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GUEST ARTICLE
Obesity
“So
whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). One
who is obese can hardly be said to be obeying the exhortation
of Paul to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). A
fat person is frequently lazy and laziness contributes
to overeating. A
fatty often eats himself into bodily misery and a diseased
condition.
According
to cold insurance statistics, a fat person will not live
as long as a person with normal weight. These
statistics tell us that for each pound of overweight
after the age of 35 our life, expectancy is decreased by
one
percent. To
illustrate, if you are 35 years of age and have a normal
weight of 134 pounds, you have a normal life expectancy
of 28 years. If
you allow your weight to increase to 164 pounds, that is,
30 pounds more than your normal weight, your life expectancy
is reduced to approximately 20 years. Truly it is poor
business to want to remain overweight.
Overweight
people often are not willing to face the facts honestly
as to why they are in their obese condition. Their
alibis for their condition would be ludicrous if they were
not so serious. Obesity
is commonly attributed to glands, heredity, or confining
work. If you
are obese, it is not likely that any of these things are
responsible for such condition. There
is no truth whatever in the statement that heredity causes
fatness. As
to exercise being an antidote for obesity, this is a chimera. It
is estimated that a man weighing 100 pounds would have
to play handball furiously for about 6 hours just to burn
up one pound of fat.
And
if your glands are responsible for your fatness, likely
your glands have become defective because through the years
you have fed your body with too much devitalized food. Doctors
tell us that 95 to 98 percent of the cases of obesity are
caused by overeating. The
plain, simple fact is that if you are overweight it is
because in your eating you are a pig. Yes,
that is it—nothing but gluttonous, sinful eating. Whenever
a person wakes up to the fact that waxy, pale, humpty-dumpty,
pin-cushion, foul breath, triple chin, heavy breathing
conditions is due to overeating, the question arises as
to what action should he take. The
answer, of course, is to observe a proper diet and in order
to know what a proper diet is, one must study. It is not
necessary that one personally consult a doctor to obtain
facts as to a proper diet although this is recommended
if one does not have the time or inclination to make a
study of food.
Space
. . . will not permit a whole diet regimen to be outlined. We
will from time to time suggest foods which should be eaten
regularly in order to maintain robust health. There
are many excellent books which give the basic principles
of right eating, and with these in mind, added to common
sense and determination, it is no difficult trick for an
overweight person to eat so that in a relatively short
time his body will be normal in weight, his skin fresh
and radiant, and his body vibrant and with more energy
that he ever thought possible. This
surely is to be ardently desired by a Christian in order
that he may in all ways serve God more acceptably. . .
. And
now to leave our fat friends for the present with the view
of pursuing our iconoclastic attitude toward those items
commonly found on the American dinner table which masquerade
as food. It
has been said that bread is the “staff of life.” This can
no longer be said in the United States for with the use
of white bred the staff has been broken.
Have
you ever wondered why white bread is white? It
is because from the ground grain of wheat three-fourths
of the mineral salts and colloids, including the salts
of calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, chlorine, fluorine,
surplus, magnesium, manganese, etc., are removed. These
mineral substances are contained in the brown outer skin,
the cells underneath this skin and the germ of the wheat
berry. They
are sifted and bolted out of the ground meal, leaving behind
the white starchy cells and the refined gluten of the interior
part of the berry. In
addition, in the whitening of the flour the vitamins are
removed. To
this devitalized flour, which should not be referred
to as food, only a few of the 16 or more known B vitamins
are added and the substance is ironically labeled “enriched.” The
people of America ought to rise up in wrath and compel
every loaf of white bread to be prominently labeled “devitalized.” Chickens,
guinea pigs, white mice, or monkeys fed on bread made from
the unrefined wheat thrive indefinitely, but when fed on
white bread perish in from 5 to 7 weeks. Yet
white bread is on the table of nearly all of the homes
in the United States each meal of the day in one form or
another. It
is lamentable that many mothers of our fair land are ignorant
as to the proper foods which should be placed before their
families, and that those who do know better are so stupid
and unconcerned as to allow white bread on their tables.
Why
so foolishly argue that by eating a wide variety of foods
in addition to the white bread that the body will receive
those vitamins and minerals which have been taken from
the wheat berry to make the white bread. The
stomach will only hold so much and we ought to want every
bite of food we place in our mouth to contain all of the
nutriment possible. For
the better health of your family why not resolve now
never to place white bread again on your dinner table—a
substance which all nutritionists I know of agree is
practically
worthless as a food. BH
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