Taking care of our bodies

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As humans with a conscience we inherently take care of certain things. We don't dump motor oil in the river, we put most of our trash in the trash can, we never put harmful waste in the woods or a park, we take care of God's earth! Most of us would not think of polluting the environment on purpose. What about our lawn? Having a healthy green lawn is great but it doesn't happen all by itself! We need to feed it. We can grab any bag that says fertilizer. The wrong stuff will actually harm the lawn rather than help it. When we find the right stuff we still need to calculate the correct amount for the square footage we have otherwise we will think we are helping our lawn but in reality we are killing it! 

With all that being true and probably 99% of world population agreeing why then do people take such poor care of there bodies? In Christian circles it can be taboo to talk about eating food because of its known benefits, qualities or its purity. 

1 Corinthians 6:19 '...Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you ....' 

This verse is in the bible in the context of sexual immorality and there is a lot of arguments about using it out of context only negates your point you are trying to make. But in this case just think of this verse, your body, who made your body and if God would tell you the exact same thing in reference to all parts of taking care of your body. There is a fine line between taking care of your body and vanity in my opinion. We can cut out harmful 'foods' from our diets or we can search high and low and buy special food with additional benefits,and its all a matter of our goals and intentions. 

Going back to the motor oil in the river there is no argument that motor oil should never be dumped in the river or the city sewer system and in the same way there are items labeled food that should never pass our lips. 

Take Aspartame for example. Aspartame is an artificial chemical sweetener found in foods and drinks. It is not natural in any sense. The FDA approved this chemical because "all the properties can be broken down by the body". Our bodies can break down news paper too........ There are over 85 different side effects and symptoms directly linked to aspartame starting with dizziness and in some cases death. I don't think anyone ever died from water, broccoli or a chicken wing. 

So aspartame is one 'food' that is pretty serious and it is found in most diet soda and diet drinks. There are many other foods that make me wonder if Jesus were walking the earth if he would eat them. In Jesus day they didn't have all this heavily processed food. No white sugar, white flour etc. there was no packaged food filled with preservatives that would last him all 40 days in the desert. I believe as Christians we should read every food label and base our decision on what's inside. Can we pronounce all the ingredients? Do we know what all the ingredients are? Read all the ingredients, if we don't know what the are or how to pronounce them, put it back. Would we serve it to Jesus if he were with us? Would we give him a diet soda with aspartame or an iced tea with refined white sugar? Would we give him sweet potatoe casserole loaded with sugar and marshmallows? I think he would say no thank you. 

In Genesis 1:29 God said "I give you every seed bearing plant , on the face of the earth, and every tree yielding seed; these are yours for food" then later in Acts 10:13 God told Peter to "kill and eat" referring to all the birds and animals. So we have all fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, animals, birds and fish to eat what more could we ask for. He did not say "take all I have given you and process the goodness out of it and add unnatural chemicals to it and eat it. He said "eat". Heavily processed foods are not good for our bodies, it's a fact. Sugar laden snacks and junk food is not considering your body the Holy Spirit's temple. 

There are so many options out there when it comes to natural healthy foods that it seems insane that people would choose garbage like McDonald's or Tastykakes. 

Some say that you are being phanatical about food if you make the effort to find healthy options, or that you shouldn't choose one food over another because one is the healthier option. That we should eat whatever we want and pray for God to bless it and make it nourishing to our bodies. I don't know about that! We can be specific when we protect every other created thing but not our bodies? The only thing that is created that's a temple of the Holy Spirit? Seems strange. I think people just want to continue to eat the garbage they have always eaten and disregard how God really wants them to eat.

The 'because we've always done it" argument doesn't hold water. Dumping oil in the river is not as appalling as intaking harmful chemicals or seriously processed foods that our bodies were not created to process. 

Eating something because it's natural and healthy is not a human effort. Eating something to heal our body is. We will most likely feel a world of difference if you eat healthy and natural. 

There are so many natural foods available that it's crazy not to take advantage of their availability and goodness! Nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables etc. and hundreds of varieties!! All natural, all good, all healthy. 

We all have a choice when it comes to the food we choose to eat. It's time to make an effort to eat right. Eat as Jesus would.