Does God want us to eat plant food? . . . part 4 of 4
The late LDS (Mormon) prophet Gordon B. Hinckley was kinder than I was in my statement yesterday that LDS people are mostly “grossly negligent” in their observance of Word of Wisdom scripture. He said this: “I regret that we as a people do not live [the Word of Wisdom] more fully.”
The late LDS prophet Ezra Taft Benson said, “To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours . . . We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the ‘kings meat’–and whose countenances show it.”
In the Bible, Daniel and his men refused to eat the rich diet of the king (meat and wine), and instead drank water and ate “pulse”–fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. At the end of 10 days, everyone witnessed that Daniel’s group looked better and were stronger, and had more wisdom and understanding.
We have a great promise in the Word of Wisdom if we follow its simple counsel (that only a small fraction of LDS people actually follow completely). The promise is that “all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings . . . shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.”
Those are great promises! They are the same promises made by courageous and outspoken medical doctors like Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Mehmet Oz, William Castelli, and Caldwell Esselstyn, to those who commit to a whole-foods, animal-protein minimized diet. These are the same promises that you find in hundreds of studies authored by the greatest researchers of our time, including the Oxford/Cornell team led by T. Colin Campbell, PhD. But in the case of the Word of Wisdom, God is the maker of the promises.
I’ve always been surprised at the rationalization of the Word of Wisdom-while I am still struggling to follow it as it’s put forth in the scriptures, I have always felt that the ‘eating meat sparingly’ part was unfairly left out-I converted to the Church and drank Coke and had ‘friends’ who would tell me I was breaking the WOW by drinking caffeine, while they munched burgers and chicken and steaks and after finally reading it for myself, I was really surprised! I started bringing it up and there were a lot of them who got really offended and defensive. I guess the truth can hurt!
I think the LDS idea of what the WOW says is grossly innacurate, and I am LDS. When people find out I don’t eat meat, I hear “but God put it on this Earth for us to eat, it says it in the WOW” whatever, is there a famine, is it cold, and what about the part where he says it would please him if we didn’t use it.
I have mentioned before, my huge junk food meat eatting hubby has lost 30 pounds, he’s happy, has energy, why, because he eats a 75% or more raw diet, and very little meat, if any. It’s sooo cool!
I’ve been lurking rather than posting (much) for several months but I’ve got to join this thread. Robyn, I admire your willingness to share your personal faith on this blog. There is a risk in doing this — some will be turned off by religion in general or LDS in particular.
I suspected from previous posts that you were LDS. I am a Christian; never perfect but always striving to live my faith out in the open. I am a Presbyterian if denominational labels help. I consider the Bible to be the only authoritative Scripture so I am not inclined or qualified to comment on what the Book of Mormon has to say about nutrition or vegan diets. You already mentioned a little about what the Bible has to say. I will quibble with your 5% statistic — I don’t think you can infer this from the Bible.
Your writings have convinced my to reduce the amount of animal protein in my diet but I don’t know what is acceptable. I’ve read the China Study — T. Colin Campbell states that we should eat no animal protein whatsoever: no fish eggs, milk, cheese…. nothing, nadda. I am not smart enough to rebut you or Campbell but I am not yet persuated to go total vegan.
Jordan Rubin has written several books that advocate a biblically based diet including the “The Makers Diet”, “Perfect Weigh”, “The Great Physicians Rx for…”. I don’t support everything he says or the commercialism attached to his message but it is good reading.
Blessings,
John
Hi John,
I guess we’re all far from perfect, myself included.
Thus the need of a “Christ” in “Christian,” right? I hope everyone will take my opinions on scripture as just that, and I hope those who aren’t LDS–I know most of my readers are not, though many of the more active bloggers are–will just find our scripture interesting.
I have spoken to Colin Campbell personally; he didn’t take such a unilateral position with me (i.e., one should never eat any animal products), though I know he has himself become a strict vegan. I am not even fully vegetarian, just living below the 5% threshold. I like Jordin Rubin, though he’s not right about everything, just most things–I guess no one has a corner on truth, right?
Robyn