Although the curse will not be lifted until death is swallowed up in victory (I Cor. 15:55), a lack of knowledge can certainly hasten the laws of sin and death resulting in sickness, disease and premature death. People are destroyed spiritually and physically for a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6.

In all of my consideration of this scripture in Hosea I never thought of this as having any reference to diet or the food that man eats. I thought of it from a spiritual standpoint only. But the truth is, all laws, natural, scientific, moral and spiritual, are given for the benefit of mankind. It is up to us to search out and learn how to live and work in harmony with these laws.

It has been proven over and over again that a life of fleshly indulgence and dissipation leads to sickness and an early grave. At the same time one of temperance and common sense living results in good health and a longer life span.

There has been much emphasis on getting people healed by God or medical science. And beyond doubt many people have been healed through faith and God has used medical science to help others. And though the establishment may resent my saying so, many lives have been shortened or destroyed through lack of knowledge or the wrong concept in religion and medical science.

If people were healthy they wouldn't need a healing campaign or an M. D. Which is best, a healthy body or the services of a good doctor? It is tragic but true that most of our world is no more interested in changing their eating habits than they are in changing their religious beliefs. Man's traditional way of life is a deep ditch and very few ever get out of it.

Frankly speaking, it is the nature of man to resist change or departure from that well-beaten pathway. It is hard for him to believe he is wrong in something he has done all of his life. It is part of his environment. His family, friends and society as a whole all follow the same general trend. It's hard to accept the fact that he and most of the world are wrong.

Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Much of our approach to the problem of sickness and disease is to treat the symptoms while little is done in the way of prevention. It can surely be said of sickness and disease "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure." Our most serious need in both areas is to awaken people to their need for a drastic change. A local M. D. who has come to see and understand the great need for change in the matter of diet was recently quoted as saying, "Most people had rather have a hospitalization insurance and a good doctor than to change their eating habits."

Although I have been somewhat health or diet conscious for several years, I never fully realized the vital importance of diet until a few months ago. Then, too, I think the health food fanatics, like some religious extremists, are very effective in turning people away from any real consideration of the subjects.

Like every other aspect of human life and existence Satan has invaded this field also. Beyond a shadow of doubt the intense interest in vitamins, minerals and health foods has become a religion with many. Then, too, many are simply taking advantage of this widespread interest to make a fast buck.

And like the world system in general, including religion, the field of nutrition has become a Babylon of confusion with ten thousand different theories. Like religious Babylon, they are divided into many camps with each one thinking he has the answer. However I have noticed a basic unity among the more successful in the field of nutrition.

Because of the news media and much literature being written on the subject, there is a growing tide of interest in better health through nutrition. Although much of this material must be waded through with a prayerful heart and a discriminating eye, I am glad that people are becoming health conscious. As a minister of the gospel I feel it is my duty to awaken and arouse those who are under my influence.

However, I also sense a great need of being careful lest we be carried away into something that is at best secondary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am positive that Satan is taking advantage of all this interest to lead people away from things that are eternal. My consideration of the subject has to be in the light of God's word.

TWO LAWS

There are principally two things, or two laws, that govern our health. One is spiritual and the other is natural. Paul calls these two laws the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and death. Romans 8: 2. These two laws affect us both mentally and physically. You have to take both into consideration. For example, our thought life governs our emotions. Such things as fear, anxiety and anger are creations of what we believe. Wrong believing or thinking results in unrest and inward strife. Surging emotions can upset the chemistry of our body and in time we get sick.

When you are in a happy frame of mind the right amount of bile is produced by the gall bladder. When you are sad there is an excessive amount of bile. When angry, none. All of this affects the digestive process of the body. This along with wrong eating habits is a forerunner of sickness and disease.

Too many nutritionists only think of the cause and effect of diet on the human body. The higher law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is not to be ignored if we would understand and enjoy divine health.

Beyond doubt, peace with God and man through faith in God's word is the greatest health therapy in the universe. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."

I believe this word is just as true as God himself. You cannot find the word without finding Christ. He was the incarnate word. A right relationship with him leads to a right relationship with man. Walking in the light of God's word leads to wisdom in the natural realm as well as the spiritual. It is indeed "...life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh." Proverbs 4:22.

Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

You cannot truly have a merry heart without the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Philippians 4:7. This, no doubt, is why the prophet said, "...the joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, both spiritually and physically. Although I believe that God is definitely giving wisdom in the matter of diet and nutrition, let's not forget, "...the kingdom of God is not meat and drink: but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17.

The natural man may live in a fantasy world for a while but in the end the law of sin and death will be the victor. Proverbs 4:22 actually gives us an example of the effects of the two laws on man's physical being. A merry heart is the result of obedience to the law of the Spirit of life. Like a good medicine, it results in healing. A broken spirit is caused by obedience to the law of sin and death. The process of death is speeded up by a drying of the bones.

The broken spirit referred to here is not speaking of Godly sorrow or humility. It is speaking of hopelessness and despair, the result of a completely negative outlook on life. It's a slow form of suicide that actually drives some to take their life. It's the very opposite of a merry heart that doeth good like a medicine.

Leviticus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood..." Did you know that it is the marrow in the bones that manufactures our blood? When the marrow in our bones begins to dry up from a broken spirit the supply of life-giving blood diminishes and the end is sickness and death.

CHURCH AT CORINTH

Christians who have light are more responsible than the unsaved, natural man. Failure to discern the Lord's body and subsequent disrespect at the Lord's table was responsible for weakness, sickness and death to many Corinthian believers. I Corinthians 11:30-32 says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

KING ASA

God's judgment came upon King Asa because he persecuted God's people and had Hanani, the seer, put in prison for telling him the truth. In the 39th year of his reign he was smitten with a disease in his feet. "...Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign." II Chronicles 16:12-13.

It is evident from these and other scriptures that our first and greatest need is to be in harmony with God and the higher law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Neither the law of nutrition nor medical science can heal or help us when our sickness or disease is the result of sin and rebellion against God.

The fact that diet is such a powerful factor very slowly dawned upon me. And I suppose if it hadn't been for my wife's interest in the subject, I may have never come to this place. Afflicted with bursitis and crippling conditions in both hands, she began reading in earnest everything she could find on the subject.

Although she had her left hand operated on six years ago to remove hardening deposits which were beginning to constrict the hand, the condition continued to worsen in her right hand. In fact, the operation did not stop the forming of the deposits in either hand.

She turned to the Lord and also began her search for help through nutrition after realizing surgery was only giving her temporary relief. Strangely enough one day a few months ago as I observed her anxiety and great concern about her hands, I suddenly had a calm inward assurance that God was going to heal her hands.

Although she had changed her diet somewhat and was taking vitamins and minerals there was no physical evidence of any change at that time. I not only had this inward witness that she would be healed but also felt it would be through diet or natural means. Simply speaking I believed her healing, though of God, would be through obedience to natural laws.

After reading much literature and a book by Dr. William Howard Hay, she was convinced that nutrition was the answer to her physical problems. Since he advocated a cleansing purge of the colon and intestinal tract she went on a 14 day semi-fast, drinking a half and half mixture of water and citrus juice. The first three days included a large dose of epsom salts each morning chased with a little black coffee to kill the taste of the salts. These three days were followed with enemas each night consisting of two quarts of lukewarm water while at the same time continuing the semi-fast of juice and water.

Becoming more and more aware of my own physical need I decided to go on the purge with my wife. And I felt the fast would also help me spiritually. It was during this fast that I sought the Lord for some Biblical answers to the whole question of diet and nutrition. From a natural standpoint I couldn't think of any scriptural reason to justify a radical change in diet.

We already believed in a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, meats, starches, dairy products and some raw foods, especially salad. Anything beyond this seemed extreme and unnecessary.

It was during this fast that the Lord revealed to me why man lived so long in the beginning and why there was such a decline in his life span. I had often wondered if Adam, Methuselah and others actually lived to be over nine hundred years old before they died. I think somehow I had rationalized this to think they didn't count years like we do.

Beyond doubt, Adam and Eve were perfect physical specimens when first created. But they were natural created beings devoid of the life of God we have in Christ. They had perfect health and would have lived forever had they not sinned and brought the curse of death upon themselves and all creation.

Before the fall there was no sickness, germs or disease. There was no aging process or inherent weakness. There was no fear of death because there was no death at that time. Before they came into the knowledge of good and evil there was no fear, anxiety or stress of any kind.

Although they were naked they were innocent and unafraid before the Lord. Had they not sinned, they would have stayed young and beautiful forever in this original paradise. Created from the earth, their bodies were to be sustained by the fruit of the earth. In the garden every provision was made by the Lord to sustain their life and keep them well and healthy. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil..." Genesis 2:8- 9.

After sin entered the garden their trouble began. Filled with guilt, fear and anxiety, they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness and fled from the presence of the Lord.

The reason God drove them from the Garden of Eden was to prevent them from partaking of the tree of life and living forever in a corrupted condition. From that point on the very earth was cursed and would never again yield fruit capable of sustaining man forever. Genesis 3:17-19.

Before sin there was no need to prepare, refine, can or cook food. Everything they needed was in the garden. The fruit, the nuts and the vegetables were perfect specimens also. They had everything in them in the way of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that the human body needed. There was no eating of flesh since death had not entered the world. They could have lived forever in that beautiful paradise had it not been for sin.

In spite of the curse and being driven from the garden, Adam lived 930 years. With bodies that were perfect in the beginning, sickness, disease and the aging process did not readily take hold of them. Also, the departure from the eating habits of the garden was no doubt a slow process.

The further man got away from the garden and his original living habits the more pronounced the curse became. Sickness, disease and the aging process began to take its toll. Although Adam's first descendants were healthy and robust compared to men today, the life span began to decline. From Adam to Abraham it had declined from over nine hundred years to one hundred and seventy-five. And it's evident from the scriptures that God rejuvenated Abraham's body when he was a hundred years old. Romans 4:19-20.

With few exceptions, the life span of man as recorded in the Bible steadily declined to less than a hundred years. The Psalmist spoke of the days of our years as being "three score and ten." This (seventy) no doubt was considered the average age at that time.

Moses, the man of God, was one of the notable exceptions. God took him when he was 120 years old and the scripture says, "And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Deuteronomy 34:7.

It is my conviction that Moses' forty year sojourn in the wilderness tending sheep away from the strife and stress of Egypt served to strengthen and lengthen his life span. No doubt his diet also consisted of simple natural things grown on the land.

Moses did not die because of sickness and disease. It was because of his disobedience in striking the rock twice at Meribah-Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin. This was also the reason God would not let him enter the promised land. Deuteronomy 32:48-52.

By the same principle it is my conviction that many of God's children today, though saved by the grace of God, fail to enter into many of the unsearchable riches of Christ that are available to us in this life.

Rev. 18:4 says, "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

I have purposely used this verse of scripture because I believe the plagues of Babylon, the result of a man-made society, are upon us. Actually it is the world system that endeavors to solve its problems and heal its sickness without divine wisdom.

When man thrusts God aside and tries to find the answer to his ills, whether it be physical or social, he is inviting the plagues of Babylon. To the degree we come out of Babylon we will rid ourselves of its plagues.

Several years ago a sister, who had been a part of our church, came down with cancer which was terminal in the end. Although she was convinced in her own mind that her sickness was not unto death she died after a lingering illness. This was a few weeks after telling me personally that the Lord had showed her she wasn't going to die.

The same enemy that had led her and her family away from the fellowship of the church had her deceived in this also.

While contemplating this case I believe the Lord spoke to me and said that the plagues of Babylon are upon the world and they don't know it. Much of our sickness and disease such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and mental illnesses is part of the plagues of Babylon. This also includes the many social ills that cause so much misery and mental anguish.

We are reaping in every way because of a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6. Coming out of Babylon is both spiritual and physical. It involves our minds and our bodies. The key to wisdom comes from God who alone has all the answers.

As we get back to the faith once delivered to the saints our relationship to God and man will change. This change will include what we think, what we eat and what we drink. What goes into our minds and our bodies affects our physical and mental process.

As wrong thinking creates a spiritually poisonous condition in our spirits, wrong eating creates a toxic or poisonous condition in our bodies. The result is sickness and premature death.

Babylon (or the world system) has done to food the same thing that has been done to the Word of God by religion. Both have been corrupted by man. This is why man is so spiritually and physically sick.

Highly refined and processed food is the product of civilization. Civilization is Babylon. Partake of it and you reap the plagues of Babylon. Man's greed is responsible for much of this.

In order to make money he has to figure out a way to produce and market his product. This involves time, space and shipping. To speed up the growth of his product he uses chemical fertilizers. And in the case of animal products he injects hormones and other chemicals into the animal to fatten and speed up the growth.

Grains are processed and refined which takes out valuable nutrients needed by the human body. To make it last a long time on the shelf, preservatives that poison the system and hinder digestion are added. To make it pretty, he adds chemically manufactured color. Because of the loss of natural vitamins and minerals through processing, he adds synthetic ones to take their place.

This taking from and adding to destroys the product in its original form or the way God made it for the good of man. In the same manner, religious man has taken from and added to the Word of God. He has taken away vital truth that we need. He has added his own traditions and colorations to make it palatable to his particular group.

When we get back to the original in both realms we shall be healed. The water (Word) will be pure and clear as crystal. The tree of life will be there producing twelve manner of fruit for food. The leaves of this tree will heal us. Rev. 22:1-3. I personally believe this restoration is taking place. For a small elect remnant, the water (Word) is become pure and clear.

Prov. 4:18 says, "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

I believe we will discover that God's Word is just as effective today as it was in the early church. When we get back to believing and preaching the pure unadulterated Word, God will once again confirm his Word as he did in the beginning.

We will also discover that better health and peace of mind is for us when we get back to living as man did in the early creation. He lived simply and naturally without the pressures of modern civilization. His food was simple and naturally grown without the highly processing techniques of modern man.

They indeed did live over nine hundred years in the beginning. As stated previously, the farther they got away from the Garden of Eden the sicker they became and the shorter their life span.

In our world today there are several living examples of people whose life span is thirty or forty years beyond that of the more advanced civilized countries. The small nation called Hunza located in the Himalayan mountains of West Pakistan is a very good example. Centenarians are common among them. Some of them live to be 120 or even 140 years old. They don't know the meaning of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, prostate trouble, female trouble, overweight, baldness, acne, neurosis, and nervous tension. In addition to this, crime is almost unknown among them. They do not have to fear robbers, murder, muggings or rape.

Because of their remote location, little was known about them until the 1950's and 60's. The astonishing news of their vibrant health and longevity created much interest in many parts of the world. This resulted in research trips sponsored by NBC, National Geographic Magazine and others. The result of their research projects proved conclusively that diet is one of the great factors in increasing the life span of man or animal.

Dr. Robert McCarrison, a brilliant English surgeon and Director of Nutritional Research of India, studied the Hunzas and experimented with albino rats by feeding one group (1200) the Hunza diet and two other groups typical diets of India and England. To say the least, the results were astonishing. The first group of 1200 rats (fed the Hunza diet) were watched over from birth to the twenty-seventh month, the age that compares to fifty years in man. At this point the Hunza fed rats were killed and carefully examined.

Dr. McCarrison's report was that during the twenty-seven months there was no illness nor death from natural causes in the adult stock. Except for a few accidental deaths, there was no infantile mortality among them. Postmortem examination showed the rats to be remarkably free from disease. The doctor said, "Clinical and microscopic examinations showed no evidence of disease."

Next, the doctor took diseased rats and put them on the Hunza diet. The result was remarkable. These sick rats became well.

Over two thousand rats which were fed food commonly eaten by the people of India developed tumors, eye ailments, bad teeth, boils, ulcers, loss of hair, anemia, skin disorders, heart, kidney, glandular weaknesses and other conditions.

In a later experiment, Dr. McCarrison fed a group of rats on an English diet of white bread, boiled vegetables, margarine, tinned meats, sweetened tea and jams and jellies. This group not only developed all kinds of sickness and disease but they became nervous wrecks and apt to bite their attendants. After sixteen days of this experiment they began to kill and eat the weaker ones among them.

This experiment as well as thousands of others around the world conducted by conscientious men of science prove conclusively that what we put into our bodies has much to do with our general health and span of life.

The very fact that disease, mental illness, violence and crime in general is much higher in poverty stricken areas should tell us something. Although we have seen a few people saved and delivered from poor and sordid environments, most of them live out their miserable existence with little hope or desire for anything better.

A young man I was very close to from childhood to young manhood is a good example of what drinking, drugs, poor eating and sin will do to a human being. As a young man he was healthy, strong and full of life. Both of his grandfathers lived to their eighties. His mother today is over eighty years old. Yet he died at 48. Years before his death he was a very sick man as a result of a life of dissipation.

Another people noted for their long lives and good health who came to world attention a few years ago are the people of Georgia, now a part of the Soviet Union. Although Georgia is bounded on the west by the Black Sea and not all of it is mountainous, the people we refer to here live in a mountainous region and are like the people of Hunza.

Centenarians are common among them with many of them living far beyond the century mark. One man lived to be 156 years old. People of eighty are not considered old and work as hard as those much younger than they are.

These people, too, live off the land, eating natural foods grown in their vineyards, orchards, fields and gardens. According to one article on them corn mush is one of the main sources of their diet. They work hard and walk many miles over mountainous terrain. They, too, live in an environment free from the pressure and stress of more urbanized society.

One of the things that impressed me most about these people was their attitude toward old people. Old people are an integral part of the household. Instead of being looked upon as a nuisance and a burden they are honored and respected in the home.

When I read this I could see that there was an additional reason why these people lived so long and enjoyed such phenomenal good health. God was blessing them for obedience to his Word.

Speaking of the Word, Prov. 4:22 says, "For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."

In reference to the fifth commandment, Exodus 20:12, Paul said, "Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Eph. 6:2-3.

Dr. Paavo Airola in his book "Rejuvenation Secrets from Around the World" gives us many examples of people whose way of life enables them to enjoy better health and live longer than most of the world.

A Russian scientist Ilja Metchnikoff who studied the Bulgarian people reported that they had 1600 centenarians for every million people. This compared to only seven centenarians per million in the United States is quite a contrast.

They are a tall and healthy people living longer than most people in the earth. Bulgarians are known to retain the characteristics of youth to an advanced age. The virility of their old men is legendary.

One of the health secrets of the Bulgarian people is the habit of eating yogurt made from sheep or goat's milk. Goat's milk contains anti-cancer and anti-arthritis factors, which may account in part for its life prolonging property.

Dr. Airola's study of Bulgarian centenarians' eating and living habits further reveals the following things:

"Most of them are predominantly lacto-vegetarians. That is, their diet consists mostly of locally-grown and freshly stone ground whole grains (especially barley), and fresh vegetables and fruits from their own gardens. They eat very little meat. Only about 3 or 4 percent of all centenarians eat meat regularly.

"Most Bulgarian centenarians are bee keepers and use lots of honey in their diet.

"They consume lots of fermented foods especially sauerkraut. As you have seen in the previous chapter, fermented foods help to prevent and cure many diseases, and, thus, prolong life.

"Almost all of them eat sunflower seeds as an essential part of their diet.

"They live 'close to nature' following nature's rhythm in working, eating and sleeping; they are usually poor to the extent that they can not afford to overeat; they are engaged in hard physical work; they are friendly, contented, and have no great ambitions of jealousy."

This is another example of a people living simply and naturally close to nature and free from the stress of our more advanced civilization.

The various statements of centenarians quoted by Dr. Airola in his book is very interesting:

"The oldest man in the world today is Shirali Mislimov. He is 166 years of age and lives in the Russian province of Azerbaidzhan, in the Caucasian mountains. Mislimov's formula for a long and happy life includes: clean air, natural foods, a slow pace, a kind heart, and a lot of work.

"Here's his secret of long life in his own words, delivered in the poetic language of the Azerbaidzhan mountains: 'I was never in a hurry in my life, and I'm in no hurry to die now.'

"There are two sources of long life:

"One is a gift of nature, and it is the pure air and clear water of the mountains, the fruit of the earth, peace, rest and the soft warm climate of the highlands.

"The second source is within us. He lives long who enjoys life and who bears no jealousy of others, whose heart harbors no malice or anger, who sings a lot and cries a little, who rises and retires with the sun, who likes to work and who knows how to rest.

"Regarding his diet, the 166 year old Mislimov said: 'I eat the usual food our people here have been eating for generations: mostly fruits and homemade cheeses, and a very little meat. And I drink a little tea. I never eat when I am not hungry,' he concluded."

One of the most amazing examples of longevity referred to by Dr. Airola was the Chinese scholar and herbalist Professor Li Chung Yun who lived to be 265 years of age. His life spanned four centuries - 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th. He enjoyed excellent health, outlived 23 wives and kept his own natural teeth and hair.

Those who saw him at age 200 testified that he did not appear much older than a man in his fifties. Professor Li Chung Yun attributed his longevity to his life-long vegetarian diet and the regular use of rejuvenating herbs.

Using gotu-kola and ginseng daily in the form of tea, Professor Yun testified to an inward calm as one of his great secrets to longevity.

At the age of 100, he was awarded, by the Chinese government, a special honor citation for extraordinary services to his country. For over 150 years after the award, the professor was visited by countless western scholars and students. It is reported that he gave 28 lectures at the University of Sinkiang when he was 200 years of age.

Dr. Airola states that the life span and activities of this man are well documented.

One outstanding thing about most of these people who lived long lives and enjoyed exceptional health was their religion or philosophy of life. They had certain principles that are consistent with divine wisdom concerning proper relationship with man and God.

It is evident from this that the answer to man's many diseases and physical ills is not just diet but a right relationship to God and man. Since our emotional state has a direct influence upon the chemistry of our bodies, peace and harmony in the soul is a great factor that cannot be ignored.

As the pressures of our world system increase we need Him who is our refuge from the stress and strife of this life. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early." Psalm 46:1-5.

Our first step toward better health and a longer useful life is peace with God and man. Rest or tranquillity of the soul will help balance the chemistry of our bodies and enable them to function normally.

Next, we need to rid our pantries of impoverished processed foods that are starving our bodies and poisoning them as well. Junk foods such as cookies, candy, carbonated drinks, potato chips, ice cream, white sugar, white flour, white rice and sugar laden cereals must go.

Fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains should take their place. For sweets get honey and blackstrap molasses or the natural sugar found in various fruits. Avoid processed foods full of additives. Get health conscious, pray, seek the Lord. He will help you.

My desire is that this article is to simply help God's people to become health conscious. I am not a doctor or a nutritionist but I believe these common sense principles are consistent with divine wisdom. Although there are no doubt charlatans in the nutritional field as well as religion, there are some that can help us. They are sincere, conscientious and knowledgeable people.

In closing, I want to first of all encourage you to seek the Lord. He is the Fountain-head of all wisdom -- as Isaiah 40:28 says, "...there is no searching of his understanding."

He can lead you to the source of wisdom you need. The rest is up to you to make adjustments and discipline your own life according to that wisdom.

Dr. Paavo Airola is also the author of "How to get Well" and many other books on nutrition. Published by: Health Plus, Publishers, P.O. Box 22001, Phoenix, Arizona 85028.