Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Maker's Healing Foods




















Eat the food God gave us.

In the way He gave it to us to eat.

Sounds simple, right? But when you're standing in your grocery store, hungry, and Cheez-It's, Kool-Aid, and 500 kinds of breakfast cereal are staring you down, it's hard to decide what is actually best. Again, I have good news for you. God's health plan includes delicious foods that nurture our bodies and give us healthy and excellent quality of life. Here's a list of the top biblical foods that God recommends. No joke- they're all mentioned in the Bible! (And you're in good company when you eat them: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the disciples all ate these healing foods)

This list is taken from page 145 of The Maker's Diet. I am going to list the foods, and we'll discuss the benefits of these foods individually in future posts. Remember that these foods are step 1, step 2 is eating them in the form God gave us to eat.
  1. Fish and Fish Oil (And not your local supermarket or Costco fish oil pills!)
  2. Barley & Wheat (Whole and sprouted)
  3. Raw dairy from goat's cow's, and sheep, and fermented dairy from these sources.
  4. Olive Oil (Organic, extra virgin)
  5. Small fruit: figs, grapes and berries
  6. Soups/stocks (homemade!)
  7. Healthy saturated fats: (high vitamin butter, coconut oil) Don't fall out of your chair! We'll discuss this one soon. :)
  8. Honey (Organic & raw)
  9. Pomegranate
  10. Wild animal foods: grass fed beef, buffalo, lamb, goat & venison.
  11. Seeds (soaked and sprouted)
  12. Omega-3 Eggs
  13. Cultured/Fermented vegetables
  14. Organ meats ( I haven't been brave enough to try these yet!)
  15. Fermented beverages, i.e. kombucha, kvass, kefir
  16. Green vegetables
Now, by no means are these the only foods you can eat healthily. But, these foods pack some serious nutritional punch, which is why they made it onto the "healing foods" list. :) You could say these foods are essentially the best of the best. There are other great foods- but this list comprises the best.

I dare you to go to your cupboard, pantry, and fridge, and see how many of these healing foods you have available.

Then I dare you to read my next article, which will discuss a very important question- one that affects your life every single moment you breathe, but that you are probably clueless about. Intrigued? Talk to you soon!

3 comments:

ChriS & Yvette Ferguson said...

Excellent post!

You say no to Costco fish oil pills, why? I always found myself a bit cynical when people promote one brand of supplement over others, because usually they are promoting a product with a vested financial interest (aka Jordan Rubin sells products that he says are the best, highest, finest, purest, etc superaltives are mine)

I won't defend Wal Mart or CVS...but I do know Costco, I have had to work with their buyers at Corporate in my previous life. They are all about quality...if they put their name on a product "Kirkland Signature" it means it exceeds the national brand in quality and value. Otherwise they won't private label its got to be better. They only stock about 4,000 products in a warehouse. When the buy a product they learn all about it. From farm to manufacturing. If they can do it themselves for cheaper they will. They bottle all of their own water in Seattle. Consumer Reports recently reported on Fish Oil. I take 2-1,000 pills of Kirkland Fish Oil and found it to be great. I'd consider changing only to another brand if it could prove with unbiased evidence that it was superior.

I've said way too much. Love your blog keep posting!

Catherine said...

Hey Chris!

Thanks so much for your comment! It's great to see people getting involved and posting. Please keep it up!

You asked great questions. I totally understand your skepticism about someone promoting a specific company when they have a vested financial interest. What I have made a practice of doing is that of performing my own research, to see if their claims of the product match up to reality. Let me share with you what I know about the Costco fish oil, specifically.

Remember that the maxim of the Maker's Diet is "Eat what God intended, in the form He gave it to us to eat." This is what I keep in mind for everything I put in my mouth. It has to meet these two criterion.

With that in mind, let me discuss the Costco fish oil. (Which one are you taking, by the way? Is it the Kirkland Fish Oil Omega- 3 One A Day?) This is the only one I know of that carries the Kirkland label. Here's why I don't recommend it.

You are correct that Kirkland has good standards. And there are a few things they are doing right with this oil. 1) They are using fish that are wild, not farmed. 2)Their oil undergoes molecular distillation to ensure it is not contaminated with mercury, PCB's, etc. That is good! That is better than the national average. However, even better can be done. For starters, the Costco fish oil comes in the form of a concentrate. This means that the fish oil has been subjected to fractional cooling. (I can explain what this is if you'd like.)The reason this is undesirable is because it is a form of processing. Remember the maxim. It may be the food God gave, but it's not the form. You want a product that is as close as you can get to heading on your own boat to the deep sea, catching a fish, and extracting the oil. The reason the form is so important, is because your body cannot properly absorb the nutrients in the supplement if it's not in the purest form available. So if your body is not absorbing it properly, what's the point of spending your money on it?

Secondly, this processing can introduce oxidation to the oil, which can in turn make it rancid. Rancid oils lead to free radicals in your body, which cause all kinds of disease and problems.

Thirdly, there are other ingredients in the Costco fish oil which are, in my opinion, toxic. See their website, which lists the following ingredients: Methacrylic Acid Copolymer, Ethylcellulose, Sodium Alginate, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose Phthalate, Medium Chain Triglyceride, Triacetin, Oleic Acid, Stearic Acid, Ammonium Hydroxide, Polyethylene Glycol. I can go into the details of each one if you'd like, but for now, all I know is, God did not create those ingredients. And they are not found in higher quality fish oil supplements.
They are likely used as preservatives and likely, the FDA says those amounts are not toxic doses. I'd rather steer clear of those ingredients though. In addition, the fish oil concentrate contains soy. I bet you didn't know you were taking estrogen with your fish oil capsules. :) We'll do future posts on the dangers of soy.

Also, check out this article by Dr. Joseph Mercola. Dr. Mercola is a DO physician who used to have a primary family practice, until he went into natural health in 1990. He is incredibly well researched, and writes a health newsletter that is delivered weekly to over 1 million subscribers. He has this to say about the Costco fish oil: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/11/02/fish-oil-part-eleven.aspx

I hope this helps. I can recommend some good brands to you if you'd like. And thank you again for your post!

ChriS & Yvette Ferguson said...

Thanks for the feedback I will take a further look at it!