The bible tells us that while all things are permissible, all things are not beneficial. As we find what foods are most beneficial for us (which foods best meet the nutritional needs of the body) and focus on those foods in our diet, we will begin to experience better health and find our ideal weight.

Here are a few guidelines that can be used as a foundation for a beneficial “health plan”.

1. God designed food to feed our physical bodies - just as His word is the spiritual food that feeds us spiritually. Feeding on spiritual “junk food” will produce ill spiritual health. Feeding on physical “junk food” will produce ill physical health and can add excess weight. A junk food can be classified as a substance that is low in beneficial (or nutritional) components and high in non-nourishing or other harmful components. Another way to look at this principle is “we reap what we sow”.
2. Those foods that were in God's original plan (Gen 1:29) provide the highest amount of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phytonutrients. Nutritional science today is telling us that if we would eat more fruits and vegetables we would be healthier. Because these were the primary foods in God's original diet plan, this does not surprise me. Hunger is a sign that the body needs nutrition. Fighting consistent hunger or uncontrollable food cravings can be a sign that we are not providing the body with the nutrition that it needs. When we eat a diet rich in these optimal, whole foods (and concentrated sources of nutrition like juicing and Barley Max) this constant hunger is replaced with a feeling of satisfaction.
   Read more...

96 % of the body's nutritional need is for Oxygen (O2).

We can go for as long as 40 days without food, 4 days without water, but we can't last 4 minutes without oxygen (if we do there is significant brain damage)!

Additional facts about Oxygen:

1. The quality of air we breath impacts the quality and length of the life we live
2. Increase the supply of oxygen to the brain and mental abilities will increase and the brain will become more alert!
3. Increase the supply of oxygen to the body's cells and the body becomes full of energy and life.
4. An increase in the supply of oxygen to the body's cells helps us mentally and emotionally, and we become happy and optimistic.
5. Increase the supply of oxygen to the body's cells and sickness cannot find a foothold! Sickness and disease cannot survive in an aerobic (oxygenated) atmosphere.

Exercise increases the amount of oxygen our body cells receive. It also causes a flushing of the veins and arteries. As the arteries and veins become clearer, more oxygen is able to cross through to the blood from the lungs and thus on to the cells throughout the body. When the cells receive this increase in oxygen, they become energized and start vigorously cleaning house, rebuilding and rejuvenating the cells. An increase in exercise is necessary to carry off the debris and toxic wastes for removal from the body.

If dairy products are the best source of calcium, where do cows get their calcium from?? Green grass!

In the U.S. we consume the largest amount of dairy products and yet we have the highest rate of osteoporosis. If dairy products were the answer to calcium intake and bone health, this would not be so.

Countries that have a much lower calcium intake in the diet but also consume small amounts of animal products have very low rates of osteoporosis. (as well as cancer). For more information concerning documented research on this, read the booklet - The China Project or the book The China Study. 

Meats and sugary “junk foods” leave an acid ash in the body. The body pulls calcium (an alkaline mineral) from the bones to balance the pH levels of the body. After many years of this kind of lifestyle the bones become deficient.   Promote bone building through exercise, getting adequate sunshine [vitamin d] and eating calcium-rich plant based foods like those listed below.

Green leafy vegetables like kale, chard, collards and turnip greens have generous amounts of calcium. Other food sources of calcium include:  flax seed, sesame seed, almonds, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, filberts pistachio nuts, walnuts, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carob, dulse, figs, kelp,  oats, prunes, carob flour, black turtle beans, garbanzo beans, great northern beans, kidney beans, navy beans, amaranth oats, quinoa and blackstrapt molasses.

For more information on calcium: www.strongbones.org

"People consuming as little as 100mg (1 cup) of caffeine a day had withdrawal symptoms" ~ New England Journal of Medicine

Two cups of coffee may raise blood pressure to levels equal to one cigarette, but it keeps it there for 1 – 2 hours, vs. just 15 minutes for smoking (American Journal of Medicine.) Caffeine can increase the heart rate, may cause frequent irregular beats, can raise blood cholesterol, and may accelerate blood clotting leading to a heart attack.  2 – 3 cups raises blood pressure for 3 hours (American Journal of Hypertension.)

According to researcher Dr. Gail Bernstein, 77% of children over 6 months old ingest caffeine regularly. Journal of Child/Adol Psychology March 1994

A cup of coffee reduces iron absorption by 39%, and a cup of tea will reduce it by 64%. Drip coffee will lower iron absorption by 72%, while doubling coffee’s strength will reduce it by 91% American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

In 1980 the Food and Drug Administration removed caffeine from the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list.

Caffeine stimulates the brain cortex, and can cause poor balance, racing heart, insomnia, racing and disconnected thoughts, poor memory, fatigue, restless leg syndrome, hand tremors, anxiety, and dread, hostility, sleep disturbances, headaches, hyperexcitability, irritability, agitation, anxiety & dehydration.