I was raised by a working class, thin family, so the type of food they ate was burned up by the hard work they did. My mom, a Seventh Day Adventist, and dad, a Baptist, raised gardens and ate fresh vegetables. My mom talked about dressing a cow, being an all-day job. Dressing was a nice word for killing the animal, etc. Frying bacon and splashing the grease on an egg to cook it was a norm. We would make a stack with a pancake, dip-dip egg and bacon.
We had a dish of ice cream every night before going to bed. My father died at 58 of a stroke. It was due to his eating habits but also due to stress. He had bought a row house in Baltimore and collected rents weekly. He had the stoke on one of those collection days. My mother lived longer but colon cancer ended her life. My brother, had a big dish of cereal with milk every night before he went to bed and had a stroke at age 48. I remember before he went to the hospital, the last time, we were all eating a to-die-for (literally) dip with mayonnaise and potato chips.
Eventually, nutrition and good health became fascinating. Weimar, a Seventh Day Adventist Group was recommended by a friend, so when they scheduled a retreat in North East, I attended. Later, I learned about the Rev. George Malkmus, who started Hallelujah Acres in North Carolina. I became a Certified Health Minister (Code #EKN) after hearing from over 100 different people there how the H Diet had made amazing positive health changes in their previously diseased bodies. Rev. Malkmus, himself had colon cancer and dissolved the tumor with a healthy food diet. He credits the Bible verse Genesis 1:29 with his good health, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
The HDiet is very simple and easy, but if you came from a meat loving family as I did, you might stumble a little. Basically, only put into your mouth, food that nourishes all your organs and will do no harm. Simply put, that would be vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, grains and good water. What are those things that harm your body: sugar, white flour, meat and dairy, and caffeine (and non-food). Only quality salt and oil need be ingested, sparingly.
Attending the North American Vegetarian Society at the University of Pennsylvania in Johnstown, Pennsylvania for several years educated me even more on how our food system has been dictated by companies more interested in profits than our good health. Shelf life rules. Spoiled food is a loss. Therefore, read the ingredients on packages. If it names preservatives, that is non-food and your body will work very hard for years to deal with them but eventually will succumb.
I believe in angels and think the many people who have done their research and trials are angels. They have done the work for us and God gives us free will, “. . . choose life.” Deuteronomy 30:19.