This past Saturday I went to another amazing one of our ministry meetings. We briefly discussed how to be a "sticky" ministry by not trying to grow the ministry, but grow those within the ministry. I think that is an amazing idea because as a part of the administrative team and the assistant director, I calculate we have close to 300 members of the ministry, but only about 30 are actually actively participating. Sad but true. However, this is more about what took place at the beginning of the meeting. A presentation called food is medicine.
Brother Tate was in an accident that wouldn't fully allow him to heal completely from his injuries if he didn't lose some of the necessary weight he had. So he became a nutritionist and share a lot of great information with us. He researched the Bible for scriptures where it relates to nutrition and found that foods can be the most powerful form of medicine. It can be that, or the slowest form of poison. Ever noticed some references in the Bible refer to God as water? Well it is because water is the most important thing our body needs to survive. Water represents 75% of the brain and 92% of blood. Coincidence? I think not. But as much as I would love to stay on the subject of how to eat healthy to be the caregivers you need to be, I wanted to talk about what stood out to me to help me help Jordan and his diet that may or may not change some of the things I see in him.
First, there are 7 things to avoid when picking the things we consume. Most people probably know what and many may know why, but I didn't. The 7 deadliest things that are in the foods we eat are:
- High fructose corn syrup. The main reason why I would like to remove this from his diet is because the corn used to make it is genetically modified (GMO). Enough said
- Trans fats. They are a byproduct of the hydrogenation process which looks to elongate shelf life. They aren't essential to our bodies needs and they lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol.
- Artificial flavors. Giving your child these can cause behavioral and allergic reactions.
- MSG. It's a chemical used to enhance the flavor of food. A CHEMICAL.
- Artificial colors. These also cause allergies, hyperactivity and worsen the symptoms of ADHD.
- Artificial sweeteners. Aspartame can affect the nervous system
- Perservates. BHT and BHA can do harm to the liver and kidneys.
I also learned that when you read the list of ingredients and you see they are followed my a number it means it was created in a lab. The good news is God created foods to help with healing. They are vegetables that are actually shaped like the organs they help. Such as the ginger root and the stomach or the orange and the mammary glands. The kidney bean is good for the kidneys and the avocado is good for the uterus. Did you know that the avocado takes 9 months to grow until ripened? Also that celery is good for bones and consists of 23% sodium, just like bones?
I could go on and on about the other veggies I learned about and it's good information to know, but I'm more focused at the ingredients I need to avoid in the foods Jordan eats. I quickly just did a bit of research on the majority of foods Jordan eats, I found he's not getting any artificial anything. No artificial colors in the brand of yogurt he eats and no artificial flavors in any of the foods. So either what you see isn't want you are really getting when it comes to organic, or I just have a bad little boy on my hands. I have no idea which is worse.
So the knowledge I just aquired doesn't help me out at all when it comes to finding things I can remove from his diet to help make his behaviors better, but I'm glad I took the time to find and know for sure. But I do hope this information can help you with you or your child's dietary needs. We all need to reevaluate what it is we put in our body's. One of my scripture memory verses from DDS class last year was
1 Corinthians 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" We have to start learning what scripture says and actually putting it in place in our lives so we can live the healthy life God intended for us to live.
