“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid…” Psalm 32:5I am very careful about what I eat and what I feed our family. God is the best nutritionist in the world and His eating plan is the perfect formula for health and longevity.
When I comfort eat I consume food that I know is toxic to my body. It does not happen very often but it does occur enough for me to be reminded of how weak my flesh really is and the desperate need I have for God to order my daily menu.
“And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.” Proverbs 23:2
It’s no easy task to restrain our appetites at all cost.
I love to visit Costco with my family. The isles are huge and then there's the ladies that line the store like a row of sampling soldiers; "Come and eat this!" You can eat your entire meal from appetizer to dessert in one sweep - and all for free! As we approached the checkout I asked my husband if we could buy a Danish pastry. My sweetheart looked at me and said, “Deborah, do you think it’s good for you to eat that?” Of coarse I thought, “No, but who wants what’s best when you can have THE BEST?”
But alas, I was reminded of my promise to God that I would surrender my appetite before him and bring my body under His subjection for the rest of my life – not part time or most of the time…I made an all-the-time-no-compromise promise.
God brought about conviction after I purposed in my heart to allow Him to bring every area of my life under His control. Is it easy? No – far from easy! I like Danish pastries and making no excuses is a much disciplined response. It requires great strength and resolve to change something that was started from a demand breast feeding philosophy. Do I have the necessary discipline? Not without God’s truth behind my decision and not without a vision and goal in place.
It’s not OK to eat bad food and it is not until I stop the excuses and yield to the Holy Spirit that I make zero provision for the flesh. Satan hates that! He loves for us to erode our bodies and impair us for God’s work.
I found this informative article after researching how Danish Pastries are made. After all, I need resolve.
Ever wondered how white flour is made?
Commercial wheat production is a study in pesticide application. Not only are the starting seeds treated with fungicide, the growing wheat is sprayed with hormones such as cycocel to influence production. More pesticides are added in the field, as the growing season progresses. After the harvesting of the wheat is done, the wheat grain or "berries" are stored in bins which have been coated with insecticides. If any bugs are still hanging around at that point, the farmer will then fumigate the grain.
It is from this pesticide soaked grain that commercial flour is made. Once the milling process starts, more damage is inflicted.
A wheat grain kernel is composed of three layers: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm layer.
The bran is the outside layer where most of the fiber exists. Most of the nutrients and fats are in germ layer. The endosperm is the starchy middle layer. The natural nutrition associated with whole grains exists only when these three layers are eaten together. Old time stone mills ground the flour slowly, and the resulting flour had all three layers mixed in. (This result is called "100 percent stone-ground whole-wheat flour").
But in mass production flour mills, stone grinding isn’t efficient enough, so high speed, high temperature steel roller mills are used. These high speed mills remove the bran and germ, and the resulting flour is made up of mostly the starchy endosperm layer. Ironically, much of the bran and germ "waste product", which is the most nutritious part of the grain, is sold as animal feed. The resulting white flour contains just a fraction of the nutrients of the original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers also playing a role in the nutrient destruction.
Chlorine and Alloxan
Not content with applying pesticides and ditching most of the nutrients, the flour manufacturers then subject the starchy flour to a chlorine gas bath. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies chlorine gas as a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal. The flour manufacturers use a form of chlorine gas to bleach and artificially "age" flour. The goal, of course, is a clean, white product. The chlorine gas reacts with the flour, oxidizing, whitening it and reducing the gluten. But it also converts a dough additive called xanthine into a toxic substance called alloxan. The alloxan is an unintended byproduct.
So what is alloxan? Alloxan is a toxin which destroys pancreatic islet cells, resulting in diabetes. In fact, Alloxan is specifically used in research labs to induce diabetes in rats and mice for study purposes. After the chlorine bath, we get nice, white flour completely devoid of any natural vitamins. And since all the natural vitamins have been destroyed, the bleached flour is mixed with synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements to "enrich" it. These synthetic vitamins are made from petroleum, elemental ores, bacteria, fungi, and ferrous iron, which is created from sulfate refined out of high sulfur crude oil.
Bleached White Flour Was Supposed to Be Outlawed
Now here’s the real kicker. In 1906, the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment sent out 24 surveys to flour mill executives and asked them about their thoughts on the flour bleaching process. Eighteen of those millers wrote back and said that flour bleaching was unnecessary and harmful to those eating the flour and was deceitful to the public buying the flour.
In 1910, bleach white flour was declared unfit as human food by the Federal Western District Court of Missouri. Legal wrangling ensued and the case wasn’t settled until 1919. But according to H.W. Wiley, first chief of the Food and Drug Administration, the enforcement of this law was "halted through the political influence of the flour millers" and "no notice of violations has since been made by the FDA." Mr. Wiley’s book "The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law" discusses this case. Reference here.
White flour does provide potassium and phosphorus, but little else in the way of nutrition. It is the ultimate refined food.
I know that food is important for sustaining us and providing energy for our daily living. The Bible speaks clearly about the way we are to eat and take care of our bodies. Without the necessary vitamins and minerals that are transferred through good wholesome food, we stand to place our health and eventually our lives in jeopardy.
For those of you who struggle daily with comfort eating, take one step at a time and ask God to strengthen you and impart the necessary wisdom and understanding to overcome perhaps a life-long pattern. It’s not easy but it’s never too late either. With God all things are possible and He wants you to love who you are – precious in His sight!
As Christian woman it is important to God how we take care of ourselves – His temple. He adores you and His love is something we will never comprehend here in this life.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19
God bless you as you seek to please Him in every area of your life and give Him the glory for the victory you can have.
I Love You,
Deborah
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