INTRODUCTION
Every human being naturally requires nutrient, holistic behaviour and some minerals to grow, to maintain a healthy lifestyle and sound hygienic status.
The healthy behaviours and diet needed for proper functioning of human systems primarily comes from what we eat, and our lifestyles thus the emphasis placed on ‘diet’ as a subject of getting these required content into our systems becomes indispensable.
Every human being that requires or desires a healthy nature must place great importance on ‘diet’ knowing well that “we are what we eat”, as the food we eat can affect us in two ways; either make us alive or kill us.
The subject of “diet” as an alternative health solution” is not totally alienated and excluded from the Christian culture and doctrine; it is only being passively ignored by the people within the theistic circle as being anti-fideistic in nature even though the scripture greatly includes a blueprint on the subject both for prevention and therapeutic purpose.
Ezekiel 47:12” Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”NIV.
Revelation 22:2 “down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”NIV
PURPOSE OF THIS LECTURE
The purpose of this lecture shall be established on the Generic and the Biblical premises considering the fact that the audience in this lecture is Christian.
This lecture also discusses some basic health advices from the scripture as most of the medical philosophies were derived from diverse religious doctrines and teachings.
This section shall explain briefly why we are discussing this topic at this time and what we intend to know about the topic.
GENERIC PURPOSE OF THIS LECTURE
i. To know that the first step towards a healthy lifestyle is to know what to eat and what to avoid.
ii. To know that improper diet can change from what we eat to what may eats us.
iii. To know the difference between what tastes best to us or what is best for us.
iv. Knowing that to be health; we may need to maintain a healthy and proper eating habit and culture as Hippocrates (460-377B.C) says that “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy God”.
v. Knowing that a proper dietary culture may save us from constant visit to conventional medicine.
vi. Knowing that what we don’t know about what we eat might be killing us. (What to eat, how to eat the sources of those food).
vii. knowing that diet or nutritional therapy is one of the medium of keeping hale and hearty if adhere to properly
viii. Knowing that to maintain a healthy lifestyle is not always expensive.
ix. knowing that we eat to live and not live to eat
BIBLICAL PURPOSE
i. Knowing that God started the blueprint on diet and continue with the dietary menu list throughout the scriptures for some specific purpose and time.
ii. To know that the first sin against God and ourselves was facilitated and accelerated through eating, Jesus Christ was tempted with the same sin as well and the sin of improper eating and not knowing what to eat or not was judged by God in the last day: Gen 3:6, Matt 4:
iii. To know that the area of biblical diet and therapy has been ignorantly ignored and totally forgotten as part of God’s mandate by Christians Gen 1:29, Ezekiel 16:19,
iv. To know that being healthy is not just the absence of diseases but having a sound healthy agreement with our body , soul and spirit.
v. To know that God desire our healthy State through food and diet
vi. To know that the knowledge of what to eat as directed by God in the scripture can keep us alive and wealthy: Eccl 7:Daniel 1:1-15,
vii. To know that the scriptures says not all food are good for consumption: 1st Cor 6:12, 1st Cor 10:23
viii. A life free of stress is encouraged in the scripture “Proverbs 17:22”
ROOT CAUSE OF SICKNESS
The widely accepted root causes of sickness are stated in the scripture as follows:
i. Sickness unto death or as a sign of old age: Hebrews 9:27
ii. Sickness or illness to glorify God: John 9:2,John 11:4, 2nd Cor 12:2
iii. Sickness from disobedience or ignorance: Hosea 4:6, Deuteronomy 28:58-60
iv. Sickness due to broken spirit: Proverbs 18:14
v. Sickness due to physical causes: 1st Timothy 5:23
vi. Sickness due to chastisement for sin: Proverbs 2:18-19
WHAT IS DIET
There are many definitions for diet according to the Greeks which includes: “to lose weight; ‘Special food’, ‘consumption’ eating nutritionally varied food.
Others are:
i. The kind of food that a person, animal or community habitually eat.
ii. A special course of food to which a person restricts themselves; either to lose weight or for medical reasons.
For the purpose of this class, we shall conclude that a “diet” is a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves to lose weight or for medical reasons.
YOUR DIET AND YOU
This section shall deal with our relationship with diet and chains of medicinal foods, the benefit derived from taking such foods and what we may gain in having them in our systems. Diet can be separated into two namely prophylactic {Prevention} and therapeutic (curative or treatment) diet.
Your diet and you shall explain the correlation between us as a living system and our diet both generally and as a Christian. Below are the list of the basic connection between you and your diet.
i. Your diet shall be more of fiber-this serves as a transport system of the digestive tracts, for every sickness is believed to start from digestive system.
ii. Your diet shall be less of fat – too much saturated or hard fat leads to LDL (low density lipoprotein) or bad cholesterol which is one of the causes of heart disease.
iii. Your diet shall be less of sugar consumption.
iv. Your diet should increase in variation-You should eat variety of food on the food chain rather than from one group.
v. You should monitor your food habits-know what you should eat and how your body responds or reacts to them.
vi. You should know how to select your cooking utensils-know what you cook with, reduce cooking with Aluminum, or lead utensils as this may inject metals into your blood which eventually make you sick.
vii. Your diet should include raw food and juice.
viii. Your diet must include water regularly as 60% of our body is water, 75% of our muscle is water, 75% of our brain is water, 85% of our blood in water and 25% of our bones in water. Water increases your oxygen level and reduces or eliminates the carbon in your body.
ix. Your diet should be less of white bread or try to eliminate them
x. Your diet should be balanced-your diet intake should be balanced, it should not lack protein which leads to starvation, no protein overload, or carbon loading, (too much of protein may elevate the acidic environment of the system.)
xi. Your diet should be less of salt, caffeine and cola- as these may raise your blood pressure.
xii. Your diet should not include cold drinks with food as it may impede the digestive operation of the system during food.
xiii. Avoid overcooked and processed food in your diet
xiv. Consider foods with special healing abilities: garlic, Ginger, fermented foods{they contains enzymes},Raw Foods, Raw juice etc
OPTIMUM HEALTH PRACTICE
These are some of the basic ethics and behavior the scripture expected us to practice if optimum health status is to be achieved.
i. Diet: Your daily diet should be made up mostly of fruits, legumes, and vegetables which contain vitamins, minerals, fibers and other nutrients.
ii. Exercises: those that produces sweat
iii. Rest: relax the mind, and have a happy home to increase longetivity
iv. Detoxification: elimination of waste from the bowel and body through cleansing, fasting, herbs etc
v. Do not break God’s laws: Leviticus 20, Romans 6:1-2,Psalms 119:92-93
OPTIMUM HEALTH ADVICE
i. Change in behavior is the first path to change in health; to regain our lost health, we need to reverse and ideally all processes which may be negatively impacting us and over which we have degree of control.
ii. We are responsible for our health, doctors and physicians are instructors and teachers
iii. Eat what you need and when you are hungry as our digestive system consumes larger part of our body energy.
iv. Get adequate exercises
v. If possible eat real food; that which comes from nature
vi. Make plant food central{fruits, vegetable, Nuts and grains}
vii. Drink plenty of pure waters
viii. Don’t let food or drugs be your god
ix. Protect your mind: “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones” Proverbs 17:22
x. Seek the opinion and perspective of others
xi. Focus on obedience and not the miraculous{prevention is better than cure}Hosea 4:6,Exodus 15:26
xii. Demons are to be cast out, diseases are to be cured{what doctors can do pastors cannot}
xiii. Involve God in your health practice{pray, fast, meditate, fellowship}
xiv. Discern the health behavior that is appropriates for you
xv. Know that treatment themselves do not cure the condition, they simply aid in restoring the body’s self healing ability.
xvi. There should be an agreement between your spirit, soul and body for perfect health to take place
xvii. Know that doctors do nothing, they only help and encourage the doctor within us
xviii. Do not rely on antibiotics without proper professional supervision
CONCLUSION
The main purpose of this lecture can be summarized as having the knowledge of what our health habit is and the various benefit we may derived from proper dietary intake and health behaviours if we relate with the procedure well.
We may thus conclude that the basic benefit of knowing what to eat will assist us to: to burn fat for energy, will know that proper diet can prevent sickness, and finally know that proper and Biblical diet will do us good and our overall health will improve better.
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