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We are living in a time when only 1.5% of the American population is healthy! The US Public Health Service has acknowledged that only an tiny fraction of Americans have good health. Unfortunately, many Christians are part of the unhealthy group.
Nearly 50% of Americans die of heart disease or other cardiovascular problems. Over 1 billion visits are made to physicians in America each year. Four out of every ten Americans will have cancer.
Over 85 million Americans are overweight. Yet nearly all Americans are malnourished despite gross overeating.
About 95% of Americans are addicted to sugar. While we naturally have a sweet tooth, refined sugar is a very harmful product. Sugar has been indicted as one of the chief culprits in heart disease, indigestion, dental problems, and a host of other serious complaints.
We have all been subjected to narcotic drugs by our physicians, or by purchasing them ourselves over the counter. These include painkillers, opium-based cough medicines, amphetamines, barbiturates, and tranquillizers. About 90,000,000 aspirins are taken daily in the USA. This amounts to about 72,000,000 pounds (36,000 tons) of aspirin yearly.
Does the above describe a healthy, happy nation? Almost daily we see such statistics published in newspapers, magazines and periodicals. Millions of people are far from the better way of life but do not sense the danger their habits put them in.
Good health does not come by accident
The choices that we make in diet and lifestyle have everything to do with how we feel and function. There are habits and foods that produce life, and habits and foods that produce sickness and death. Learning what these are can make all the difference to our bodies and minds.
Life comes from life. If you want a cedar tree in your yard you must with cedar seedling. If you want carrots, you must start with carrot seeds.
Similarly, if you want life for your body, you must start with life in the foods you put into your mouth. Fresh, live foods have the life of the plant still intact.
Live foods build live bodies. Plants extract minerals from the soil and synthesize them into highly organized and complex materials useful to animal life. These living chemicals are passed from plant foods into the bodies of those who eat them.
By the same token, there are many articles of food in our diets that actually inhibit the improvement of health. Refined oils, sugar, dairy products, and processed foods clog up the delicate machinery of the body.
Far too many people are prematurely old, tired, or ill due to poor diets. They suffer from fatigue, arthritis, allergies, asthma, colds, and dozens of other ailments or discomforts.
Knowledge of nutrition is the first step off the endless roller coaster promoted by the food industry’s erroneous propaganda. So, where do we start? And what are the factors in this greatly-to-be-desired lifestyle? Here is a simple and easy starting point: Add more fresh, raw foods to your diet.
Consider less cooking!
Heating alters the natural balance of life-producing chemicals in fresh fruits and vegetables. There is a loss of vitamins, a destruction of fiber and an alteration of the chemical composition in the foods.
Whether to eat fresh or cooked foods is an important decision. It involves your health and your time. Carefully weigh the choices.
Here are some important reasons for eating more uncooked foods:
1. Adequate nutrition
Fresh uncooked fruits and vegetables, when combined with properly prepared grains, contain all the nutrients necessary for good health, growth, and proper maintenance of our bodies. Cooking alters the nutritional properties of food. Some of the nutrients that are altered or destroyed during cooking are as follows:
b. Some minerals (some are rendered inorganic)
c. Proteins (several are coagulated and become toxic)
d. Sugars (refined sugars become toxic when caramelized)
e. Fats (heat alters many refined fats into carcinogenic fatty acids)
f. Enzymes (all are destroyed; see item #3 below)
2. Fiber loss
Much of the natural fiber is broken down during cooking. Fiber is necessary for healthy gastro-intestinal function.
3. Retains enzymes
Uncooked foods have all their enzymes. Temperatures above 118°F destroy enzymes in natural foods.
4. Less total energy required
Uncooked fruits and vegetables are easily digested. Uncooked foods take 50-75% less time than cooked foods to pass through our bodies. Uncooked foods make less wear on the body and less energy is needed for repair or restoration. Cooked foods require little chewing, resulting in decreased saliva and enzyme mixture with the food. This improperly chewed food is not prepared for further digestion and often requires increased energy for digestion in the stomach.
5. Energy freed for other uses
With less energy involved in the digestion of uncooked food, there is more energy for other activities of the mind and body. You can enjoy vitality rather than tiredness.
6. No after-meal dullness
Many people have a tendency to feel sleepy after consuming a cooked meal. With more uncooked foods there is seldom an after-meal tiredness.
7. Less sleep needed
With uncooked fruits and vegetables, you sleep better and require less sleep.
8. Less food-preparation time
Uncooked foods require much less time to prepare. You have more time to spend with your family, in productive practical work, or at social events.
9. Easier kitchen cleanup
Uncooked foods leave no greasy pans or messy stoves.
10. No degenerative diseases
Uncooked foods neither cause nor support degenerative diseases. Cooked foods, however, cause increased white blood cells and a weakened immune system.
11. Less Mucus
Uncooked foods won’t cause mucus-laden throats or heads. Public speakers and singers will especially appreciate not having to frequently clear phlegm from their throats.
12. Lower heart rate
With uncooked foods the pulse rate can drop 10 beats per minute, saving the heart over 14,000 beats a day!
13. Less body odor
With uncooked foods you will rarely experience body odor or bad breath (garlic and onions excepted, of course).
14. Less thirst
Less drinking water is requires because you have not cooked out the natural distilled water in fresh fruits and vegetables.
15. Cleaner teeth
The collection of tartar on your teeth, commonly accumulated with cooked foods, will not form.
16. Less tooth damage
When you eat uncooked foods, hot substances cannot damage your teeth or stomach and mouth linings. In fact, your total dental health will improve with the increase of uncooked foods in your diet.
17. Eliminates overeating
Cooked foods are concentrated. For example, we would usually eat three cooked carrots for every raw carrot we would consume. Uncooked foods provide greater nourishment in smaller quantities.
18. Natural weight control
Greater quantities of uncooked foods in the diet permit the body to achieve normal weight and maintain it consistently.
19. Clearer mind
Eating uncooked foods increases the mind’s capacity for memory, power of concentration, and spiritual awareness.
Health and disease are dependent largely on diet, along with the other seven natural laws of health. Food, wrongfully used, is the cause of most of today’s degenerative diseases. If we use food correctly, we can change the chemistry of our bodies for the better. With a proper diet, and healthful lifestyle, we can live disease-free, symptom-free energetic lives. We do have a choice!
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