Health Nugget #3: Nutrition

(I was requested by our church to do short health presentations for the local community. Here’s the 3rd lecture.)

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It’s no secret: The standard American diet is the root of the obesity epidemic and many of its associated diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. In addition, an unhealthy diet can increase the risk of some cancers.

But why is American food so unhealthy? It’s not just that Americans eat too much, which we do, but what we eat also is unhealthy.

There is a restaurant in Las Vegas called Heart Attack Grill, where customers don hospital gowns before they eat their meal. If you’re more than 350 pounds, you eat for free. Their menu includes: from Single Bypass Burger to Octuple Bypass Burger which has 8 and 1/2 pounds of beef patties, 40 slices of bacon, and16 slices of cheese. You can top it off with what they call Flatline Fries which are deep fried in pure lard.

There was a study conducted the 1980’s that was funded by the National Institute of Health, in where they feed a group of rhesus monkey a fatty diet. What fatty diet did they feed the monkeys? The regular hospital food. The monkeys probably had a blast with all the banana milkshake and crispy bacon instead of their normal diet of bananas. After 16 months of eating the fatty foods, one of the monkeys had a heart attack. As the study continued, eleven more monkeys had suffered similar heart attacks.

So the take home message from this study is that if you get hospitalized, don’t stay more than 16 months eating hospital food or it will kill you. I’m kidding. What I really mean is this study clearly demonstrated the relation of diet and heart disease.

What is the best diet for us? There’s a lot of popular diet plan out there – there’s the Mediterranean diet, the South Beach diet, Ornish diet, Ketogenic diet, Paleo diet, Vegetarian diet and others. Many of us are on the “sea food” diet – which is we see food, we eat it.

How about we turn to the Bible and see what is God’s original diet plan for men when He place them in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 1:29 – And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

Studies after studies have now shown that a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains is really good for our health and this is what many health authorities, including the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is urging people to embrace.

The fact is we have enough studies to support this recommendations. The problem is it is not just our arteries are hardened, but more so is our attitudes.

In our society we are conditioned and deemed it acceptable to have our chest crack open to do the coronary artery bypass surgery, or cut out or staple close a part of the stomach for gastric bypass, as mainstream medical practice. Yet when we tell people to adhere to a lifestyle change like converting to a plant-based diet, it is considered too extreme and radical.

About the monkey studies again, part of the study was switching back their diet to low-fat diet, perhaps back to their normal food of bananas and other fruits. I am not sure if the monkeys protested, as they got used to the hamburger, fries and milkshakes. But what it showed is that with the healthy low-fat diet, there was a regression of the cholesterol build-up in their arteries – proving that fatty diet can cause the disease and switching back to a healthy diet reversed the disease.

Studies have shown that many chronic diseases, like coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and many more, can be reversed by adhering to a healthy lifestyle change which includes a healthy diet.

Here are some very simple tips in eating healthy:

1. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits.

2. Choose whole grain foods, nuts, and seeds.

3. Limit consuming ultra-processed food.

4. Cut on saturated fats, salt and sugar.

5. Don’t skip on breakfast.

There’s one more thing that is more important than all this food that we are talking about. Jesus said: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger.” John 6:35.

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(*photos from the web)