LESSON 33:
Eating for Strength
1: You probably have had your supper by now, so you are not hungry. But if I were to cut a lemon in two right now and suck on it, your saliva would begin to flow! You say you cannot help it, and you are right. Your body reacts to even the thought of food and prepares for digestion. Is that not wonderful?
2: Now reach up and feel your hair. How is it? Coarse? Fine? Thin? Thick? Getting Bald? Now look at your fingernails. Long? Short? Need cleaning? Look at your hands. Did you ever stop to think that each part of you:your hair, nails, hands, eyes, ears, skin, bones:every part:was once your food? Food becomes your blood, nerves, brain, muscles. Food becomes your size, energy, strength, resistance. Food has much to do with your personality, efficiency, and emotional stability.
3: Now, of course, everyone eats, but WHAT you eat, HOW you eat, WHEN you eat, and WHY you eat all make up your individual eating habits. And your eating habits are either a help or a hindrance to you, depending on whether they are good or poor. How we look and feel tells us something about our food habits. At every age the outward and visible signs of good eating habits usually show in our physical appearance, our disposition, our emotional reactions, and our vigor and stamina.
4: We have mentioned that 90% of all illness is caused by improper diet and eating habits; let me give you an example of how WHAT you eat can even affect your life when you are not sick.
5: At a large university an experiment was conducted to see what effect Vitamin B would have on learning ability. They took a group of students and gave them all capsules. Half were given capsules that had no vitamin B in them, but the capsules looked just like the other half which did contain Vitamin B. The students did not know which capsules had the Vitamin B. Both groups were given identical examinations at the beginning of the experiment. At the end of 6 weeks another examination was given to both groups. The group given the Vitamin B reached an average grade 27% higher than the other group who did not get the Vitamin B! What you eat does make a difference! Your food either has the elements your body needs or it does not.
6: So, first of all, WHAT DO YOU EAT? Appetite has been called the desire for food. Hunger has been called the need for food. Appetite is often a very poor guide to follow if you want to insure good eating habits. Some people have very decided likes and dislikes which limit them to just a few items of food.
7: Often, the ones they like best are nutritionally very poor! Good eating habits mean eating a balanced diet with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, unpolished grains, legumes and nuts. This insures your body enough fuel, building, protecting and regulating material to keep you in good health.
8: You do not need a great variety at any one meal, but you should have a variety from meal to meal and day to day. Daily your diet should contain two or three servings each of fruits and vegetables. You should have two or three servings daily of protein rich food to insure materials for building, repairing and maintaining your body. All dried beans (legumes) especially soy beans have liberal amounts of protein, plus many other important elements. So do cashew nuts, peanuts, and other nuts.
9: Some foods do the body harm. For example, spicy food, and vinegar irritate the delicate digestive linings. Lard, and fats contribute cholesterol which can clog the arteries, you remember, and cause high blood pressure, and heart disease. Sugar also clogs the arteries and affects circulation.
10: Some foods simply do the body no good, and often do harm as well. A chocolate bar, cookies, or a bottle of pop may give you some calories, but they are "empty" calories because they do not give you vitamins or much else. The vitamins and minerals needed to digest them must be stolen from somewhere else in the body. Since all foods contain calories, our main concern should be to choose the foods also rich in other health-insuring elements.
11: Why not develop an "international appetite?" Learn to enjoy all good wholesome food. Perhaps you did not know that a person's interest in new foods and flavors is usually one indication of the breadth of his social, experience and his interest in the world beyond his own back yard!
12: WHEN DO YOU EAT? Is the next question you need to answer. Most people eat whenever they think they are hungry. You notice that I said, "think." If you are in the habit of eating between meals, your mind can signal your stomach to call for food when it is actually needing to rest!
13: Of course, it you start off on your day without a good breakfast, your stomach has a right to call for body fuel! Good eating habits say: eat a substantial balanced breakfast. Eat a balanced lunch 5-6 hours later. Eat very lightly in the evening, and be sure the meal is 2-3 hours before you retire. Eat nothing between meals. Your "appetite" may protest for a little while until your new habits have been formed. But the real hunger of your body will be satisfied, and you will be richly rewarded.
14: Here is an extra tip. Do not eat when you are overtired, or emotionally upset. Wait awhile until you recover. The mind has a great influence on the organs of digestion. To get the most out of your food, mealtime should be a relaxed, happy time.
15: Next is the question, HOW DO YOU EAT? Are you the kind of person who sits down and empties your plate almost before anyone else has started? If so, you have a poor eating habit. Since digestion begins in the mouth, your food has no time to be well mixed with saliva. Also, the food is not being chewed, and since your stomach has no teeth, you are cheating your body of much of the nourishment it could get from your food. If you just stop to think, you cheat yourself financially too! So, slow down, fast eaters! Chew you food thoroughly.
16: Our last question is, WHY DO YOU EAT? Are you a slave to your taste buds, to your appetite; in other words, to poor eating habits? Are you a victim of self-indulgence? If so, this is a form of self-destruction. Or do you think of your body as something wonderful and sacred to be treasured and cared for?
17: It is safer and easier to build good food habits than to correct poor ones. But ridding ourselves of poor food habits need not be hard if we stop trying to find excuses for them. When you think of your body as loaned to you by God you begin practicing true temperance. True temperance is total abstinence from all that is harmful and the moderate use of that which is good.
18: In return your body will give your health and happiness, and help you to build a strong character. WHAT YOU EAT, WHEN YOU EAT, HOW YOU EAT, AND WHY YOU EAT all have a great deal to do with BETTER LIVING!
19: The rules for good eating habits are all based on scientific facts. But did you know that God gave us these rules long before science knew about any of them. This is not surprising for He has always given needed information through His prophets so that His people could know how to choose the best.
20: As we have already mentioned, the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy in the Remnant church has been in the life of Ellen Gould Harmon, who became Mrs. E. G. White after her marriage to Mr. James White in August 1846. Ellen was born November 26, 1827 near Gorham, Maine, about 12 miles west of the city of Portland. This is the home where she was born. She and her twin sister were the youngest of 8 children.
21: Leaving the school one afternoon, the nine-year-old Harmon twins were pursued by a youthful classmate enraged at some trifle. A stone was thrown which struck Ellen on the nose, and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Her nose was broken, and the blood flowed freely. Neighbors had thought that she would die, but her mother believed she would live even though Ellen was unconscious for 3 weeks! By God's grace she was all right. She was, however, unable to continue with her schoolwork.
22: It was while she was yet a girl of twelve that William Miller in 1840 came to the city of Portland with the message of Jesus coming soon. The Harmon family attended the meetings. Scores of other protestant ministers joined him in sending the glad tidings. Ellen was from a Methodist family. She was baptized by immersion in Casco Bay. This was the beach in front of the home where the poet Longfellow was born.
23: A few weeks after her seventeenth birthday Ellen made a visit to the home of the Haines family in South Portland, across the causeway. This home is pointed out as the Haines' home and it is understood that in a room on the second floor, she joined four other women in morning worship. As she earnestly sought God for light, heaven seemed near, and Ellen was wrapped up in a vision of God's glory. This was in 1844, about two months after the great disappointment of October twenty-two.
24: It is estimated that 200 visions were given to Ellen White in her 70 years of service. She wrote tens, hundreds, and thousands of papers under the inspiration of God. She has written about 50 books. She wrote articles on medical subjects which the medical scientists are just now finding out. On astronomy and many other topics, her prophecies are coming true in every detail. How could she do it? She had very little education. It was not she, but God working through her.
25: She meets all the tests of a true prophet. During her vision she was not breathing, Daniel 10:7. During her vision her eyes were open, Numbers 24:4,16. During her vision she used to have supernatural power. Many tested her and were convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that her visions were from God.
26: Once during her vision she held a big Bible weighing about 20 pounds for 30 minutes continually on her outstretched hand. She picked up the Bible, and rising to her feet, placed the open book on her hand, and lifted it high somewhat above her head. Thus, while looking upward and away from the Bible she turned its pages with her free hand, and pointed to certain texts as she quoted them.
27: In 1915 Ellen White was 87 years of age. On a Sabbath morning in February as she entered her writing room, she tripped and fell. This accident resulted in a broken hip, and she was confined to bed for five months, when on July 16, her fruitful life came to a close.
28: She has written on the evil effects of Tea, Coffee, Tobacco, Alcohol, and many other narcotics. She has condemned eating between meals, the use of too much sugar, eating candy, ice cream and hot spices, etc. She has promoted vegetarianism. All those following the health principles outlined by her are greatly benefited. She has instructed on social, moral, health, and other very important phases of human life. She is dead but her written pages still speak. There is still much more to know of her life and work. It is all illustrated and God willing we shall tell you more about this in the future.
29: God has not kept His church in darkness. He has revealed through His prophets the truth that is needed for our salvation. He had prophesied by the Prophet Joel, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." Joel 2:28.
30: The Lord, therefore, counsels us, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets; so shall ye prosper." 2 Chronicles 20:20. The Apostle Paul says, "Despise not. prophesying. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." I Thessalonians 5:20, 21.
31:
Jesus will soon come back to this world to take His elect home to
heaven. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the
faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12. (or the Spirit of Prophecy). Are
you among them?
