs.The processing method used to make hydrogenated oils involves heating them to between five hundred to one thousand degrees and using a catalyst such as aluminum. This process changes the molecular structure to produce either semi-solid or solid oil. It is now closer to cellulose or plastic than to oil and contributes to the density of your blood. Hydrogenated oils are cheaper than animal source fats, have a longer shelf life, and are the predominant fats used in commercially baked goods.¹¹⁸

 15. Make your own fermented foods, sauerkraut, cultured fruits and vegetables, yogurt, kefir. These will add needed enzymes that are necessary when you have a meal that is mostly cooked. Fermented foods are considered fresh foods. A convenient benefit is that they will keep for several months, unlike foods that are not fermented.

 16. Select one item at a time to make from scratch and incorporate that into your diet. Every journey begins with just one step, the first one.

 17. Do the best you can and ask the Lord for his guidance as you make new choices. Remember he has a way for you toward better health no matter where you live or what your restrictions may be (Prov. 3:5–6).

 18. Remember, also, that even if your grocery expenditures are higher for healthier foods, in most cases you will more than make up for that increase in lower medical bills and fewer sick days off from work.

 19. Drink your foods and chew your drinks. Finally, as you eat, chew your food so well that it becomes liquid with your saliva and you are actually drinking your food.This will put it into a form that your body can more easily assimilate.When you drink, swish the liquid so that you are chewing your drink.Remember digestion begins in the mouth, actually with the nose when you smell delicious foods. So slow down, chew and swish well, and help out your other digestive organs.

Don't forget to drink ... water, that is! Half your weight in ounces is the usual recommended amount. See the Water section in Lifestyle Choices for more information.

References

115. Mercola, Joseph. "Deceptive 'Protein' Toxin Is Becoming More Widely Spread in Your Food." Mercola.com. November 22, 2008. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/22/deceptive-....

116. "China Tainted Milk Crisis Triggers Global Recalls." Washington Post quoted in Mercola.com. September 26, 2008. http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/china-tainted-milk-crisis-trigger....

117. Remick, Page. "Seven Reasons to Avoid Farm Raised Salmon." Purezing. http://www.purezing.com/living/food_articles/living_articles_7salmon.htm.