-Caveat Lector-
Interesting item and wisdom from the bible.
Why is it when you go into a Health Food Store they sell carrots and
stuff like that - an apple, range, meatless chili and call it Health
Food as though it is something different?
Costs more too when they call it Health Food - costs more than junk
food?
Saba
A word form the wise:
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January 2001
A Health Book You Can Depend On
by Jane Heimlich
It's not listed in The New York Times' "how-to" best seller list. Or
promoted with assurances that "this breakthrough can change your life."
But the Bible is a treasure trove of valuable health information,
particularly when mined by an experienced and caring nutritionist. She's
Ruth F. Rosevear, a licensed nutritionist and author of the newly
published Nutrition in Biblical Times, Clinton Hills Press, Inc.,
Cincinnati, $14.50.
I recently visited the Rosevear's 1908 brick house in Clifton, where the
author and her husband, Francis, a retired P&G research chemist, have
lived for 53 years. The high-ceilinged, homey living room was
overflowing with books, filling dark wood cabinets, spilling from tables
and hassocks. In the center of the room, two music stands were placed
companionably together in front of the fireplace. She plays the cello
and he, the oboe and saxophone, among other instruments.
What was missing were any signs of high-tech office equipment. Reading
Rosevear's book, whose friendly, readable style conceals a wealth of
scholarship, I marveled that this work came into being without the
benefit of a computer. As she has done over the years, contributing to
nutrition journals, Rosevear typed her numerous drafts of the book on
her Olympia portable.
What sparked this book, which was 15 years in the making, occurred on a
Sunday morning in 1980. In a Bible class studying the book of Jeremiah,
she read, "The wild asses stand on the bare heights ... their eyes fail
because there is no grass." Struck by the leap from healthy grass (a
source of vitamin A) to healthy eyes, Rosevear wondered what other bits
of nutrition wisdom the Bible contained.
Plenty, as she discovered reading the Bible, literally from beginning to
end. Here are some nuggets from the Old Testament, "a richer source of
nutritional information than the New Testament," she said.
The Israelites, as well as the Babylonians, knew that organ meats, which
include liver, beef heart and kidneys, were good for the eyes. The
Egyptians prescribed beef liver to cure night-blindness. Today, we know
that organ meats are rich in vitamin A, as well as vitamin B12, but
we're scared off by their high cholesterol content.
Rosevear's advice: Unless you have an extremely elevated cholesterol,
and your doctor restricts foods high in cholesterol, eat organ meats on
a regular basis. Fresh calves liver is hard to find, but beef liver,
chicken livers and giblets are readily available.
Sugar, which we consume in prodigious quantities and which contributes
to obesity, was unknown in Biblical times. Instead, peoples of the Bible
ate sweet fruits, primarily dates, figs, persimmons and pomegranates,
and made syrups from these fruits that they used in used in breads and
"dainties." Carob trees, whose pods yielded a chocolate-flavored syrup,
grew in Palestine.
Rosevear's advice: Banish the sugar bowl in favor of the fruit bowl. For
an occasional sweet treat, nibble on a few carob-coated raisins, almonds
or peanuts. Carob tastes like chocolate but is minus the caffeine and
extremely high in calcium.
Biblical peoples didn't rely on salt, as we do today, to flavor their
foods, but used a variety of herbs, such as cumin, coriander, mint,
dill, rosemary and generous amounts of onions and garlic.
Rosevear's advice: Give the salt shaker a rest, and add some aromatic
herbs to your cooking. Good choices are oregano, parsley, sage, bay leaf
and tyme.
Although wine was the common beverage in biblical times, because water
was scarce, drunkenness was forbidden. "I counted 55 biblical warnings
against overindulgence, but only five passages exaulting its virtues."
In view of what we know about fetal alcohol syndrome, the advice that
the angel gave to Monoah's wife, who was to bear Samson, still holds
true, Rosevear writes. "Take no wine nor strong drink." Note: the
Rosevears are both teetotalers. "I was brought up in a home where my
father said, 'If you never take the first drink, you'll never have to
worry about the second.'"
Rosevear's advice: Don't let the current thinking that red wine is good
for the heart induce you to start drinking. Instead, include red grapes
and grape juice in your diet which contain the protective ingredient
found in red wine without the alcohol.
Despite their many admirable dietary practices, the Israelites were far
from being models of health, partly due to the deprivations they
suffered. Israelites ate little meat, not by choice but because a desert
climate was not conducive to raising livestock. Job, who was reduced to
starvation, was severely deficient in protein, as evidenced by the
"three Ds:" skin disorders, diarrhea and dementia.
Rosevear's advice: As we age, our need for protein increases. If you're
experiencing fatigue, as so many of my clients complained about, it may
be due to lack of protein. Make an effort to include some form of
protein - meat, poultry, fish or eggs - in your diet each day.
The Israelites' health problems were not all due to an unfriendly
climate. These peoples made poor food choices, as well. The Hebrews,
whose diet was based on bread and cereal grains, preferred "fine flour"
(white) bread in preference to the course bread eaten by poor people.
Sifting out bran and wheat germ resulted in the loss of valuable B
vitamins, including B6, and vitamin E. This loss caused skin problems
such as pellagra and boils, and reproductive difficulties, among other
disorders.
Rosevear's advice: Pass up white bread in favor of 100-percent whole
grain breads. The Rosevears' favorite is Big Sky Bread, sold at four
outlets in Cincinnati plus Wild Oats and Kroger's Hyde Park. This
locally-prepared bread contains no preservatives or processed sugar.
The Bible yielded some surprises. Eve may have been tempted by an
apricot, not an apple. Apricots were plentiful, while apples don't do
well in a desert climate, Rosevear pointed out.
My big surprise was Rosevear's finding that Jewish dietary laws were
based on cultural practices, not health concerns. I had thought that the
prohibition against eating pork showed an awareness of the danger of
trichinosis, which is not the case. "This disease was not known to come
from infected pork until 1860. More likely, raising pigs was not
economical," Rosevear concludes. Unlike the cow, which eats grass, pigs
"can eat you out of house and home," competing with humans for food and
water. Furthermore, pigs don't fare well in a hot climate; they lack the
ability to sweat.
For more nutritional insights plus a fresh view of the Bible, start the
New Year with a copy of Nutrition in Biblical Times, available at
Joseph-Beth Booksellers and other major bookstores.
The Ten Commandments of Biblical Nutrition
1. You shall have no other foods than those rich in vitamins and
minerals and shall not eat poisoned quail or wild gourds.
2. You shall not bow down to useless snack foods without fiber.
3. You shall not take too few protein foods like meat, poultry, fish or
seafoods and shall include dairy foods.
4. Remember to include liver, or heart, or innards for their superior
vitamin A for eyes.
5. Honor thy father and mother for having eaten nourishing food and
avoiding strong drink before you were born.
6. You shall not kill the good which is in the whole-wheat berry to make
fine flour foods.
7. You shall not adulterate foods by using sugar without vitamins and
minerals, or by false, unnatural additions.
8. You shall not steal the good that is in the sugar cane to make white
sugar.
9. You shall not fail to eat summer fruits, dates, pomegranates, melons,
figs, carob pods, almonds, pistachios, lentils, beans, onions, garlic,
herbage and, in time of famine, locusts.
10. You shall not covet foods that satisfy taste alone, but shall eat
foods to prolong your life with freedom from disease.
Jane Heimlich is the Cincinnati-based author of the best-selling book,
What Your Doctor Won't Tell You.
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