HomeARC ML 3180
EAT RIGHT! Maria #428 CM/FM 3180 4/98
1. Praise the Lord, dear Family! How would you like a new MO Letter?--Hot off the griddle! We've got one here for you, and it's hot, all right! God bless Dad! He's really one for telling it like it is, no holds barred!
2. Please take it to heart, dear ones. The Lord is asking us to tighten up in some areas that we've gotten lax in, and He's doing it because He loves us. Dad loves you, and he loves our little children and wants to see them get the very best they can. They deserve it, and you owe it to them as parents, shepherds, and older brothers and sisters. So please do all you can to heed this admonition, and I know the Lord will bless you for it.
3. Any time the Lord asks us to take a step in some area, whether it means forsaking something which He knows is not good for us or making more of an effort in some area, or whether He's just requiring greater obedience to Him, there are always sacrifices. These sacrifices often seem very great at the time, and of course the Enemy is always there to tell us that we won't be able to make it, or that it's not worth it, or that we might be an exception because of our circumstances.
4. The Enemy might try to make you feel defensive, or justify your situation. Please resist him, and really pray that you can take this correction from Dad as something that is needed and which is important for you to follow in obedience. Even if it requires sacrifices--whether in person or as a Home--I know the Lord will more than repay and will faithfully supply your needs as you obey and look to Him! He never fails! I'm praying for each of you, that as you take these words to heart, you will be strengthened through your obedience! Remember, obedience brings on the blessings of God!
5. First I'll include excerpts of a letter from a dear mother on the field who wrote us with her concerns. The scenario she describes might seem extreme to you, but please don't pass off Dad's message as applicable only to extreme situations like this one. Once you start compromising, it doesn't take long to lose your conviction completely! The dear ones in this Home undoubtedly didn't start out like this, but gradually got to this sad state through compromising little by little, to where it didn't even seem abnormal anymore. Lord help us!
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(Excerpts of a letter to Mama from a concerned Family member:)
6. Dear Mama, I love you! I came here with a burden to work with toddlers, and this Home has seven children under 3 years old, all third generation children. Basically, I think the Enemy has somehow found a chink in our armor and is working overtime to see that these little ones' lives are damaged in every way he can.
7. In the last month we did the Home Evaluation Checklist, and we had to admit we were doing badly on the junk food score, and that many bad habits have been accepted in the Home, and the standard of nutrition for the adults needs to be reviewed. Nevertheless, I'm most concerned with how this low standard is compounded by the time it reaches the children.
8. Working with three of them in the nursery, I have observed that white flour, white sugar cookies are handed out on demand all day long, with no regard to mealtimes coming. I would calculate that for one of the little boys in my nursery, 50% of his food intake is cookies.
9. I understand that the shepherds have attempted to set a higher standard before, but I guess they got weary in well doing, or just plain got snowed under with other things. The contents of our pantry are like a junk food and poison supermarket, nothing left to the imagination.
10. After doing the Home Evaluation Checklist, the same week junk food was brought into the Home from the area provisioning. Unfortunately, along with the real food comes mountains of junk. I guess everybody is so used to passing the buck, "Well, the area provisioners must think it's okay," "The other Homes are getting it, too," etc.
11. Now, four weeks after the Checklist and resolving to do better, we have brought home eight varieties of white sugar, white flour cookies to stock the pantry (even cream-filled, Oreo-style), sponge cake mixes, waffle mixes, etc., as well as cases of sweet drinks (20% juice), and loads of other junk. I personally think about a third of the pantry stock should go into the garbage. Last Friday on provisioning pickup day our quality control person was sick in bed, so I took the liberty of cleaning two large garbage bags of "poison" out of the pickups--for example: strawberry mousse cups with whipped cream and a gumdrop on top, three boxes of marshmallows, etc.
12. The kids are the ones that are being pumped full of this crap. There is a little boy here who has cavities who's not yet three years old. The other day an FGA brother told me to look for a second while he raised the top lip of this poor little boy, and a third of one of his top front teeth is rotted away! I had no idea it was that bad. I would expect to see something like that in a ghetto in a Third World country.
13. (Editor: Reading this, some of you might say, "But any sugar or sweetener will cause cavities if you don't brush your teeth! It's not the fault of the white sugar; it's the fault of not maintaining proper dental hygiene!" While that is true in part, taking in such amounts of white sugar robs your body of calcium, which weakens your teeth considerably and encourages decay. Even natural sweets must be eaten in moderation, and be balanced with a nutritious, healthful diet!)
14. I've noticed that there are a lot of junk food wrappers in the garbage. At first I thought the chocolate boxes, etc., were just a hangover from Valentine's day, but it is still going on. I looked into just the top half of the garbage can, and I found empty boxes and wrappers for the following: milk chocolate sticks with butterscotch, Milky Ways, a family-size chocolate bar, two other chocolate bars, two cream-filled chocolate bars, a pack of chocolate-coated coconut cream wafers, Hershey kisses, ice cream (one quart size), a small ice cream, and packets of gumdrops. (This is stuff people must have gone out and bought.)
15. One of our 1½-year-olds has such a sweet tooth that it is impossible to get a spoon of yogurt into him, even if it is sweetened. I was having good success with him with banana milk, but he has gone off that now, due to the full-blown resurgence of white sugar in his diet. When the new cookies came in, someone quickly restocked the nursery with four kinds of cookies, including cream-filled. I can just imagine what Dad would say.
16. Another part of the tragedy is that if we got rid of the garbage, there is plenty for the kids to eat which is wholesome and healthful, and we'd hardly need to buy anything. There are quality whole-meal [EDITED: "whole wheat, whole grain"] crackers, top-class cheeses, dried fruit, fresh fruit, yogurt, banana milk, homemade oatmeal cookies, etc., but if you go to the kitchen at snack time the kids will be eating white bread with jam, one of several varieties of cookies, chips, sweet drinks, etc.--snack junk with more nutrition in the packaging than in the contents!
17. Well, Mama, I guess that is enough for one letter. At first I was afraid of what the shepherds would think, but now I realize they will be happy to get some much needed help and support in this area, and they know I love them.
18. I have tried not to cause any upset or schism in the Home, but have found that a couple of others are also concerned about the situation. One of our sweet YAs was standing in the pantry with me the other day, and turned to me and said, "It's sad that this stuff has come into the house." The next day she baked the most beautiful oatmeal and raisin cookies for the kids, God bless her!
Love and prayers,
From one of your little birdies
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19. {\b \i (Dad speaking:)} I'm a real health food fanatic, and I always did my best to stick to the foods that I knew were good for my body. My parents raised me well and taught me to be mindful of what I ate. When I was a kid, we always had good, well-balanced meals, real good healthful stuff, and real tasty, too. My parents were usually a good sample to me about what kinds of foods to eat and what not to eat.
20. Of course, in those days there wasn't nearly as much processed food or junk food around as there is today. The food industry keeps pumping out the ready-made food, the preserved food, the sweets, the candy, the poisonous junk food! Slowly but surely the consumers are getting more and more addicted to foods like white flour, white sugar, candies, preserved meats, instant soups, microwave meals, imitation creams, imitation this and imitation that.
21. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the food that we ate, and because it was all relatively healthful, that was what I craved and that was what I enjoyed. When I was a young boy, I liked whole-meal things and healthful foods.
22. Do you remember the story that I told about the shredded wheat? That was something that I really liked eating, and it was also something healthful and good for me. I liked it so much that my mother helped me to write a letter of thanks to the company. To my surprise, they delivered some complimentary boxes of cereal to our doorstep one day! I really liked shredded wheat, and I guess the Lord knew that it was good for me and would help me to grow strong and healthy. So He supplied that for me, knowing that it was going to be good for me.
23. I think that's one of the main dilemmas in the Homes: A lot of the provisioning is below standard. In some countries, the provisioning is at least half junk food. It's a dilemma for the provisioners, because they want to supply the Homes with enough food, and they have a responsibility to do so, but then a lot of what is donated is junk--white-sugar foods, preserved meats, and meals that have no nutritional value left in them. Some of these things have more goodness in the cardboard box than they do in the actual contents! You'd be better off eating a cardboard box than filling your body with so much junk food.
24. Now I understand the provisioners, and how difficult their job must be. The Lord touches people's hearts and they donate all of this food, but then half of it isn't up to what our health standard should be. What do you do? Do you throw away all of that donated food? How do you do that and still have enough food to feed the Homes? How do you break out of this vicious cycle? I think we've done something wrong, somewhere back in time.
25. From the very beginning, you provisioners should make it clear to your contacts what kind of food we in the Family eat. You need to make it clear from the beginning what our standard is. You need to make it clear that we don't eat junk food and we prefer the healthful foods, the fresh foods. If you explain where you stand from the very beginning, then you shouldn't have a problem at all. They won't even give you the stuff that they know you won't use.
26. If you occasionally get something in the provisioning that isn't up to our health standard, then you can donate it to needy missions, shelters, orphanages, old folks homes, or even to the poor. Even if you haven't explained our stance on junk food to your contacts from the very beginning, it's never too late to do the right thing. In fact, it's better late than never.
27. The Lord wants us to eat right, sleep right, exercise right, and live right. He definitely wants us to take care of our temples, the bodies that He has given us, so don't you think He'll supply the healthful food that you need? It may take a little bit more faith, and it may take a little bit of conviction to buck the tide and search and find those who are willing to give you good, healthful foods. But it's worth it to keep your bodies in good shape--healthy, whole, and strong for the Lord's work.
28. I've seen some pretty sad situations in some of the Homes. I've been visiting Homes around the world and I've taken a peek into some of their pantries, and I've been shocked at what I've seen! Mama recently got a letter from one of our dear faithful mothers who was very concerned about the state of the nation's food situation. Well, the stories she told were pretty eye-opening, so I decided to go and check out the situation myself. I found that her observations were pretty correct, and the situation in her Home was in need of correction. But I'm not just zooming in on this particular situation. I believe that everyone could use a little warning to help them pull up their socks.
29. I've visited Homes where the young people keep candies and chocolate bars and gum and all kinds of things in their rooms. Some folks have their private stashes and it's a poor, poor sample to the others in the Home, especially the children! Maybe you older folks don't care so much about your bodies. Maybe you young people think that you're doing okay and you don't need to worry. But what about the little kids? What about your own kids?
30. How do you think you stayed so healthy all of your life? It was because your parents cared enough about you and your little body to give you the right kinds of food. They didn't pump your body full of sugars and junk food. They did their very best to give you the kind of foods that would help you to grow strong and healthy, fit to be a leader in our Endtime army.
31. What are you feeding your kids? Are you concerned about whether your child has an incurable sweet tooth at the age of 1½? These little bodies are still growing, and if you don't feed them good foods, full of the nutrients and minerals that they need, you're going to have a 5- or 6-year-old child with weak bones that will break easily, a mouth full of cavities, a low supply of energy, digestive problems, stomach ulcers, a lowered resistance to sickness from a weakened immune system, unhealthy hair, and much, much more!
32. These little bodies need good wholesome food, vitamins, minerals, lots of fiber, lots of calcium, protein, and nutrients. When you stuff sugar down their throats day after day, you're just robbing their bodies of all of their goodness. You're robbing their blood of its goodness.
33. Doctor Koger drilled this into me when I was a kid--that white sugar was a killer and a thief. Not only is white sugar a killer and a thief, but so is all of this other junk food that's around in the world today. I know that none of you would chow down a handful of white sugar, but by eating all of these sickeningly sweet cookies, rich cake and muffin mixes, full-of-air-and-sugar waffle and pancake mixes, sugar-filled soft drinks and even sugar-filled fruit juice drinks, you're stealing the goodness out of your body and you're replacing it with poison.
34. Now, I can't legislate righteousness and I can't appear in person and throw out all the junk food in your house, but I can tell you what I think about it, and I can get pretty hot under the collar about this issue! If you want to be lacking in energy, weak, and susceptible to the diseases and sicknesses that continually float through the air in the form of germs and viruses, then by eating unhealthful food you're certainly going in the right direction!
35. But for God's sake, give your kids a chance to grow up and be healthy, lively, energetic kids who are free from sickness! They're the hope of the future! They're the ones upon whom the ends of the Earth are come, and all of these little prophets and prophetesses are going to be used of the Lord in the days to come! They not only need to be prepared spiritually by avoiding the junk food of the spirit, but they also need to be prepared physically by avoiding the physical junk food. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to do the job, without handicapping them with the burden of poor health brought on by unhealthful living. It's one thing if they're blessed with afflictions which the Lord knows are making them fighters, closer to Him and better equipped in the spirit for the job He has for them, but it's another thing to spoil the good health the Lord has given them through neglecting to teach them to eat right and live right!
36. The Lord's placed these children in your care, and you are responsible before the Lord to see to it that they are given the best care that you can possibly give them. If you, as a Home, are slipping back in this area of junk food, then I think it's about time you check your hearts to see what areas you need to change in. Have your appetites become so perverted that you now crave these poisonous foods? Sad to say, I think some of you have become addicted to eating this way! Some of you have acquired such a sweet tooth that you now crave all of these junk food goodies.
37. {\b I've seen situations where children at the ages of 1½ to 2 have such a sweet tooth that they don't even want to eat good food anymore.} Some of the children's teeth are rotting, and others have health problems, continually catching colds and getting sick. It's no wonder that some of our kids aren't as healthy as they could be. It doesn't surprise me when I see what kinds of foods they're taking into their little bodies!
38. Some of you older folks are always tired and lacking in energy. Did it ever occur to you that if you started being a little more conscious of and concerned about what you ate, that that might have a drastic impact on your life? Did it ever occur to you that eating healthful foods would give you an extra boost of physical energy?
39. When you eat so many unhealthful foods, junk foods, and stuff that has no nutritional value, you clog up your whole digestive system. Pretty soon your body can't even digest the food properly. Your blood vessels clog, so the blood in your body can't flow freely to your heart. You start having problems in all sorts of areas in your body! But if you were more careful about what you ate and tried to stick to unprocessed, natural foods--good fruits and vegetables, good clean meats, eggs, milk, homemade or plain yogurt, and whole grain cereals, breads, pastas, and brown rice--you'd find yourself having so much more energy! Your health would improve drastically.
40. The counsel that I gave years ago still applies today. Why don't you reread "MO's Pointers for Health" (ML #353, Vol.3), and "Food or Poison" (ML #609, Vol.5)? Do a Word study as a Home on all that has been said in the Letters about eating right and taking care of the temple that the Lord has given you. [EDITED: "Editor: Also, see the "Food and Drink Rules" in the Charter. We've reprinted an excerpt from them on page 7 of this GN for your reference."]' You're all bought with a price, each and every one of you, and you have a responsibility to the Lord to take care of the body that He's given you.
41. Are you taking care of the body that the Lord has given you, as well as the little lives in your care? Or are you abusing your body by filling it with the waste products of junk food and other poisonous pleasures? The Lord's not going to let you down, and He's not going to disappoint you. If you have the faith and stand firm in your convictions, your health convictions, then the Lord will not fail to provide and give you all of the good food that you need. In fact, He'll reward you over and above what you can ask or think!
42. He'll give you much better food and much more of an abundance of it, as you take the step of faith to begin to eat right once again. It may take some effort and a little bit of faith at first, but in the long run you'll save yourself and your Home and your children so much pain, sickness and problems. The Lord wouldn't require you to eat right and consume good nutritious foods if He wasn't willing to supply all of your needs. He is willing and more than able to give, but He's just waiting for you to make room for His blessings!
43. God help us to take care of the bodies that He's given us! It's a real shame and a terrible sample to others when we don't strive for a high health standard. One of the things we've been known for is our good, healthy children. God help us not to abuse our bodies or the bodies of our children by being slack in the area of nutrition! We certainly don't want to be a reproach to the cause of Christ by not taking care of ourselves and our children.
44. I'm not saying that you can't have occasional sweets and treats, cakes and ice cream on birthdays or special occasions. I'm not saying that at all. But even the majority of these could and should be made with healthful ingredients as much as possible--definitely natural sugar, avoiding the poison which the Enemy has associated with "special treats!" If you're really living the healthy way that the Lord intended and that I've tried to teach you, then once in a while to have a treat that's not possible to make with all natural ingredients isn't going to hurt you, because you're obeying, and so you're receiving the Lord's blessings and protection.
45. It's spiritual as much as physical, folks. Because the Lord has given us health rules to live by, and because I've spent so much time teaching you the specifics of how to live right and eat healthy, when you have that option but you choose the alternative of the Devil's poison, it's nothing but disobedience, plain and simple! The Lord can't bless it! I'm talking about the continual input of unhealthful foods with no nutritional value, as well as the snacks that just rob your body of all of its goodness and suck the life right out of you.
46. I've been very saddened by situations that I've seen in some Homes. As a matter of fact, I've even become enraged with Godly anger at times, because some of you folks and Homes need a real metanoia, a real change, a real health revolution! If you're one of the Homes that is falling short in this area, then it's about time for a change. In fact, a change is way overdue!
47. This problem has come to the fore and it's gotten to the point where I've had to come and give you a special message about it. So that in itself should show you the seriousness of the situation and how concerned I am about it. Mama's concerned about it, too, and that's why she called on me to give you a message about it.
48. The health and well-being of each of us is so very important. If we're not as healthy or as strong as we could be, how can the Lord use us to the full? Our spirits may be wildly willing, but if our flesh is weak and weighed down with junk food, then we're not going to be of much use to the Lord!
49. The body is a vehicle, and we need to keep our vehicle in good shape. We need to keep the engine tuned, the exterior clean, and the windshield wipers working. We need to stay full of gas, oil, water, and keep our tires pumped up with air in order to be useful to the Lord. He's counting on your faithful upkeep of the car that He's given you! He's counting on you to be faithful with the body that He's given you--and eating right is a major part of your care and upkeep.
50. Keep clean, keep free from junk, keep free from energy-depleting foods, and certainly keep those children in your care free from poisonous junk food that will rob their little bodies of goodness! Each one of you is very needed for the future! The more healthy and strong you are, the more useful you'll be to the Lord.
51. The Lord is able to keep you strong and healthy, but you have to do your part. If you do your part, then He'll do the rest. But if you're robbing your body of health, then He's certainly not going to feel like infusing health and strength back into you! You've got to do what you can in the physical, and He'll do what you can't. He'll make up for your lacks. He'll help those who can't help themselves, and He'll also help those who help themselves, but He can't help those who can help themselves but won't.
52. May the Lord bless and keep you living right and eating right! "You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit--which are God's!" (1Cor.6:20). (End of message from Dad.)
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"Food and Drink Rules," 6B, page 125-126 of the Charter:
Avoid eating foods and drinks with high sugar content, white sugar, bleached flour or rice and products made with such, and "junk food," except when unavoidable or on appropriate occasions.
Family members should avoid, which means to shun, as much as possible the eating of any kind of unhealthy food. This means you should not only shun Biblically unclean foods, but also avoid foods and drinks with a high sugar content, or other unhealthy or non-nutritious foods such as bleached white flour, white sugar and white rice.
This is oftentimes more difficult when you get something to eat or drink when outside the Home. Ideally, you should not consume any foods outside your Home that your Home would not have the faith to serve in your Home. Of course, if you are extremely thirsty and the only thing available to drink is a Cola, then you might have to drink it. But if there was something else available and safe to drink, which didn't have a high sugar content, then you should choose that instead. This is not a license to regularly eat food containing refined and bleached white starches or sugar, or drink beverages with high sugar content, either at Home or when out.
There are appropriate occasions for having foods that have sugar content or are made with white flour; for example, on a birthday you might have store-bought cake and ice cream. Ice cream, unless it's homemade, definitely has quite a bit of sugar in it, and would fall under the category of food that has high sugar content. However, it would be acceptable, because it is an appropriate occasion.
The key word pertaining to this rule is "unavoidable." Remember, the rule is to avoid unhealthy foods. If you are regularly eating and drinking such things, and are making an insufficient effort to acquire the proper types of food, you are breaking this rule and are subject to disciplinary measures.
Sugar
Country Living
Refined sugar is sweet, potentially addicting and possibly responsible for a wide range of health problems.
According to Maggy Howe in an article in Country Living, the more sugar you consume, the more you will crave.
This highly addictive substance can rob your body of essential nutrients, weaken your immune system, and wreak havoc on your central nervous system.
If you suffer from such nondescript health problems as unexplained headaches, or candida [EDITED: "a yeast infection which usually affects the skin or the mucous membranes of the mouth, intestines, or the vagina"], take a good look at your sugar consumption, for many health experts agree that we are profoundly--and often negatively--affected by the amount of refined sugar in our diets.
Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., a clinical nutritionist and author of Lick the Sugar Habit, notes that Americans consume an average of 149 pounds of sugar per person each year. "Some teenagers eat twice that," adds Appleton.
Every time you eat refined sugar, says Appleton, you throw off your entire body chemistry. Basically it comes down to the fact that we simply do not have the enzymes needed to digest these highly processed sugars--and improperly digested sugars that get into the bloodstream can cause allergies and a whole host of other autoimmune disorders, which cause the immune system to mistakenly attack the body's own tissues.
Studies also show that refined sugar suppresses the body's mineral balance and immune system. Furthermore, Dr. Appleton asserts that when the body is out of balance, owing to excessive sugar consumption, the following maladies can arise: chronic fatigue, candida, obesity, mood swings and depression, blurred vision, insomnia, arthritis, asthma, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia (diabetes), osteoporosis, migraines, PMS [EDITED: "premenstrual syndrome"], inflammatory bowel disease, gallstones, and cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, colon, and gall bladder.
The key to ending sugar cravings starts with a willingness to change your lifestyle, and to eat a whole-foods diet--fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains.
Study Links Sugar, Child Anxiety
New York Times Service
Yale University medical researchers have found hormonal evidence to support the popular but controversial belief that sugar can provoke abnormal behavior in some children.
The physicians, who presented their findings to the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Research, showed that a concentrated dose of sugar resulted in a dramatic increase in blood levels of adrenaline in children but not in adults.
In the 14 healthy children tested after being given a sugar dose equivalent to two frosted cupcakes for breakfast, adrenaline levels in the blood rose 10 times higher than they were before they ate the sweet.
In the course of the five-hour test, nearly all the children complained of feeling weak and shaky, while only one adult had similar complaints.
The results suggest that children experience a greater hormonal response to sugar than do adults, said the researchers, Dr. William Tamborlane, professor of pediatrics and director of the pediatric endocrinology division at Yale School of Medicine, and Dr. Timothy M. Jones, a visiting scientist from Perth, Australia.
Jones said the raised levels of adrenaline after a sugary meal could lead to anxiety, difficulty concentrating and crankiness.
Countless parents have described hyperactive, irritable or aggressive behavior in their children after the consumption of sugary foods or beverages.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
