6:30 PM
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Real Food! |
We are off again on an adventure of living well. I trust
that you are living as well as you know how and that you continue to seek
greater health.
DEDICATION: Every listener who is busy trying to figure
out what to give somebody for Christmas or Kwanzaa or Hanukah or whatever you
call the season. I am especially dedicating it to you if you’re trying to
figure out what to give a child that you know and love. And since I know every
one of you fits this list, I dedicate today’s show to you all, my family of
listeners.
On the topic of
giving, the first scripture that most people remember is: ‘... God loves a
cheerful giver...’ and the next one is ‘it is more blessed to give than to
receive...’. And don’t forget, ‘...you can’t beat God giving...’ take your
pick. [I’m not sure that last one is a scripture but I know it is the name of a
song.] So if you are about to give somebody a gift, especially your children or
the children who are in your bloodline, rethink what a gift is...
This is the part of our presentation
where we get our focus. The focus of Living Well Ministries is ministry and
Scripture is the foundation. My favorite scripture about giving is Proverbs 12:22 – “a good man leaves an
inheritance for his children’s children...”
An inheritance most often is thought of as property, money, stocks,
bonds, houses or investments. It’s usually something material that can make the
life of the receiver easier in some way. We understand, however, that an
inheritance takes many different forms. Let us, therefore, take a look at other
ways that a good man may leave an inheritance for his children's children and
that would be the inheritance of good health.
Also, we are returning to the 55th Chapter of Isaiah verses 2 – 5. And why, you may ask, are we doing
that: although our topic is gifting, and we are specifically discussing the
gift of good health. I will tell you why: Because when we talk about health,
the first thing that comes to mind is food. We need to make a link between
today’s food and tomorrow’s health. Or, in our case, this year’s food is next
year’s health, or lack of it.
Listen to what Isaiah had to say in his 55th
chapter, beginning with verse 2:
2 Why waste your
money on something that is not real food?
Why should you work for something that does not really satisfy you?
Listen closely to me and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the food that satisfies your soul.
3 Listen closely to what I say.
Listen to me so that you will live.
Why should you work for something that does not really satisfy you?
Listen closely to me and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the food that satisfies your soul.
3 Listen closely to what I say.
Listen to me so that you will live.
Then
the burning question returns: Why
waste your money on something that is not real food?
Before we go any further, take a close look at what we call
food. There’s going to be a great deal of it consumed here in the next few
weeks. Then the next few weeks after that, people will be running here and
there, trying to recover from it all. It is my job to pass on some information
to that might help with what you decide to eat. I have no choice but to present
this information, it’s like Elder Willie Pruitt used to say, ‘yawl may not hear
me, but it’s the truth, so I’m going to say it anyway!
Would you like to leave an inheritance of good health for
your children's children. And be sure that they are able to prosper.
The most important part of what we
do, is not just that you to listen to me and not that you read labels and not that
you try and change your diet or exercise more. The most important part is that
you study and learn for yourself what it is that you need to do. I will even
refer you to the second letter that the Apostle wrote to Timothy you know what
it says. The first word of that letter is ‘study’.
So, when I give you some information,
I don't want you to stop and sit down and embrace it just because I said it.
Don’t accept it just because you think it's interesting or it’s going to give
you something you to talk about. No; I want you to be your own health guru.
Just use what I say as a place to begin your own study.
BODY IN TWO PARTS: G
I F T I N G. We settled on gifting as our topic because of the season. These next few weeks, people are running
around buying and giving and exchanging gifts with people. Eventually some
people even return gifts to stores.
You know, however, that when your Health Reverend talks about
it, gifting is a different matter altogether. We are discussing gifting as it
relates to the giving of good health and good health habits, to your children
and your children's children. I, therefore, will begin by asking just a couple
of questions? What does gifting mean to you? When you think about giving
something to someone, do you only think of something that can be touched or
seen or held in your hand or put into a box? When you think of gifting, do you
think of giving good examples or offering affection or providing inspiration?
These are gifts as well.
INSTRUCTION TOPIC: a slightly different question on the same
topic: What foods are you giving your children?
Sometimes the information I encounter is so exciting, I feel
that I should hurry up and pass it along to you. Then, there’s so much of it, I
try to summarize the high points. This time, I did neither one of those. Today’s
book is ever so very exciting. I am simply bringing you a new source for
instruction and information. The first one has a bit of a story: [you know,
with me, there’s always a story.] I first read this book at least 10 years ago,
when I was living with a couple who had a health ministry of their own. They taught
classes, sold health products—supplements, vitamins, nutritional oils, and so
forth. They also sold books, and I tried my level best to read all of them.
This first one is entitled, The Crazy Makers: How the
Food Industry is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children. Published
in 2000. Carol Simontacchi. I never have
forgotten it, for several reasons. First of all, the writer discusses the
health and feeding of infants, babies, children adolescents and adults. According
to her, what we are fed is the foundation of everything else that happens:
physical or mental. It is a great source if you want to learn about how food additives
affect the growth and development of young children. It also discusses how many
different ways additives are presented; how many different ones of these
additives are added to the foods that infants, children, and yes—adults, eat.
Processed foods, that is.
Companies
that produce and manufacture larger portions of foods, must be able to sell
those foods. For foods to sell, they must be cheap enough, they must taste good
and they must have a long shelf life. Another thing that must happen: they must
appeal to the mothers of children! Why just mothers? Because, females make up
85% of all grocery store shoppers and the other 15% are influenced in their
shopping, by females.
Little
children like things that look pretty and they generally will eat something
that tastes good. The first thing comes to my mind is a gummy something. Next
time you go in a grocery store, check out how many different food items have
been made into ‘gummies’.
Now
then, let’s go to taste. There are only three ingredients that make food taste good:
fat, sugar and salt. Of course, you can add other spices but without these first three, not much happens. In my
view, there is no substitute for taste, and in my further view, nothing tastes
as good as butter, bacon and eggs. All these things have one thing in common:
FAT! Salt isn’t nearly as appealing as the first two. Fat has been given a
really bad name here in the recent 30 years or so, leaving only one choice:
Sugar. You already know how I feel about sugar so I’ll just keep moving.
Shelf
life. Shelf life. What in the world does that mean? This is the short version
of it: before food can legally be sold, in cans, it has to be cooked. Once it
is cooked, it has little, if any nutrition left. The story is, it will last
longer in a can than it ever would in the produce section. Next thing, packaged
foods. Some of them have shelf life – USE BY dates of at least 12 months. Are you
sure you want to feed something to your little children that has lost all its
nutrition?
Now, additives. Additives, it turns out, are also not your
friend. Just for the fun of it, I thought I should give you a few of those
names: check it out:
artificial
color [unnamed]
artificial
flavors [unnamed]
calcium
propionate
mono calcium
phosphate
oleoresin
paprika
partially
hydrogenated soybean oil sodium bicarbonate
sodium acid
pyrophosphate
Sodium
lactate [associated with panic attacks]
sodium
nitrite
sodium
phosphate
sorbic acid
We will sit with this book for the entire month of December.
Maybe by January, you will have one of your own and we can move on to a
different one.
I have all but one of my teeth. I’m sure it’s because of all
the butter milk I drank when I was a child. Many of the people I started first
grade with have few of their own teeth, if any and they all that I have all of
mine! After you have taken a look, a listen to what Simontacchi says, you may
be pressed to reconsider what you are feeding yourself and your children.
A DOOR PRIZE!!! The Gift of Taking, Honor Yourself First
– All Else Will Follow. Dr. Jill Kahn.
Dr. Kahn is a medical doctor who works closely with cancer patients. Her
book is all about how taking for ourselves, for our greater personal good, is
the number one goal. She tells of
her many enlightening experiences with finding her purpose in life. But she
wasn’t just finding her purpose: she was accepting her calling. It is the same
high call that we all have: honor yourself...first. It is only then that we can
fully and openly honor others. This is still true in our quest for health and
wellness.
I am putting this book aside and making it a ‘door prize’ for the person to contact me after reading this blog. It doesn’t matter if you
call, email, text. Just contact me and let me know that you heard me. Also,
I’ll want to know what part of the discussion sparked your interest and got you
to move.
One thing that I really love about this book is that she gives us an
‘alternative’ look at the experience of giving. Taking, she calls it, when we
are giving to ourselves. Again, remember, we are not talking about material
‘things’, but spiritual gifts of joy, given and shared from a position of full
abundance. This reminds me of Rv HR Delaney, Jr., his prayers always included
this line “...that we may all have a right to the tree of life, and have it
more abundantly...” give yourself the gift of an abundant life, abundant health
and happiness. Let me hear from you, OK! Your book is waiting! Remember now, it
is a used book but we’ll find some way to cover over the inscription that’s
already in it!
HOW TO CLAIM A DOOR PRIZE: Be the first to contact me with at
least a one-line [not one-word] comment about today’s post, call, text,
whatever you like. Give me an address and I will send it to you!
It is a common response to this commentary for people to
say, ‘...but what can you do?’ I’ll tell you this: there’s plenty to be done if
those things in boxes in the grocery store are left on the shelves. When
McDonald’s can’t sell a happy meal and gummy bears don’t go home with you,
something will surely change. i know that. I’m sure you or someone you or
someone you know, can remember quite well when cigarette smoking was allowed in
every quarter. But today, it ain’t.
TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT:
First, reconsider what you see as gifting. I suggest to you that the greatest
gifts cannot be put into a box. When you sit quietly and listen to what you are
hearing, from the voice of God, you will find some wonderful gifts that will
greatly benefit your children and their children. Your assignment, therefore:
listen and take heed. Take notes, if necessary, learn more about health and
find ways to teach all that you learn to your children. That way, you will be
certain to leave an inheritance of the most precious sort: good health and long
life.
Second: pay a visit to the Habitat Re-store near you.
Browse—slowly, browse—the book shelves and seek out an ‘alternative’ source of
health information. Pick one up, flip some pages, read the inside flap. Pick up
something that you would never have given a second look to. Don’t stop with
health, move on to wealth, to spiritual instruction, to child-rearing...reading
has no limits. There’s bound to be something in there you want to know. Do
this, and make it a gift to yourself. Then, you know, after you take these
books home, you have to do something with them. That mean: turn off the phone,
the computer, the TV and turn on your new, improved brain and let it expand and
grow new pathways. You’ll love it. Remember, a mind is a terrible thing to
waste!
I want Yawl to keep reading and keep sharing what you
read. I am making my best efforts to make the best use of every piece of IT
that I can. You can now hear me on www.blogtalkradio.com at 3:00 p.m. Sunday – 929
447 2763. It’s similar to here but a bit different. Also, you may listen live
ot my local show www.wchmradio.com.
Please remember to check: www.thehealthreverend.blogspot.com;
email: thehealthreverend@gmail.com; phone: 706 768 4917; twitter @healthreverend.
Thank you for time in reading this. I am SandraTeresa Davenport, The Health
Reverend, yawl holla, and no matter what, live well!
UPCOMING
December 17 – getting ready for xmas and how to stay well
till the new year comes.
December 24 – old stories of xmas and what it means to give
and share
December 31 – Watch night service.
The prayers of Isaiah.
Good Health – Weight Loss/Gain – Body Image [Not just a
concern for women]
JANUARY – Tea/Herbals/Preventive Medicine [Colds, Flu,
etc.]/Home Remedies
FEBRUARY – African-American history/heart health
[depression, loneliness, loss/fear] and physical health. You don’t want to miss
these meetings!
