The Amazing Benefits of the Whole Foods Plant Based Diet part 1
Today I am beginning a small series I have decided to do on the Whole Foods Plant Based Diet (which I follow ). I like the description that this website gives of this diet https://nutritionstudies.org/whole-food-plant-based-diet-guide/. I am going to say up front: I'm not a health professional, but I have been blessed to learn a lot about healthy eating and I am grateful to be able to share what I have learned. I respect and appreciate the medical establishment and what I will be sharing in this series is not a substitute for professional medical help.
Before I begin this, I just want to say: I am not here to overwhelm or condemn anyone. It is my sincere desire to be a blessing to others. My social network includes people from so, so many different walks of life. I know people who are poor and who come from disadvantaged backgrounds; I also know people who are rather well off and who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds and I know people from all walks of life in between these two extremes. It is my sincere desire to try to present this series in a way that enables people from all walks of life to gain some positive and practical take aways from what I am sharing.
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I would like to start out by sharing my mother's personal story of how changing to a Whole Foods Plant Based diet drastically helped her with her lupus (I have her permission to do so). My mother's diet, growing up, was probably slightly healthier than that of the general American population, but it still was not a good diet. When my mother was eight years old, she was diagnosed with lupus.
Throughout her childhood and teens, and into her young adulthood, my mother suffered from a variety of issues as a result of her condition. These issues included arthralgia, kidney disease, and skin manifestations at times. The peak of her issues occurred at age 18, during her second year of college, when her arthralgia, severe fatigue and kidney disease became so severe that her parents had to take her home for a while. Thankfully, the Lord brought her through this crisis.
Years later, after she had married my father, my parents began transitioning to the Whole Foods Plant based diet. As a result of these changes, my mother's lupus has become mostly inactive. She no longer has the life threatening problems that she had before. For the majority of 24 years, my mother's lupus has been successfully managed with only a very low dose of prednisone. She credits the Whole Foods Plant based diet as having a large part in this.
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I will never say, if you eat a Whole Foods Plant based diet, all of your health problems will be solved. This is simply not true in every person's case. However, I am sure that, for the vast majority of people, the Whole Food's Plant Based Diet will be very instrumental in helping them to obtain their highest possible level of health and well being.
I am also aware, and it pains my heart, that there are many, many people- even here in America, who struggle with food insecurity, who have very tight budgets for food and who may also live in what have been termed food deserts https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-food-deserts-4165971. I think of you all fairly often, and will be scratching my head and researching to see how you too, might be able to access healthier foods which would enable you to have healthier lives. I am not making any promises, but I cannot forget about you. You have a very tender spot in my heart.
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When God first created humans, He prescribed them a diet that was entirely made of plant foods (Genesis 1:29 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-1-23/). After the Flood, when vegetation was scarce, God allowed humans to eat clean meats. Genesis 7:2-3 helps us to see that there were clean and unclean animals even then and Leviticus 11https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Leviticus-Chapter-11/ outlines very clearly which animals are clean and which animals are unclean. Genesis 9:3-4 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-9/are the verses where God allows meat eating. When God established the sacrificial system which pointed to the work that Jesus is doing to save us from our sins, meat eating was a required part of certain ceremonies. The Passover, which God first established when the Israelites were about to leave Egypt, is an example of this. (Exodus 12:3-10 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-Chapter-12/) (adapted from a study I wrote)
The sacrificial system was designed to point us to Jesus, who came both to take away our sins and to save us from them (John 1:29 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-1-29/; Matthew 1:21 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-1-21/). Now, since He has fulfilled all of the types in the sacrificial system, we do not have to offer animal sacrifices and the formerly required meat eating is no longer necessary (Matthew 5:17 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-5-17/; Mark 15:37-38 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Mark-Chapter-15/; Colossians 2:14 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Colossians-2-14/). (adapted from a study I wrote)
God's ultimate goal is total restoration. He created a perfect, sinless world (Genesis 1-2 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-1/#9) He is sorry that Adam and Eve allowed sin to come into the world and He is sorry that all human beings have sinned. Since God is eventually going to create "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Revelation-Chapter-21/), where there will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain (verse 4), it makes sense that He would want us to approach as closely as we can to the original diet that He intended us to have, since we will all be eating this diet in heaven. (partially adapted from a study I wrote)
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If any of you are interested in reading some books written regarding the Whole Foods Plant Based diet, here are some that I know of. I haven't personally read these books, but I am somewhat familiar with the authors and am comfortable enough with what I know to recommend these books.
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, M.D
Eat Plants Feel Whole: Harness the Healing Power of Plants and Transform Your Health by George Guthrie, M.D, MPH, CDE, CNS, FAAFP, FACLM
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Disclaimer: The postings on my blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect Amazon's position. I am signed up for the Amazon Associates program and so I will earn a commission if you buy the books I have linked above using the links I am using here in my blog.
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Photo credit:
2nd photo: Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/lunch-table-5929/
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