Proper food for human beings

Proper food for human beings

There are many perspectives and doctrines about suitable or proper foods for consumption of human beings. Some look at it from nutritional (Calories, Carbohydrate, Protein, Sugar, Fat, Fiber...) point of view. Some from mineral (Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Sodium, Chloride, Magnesium...) perspective. Some are about chemical contents (Amino acids...). Some from the angle of traditional medicine (such as Cold, Cool, Neutral, Warm or Hot; or which organs the food works on; or whether the food nourishes Yin, Yang, Energy or Blood and etc.). Some are from biological needs of human body. Some from physiological structure of human bodies...

All these perspectives are mostly independent of each other. Experts usually talk about foods from their relative fields of studies. It almost always is impossible to blend all different perspectives into one and come up with perfect or ideal food for human beings. After all, every individual body is unique and has different needs.

However, wouldn't it be interesting to look at the view of bible in terms of proper food for human beings? from God's words Himself?

Let's look at Genesis 1:29. It says of:

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Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. (Ref 01)

Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. (Ref 02)

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. (Ref 03)


God said, "I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food. (Ref 04)

And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food; (Ref 05)

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb producing seed that is on the whole earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree producing seed: it shall be food for you; (Ref 06)

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. (Ref 07)


God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. (Ref 08)

And God saith, 'Lo, I have given to you every herb sowing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree sowing seed, to you it is for food; (Ref 09)

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The keywords are:
plants (vegetables, legumes...),
seeds (and nuts...),
fruits,
herbs (leaves, flowers, roots...).

It seems quite likely that the proper food dictated by God for human beings is: vegetarian foods.

Vegetarian foods?
Yes, vegetarian foods. Very very likely.

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References:

Ref 01: New International Version (©1984) http://biblica.com
Ref 02: New Living Translation (©2007) http://www.newlivingtranslation.com
Ref 03: English Standard Version (©2001) http://www.crossway.org
Ref 04: GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995) http://gwt.scripturetext.com/genesis/1.htm
Ref 05: Bible in Basic English http://basicenglishbible.com/genesis/1.htm
Ref 06: Darby Bible Translation http://darbybible.com/genesis/1.htm
Ref 07: Webster's Bible Translation http://websterbible.com/genesis/1.htm
Ref 08: World English Bible http://worldebible.com/genesis/1.htm
Ref 09: Young's Literal Translation http://yltbible.com/genesis/1.htm

Useful Links:


List of plants with edible leaves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plants_with_edible_leaves)
List of culinary vegetables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_vegetables)
List of culinary fruits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_fruits)
List of edible seeds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_edible_seeds)
List of culinary herbs and spices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_herbs_and_spices)

Signatures from natural beings

A dear friend forwarded me a writing that relates the characteristics of fruits and vegetables with internal organs of the body. It writes about how the shape, color, composure of the fruits or vegetables relate to their targeting organs and help nourish the organs’ functions.

“The Doctrine of Signatures”, as how we call it these days, is our ancestors’ observation and experience of how fruits and vegetables work in our body. Many traditional medicines around the world believe and take this idea into consideration when prescribing herbal diets.

取象比类 (Qu Xiang Bi Lei: Take-Impression-Compare-Category): Categorizing various impressions of natural living things is one of the fundamental theories of traditional Chinese medicine. The impressions take on the form of shape, composure, cognitive recognition, color of natural living beings. These impressions are then categorized and compared to deduce a certain way of mapping or working among them. In Chinese, it’s called 取象比类 (Qu Xiang Bi Lei: Take-Impression-Compare-Category). This theory is one of the ways how our ancestors came to understand which organs and how fruits and vegetables work on our body.

The writing is from the hand of David Bjerklie, a senior reporter of TIME. Since the email comes with nice and convincing pictures, I figure I’m just going to post it here:

David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, Oct. 2003

A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today’s investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called “The Doctrine of Signatures” was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? …. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

“The news isn’t that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it’s that they are so good for you, they can save your life.”

Bali trip day 1

Been back home for 3 days. Busy working with follow-up patients and some paper works. And it's the end-beginning of the month; it's time to analyze the whole month's works.

My wife, Louise, and I enjoyed the Bali, Indonesia trip very much in many ways: It's well-paced and we had time to relax and did something we've never done before. The air ticket package had the hotel covered and all that we needed to do was to take our time to check out places of interest.

Day 1:

On the first day we landed at Denpasar (Bali International Airport) at noon time and took a cab to head to Novotel Tanjung Benoa. The resort is great with nice landscaping and as I should know right now it's Balinese architecture. In fact, more I'd like to learn about the arts and philosophy of the architecture. But for now let's talk about the trip. We checked in and were greeted by friendly customer service and the Guava drinks were refreshing. Should have asked for second glass! Louise and I sheepishly asked for the availability of SEA-VIEW room and were told yes there are 8 bungalows on the beach side and only two have sea views. Eventually our hotel room is located across the street but not on the beach side! Ala… just a momentary upset as we knew we were on budgetary trip. The good thing is there are pools both across the street and on the beach side. So it's after all a 4-star hotel resort. After a light unpacking at the hotel room we were both a little hungry and decided to check the place out for some restaurants. Initial checking left us the impression that the place is quite remote from main town and therefore we went to the hotel beach club for lunch.

And this was where the food poisoning issue took place! We ordered fish and chips (Louise and I have been half vegetarians for a year), mixed fruit juice and pineapple juice. Thinking about it, we should have known it coming as Louise commented the fish (or the combination with pineapple juice) tasted funny and tingling. I took one piece of fish and realized it wasn't very fresh but was ok. 15 minutes into it Louise started to have itchy rashes on her neck, upper arms and feeling very hot. While we were having lunch, we bumped into a Malaysian couple who were on honeymoon. They saw us having dinner and we invited them to sit down for a chat. While we enjoyed exchange remarks on this beautiful island Louise was getting more and more uneasy. And she even felt facial numbness. All those symptoms told me it's more than allergic reaction; it can be a combination of food poisoning and allergic reaction.

It was only later that we recalled seafood (especially shrimps) contains high amount of arsenic which is believed to harmless for most conditions. When a large amount of vitamin C (as in some fruit juices) is taken together with seafood, however, this arsenic can prove to be very poisonous and fatal, the mechanism of which is still not very much known.

Quickly we went back to the hotel room and put a cold pack on her forehead. Nausea started to come in and I was thinking it's better to vomit all those food in the stomach than have them decompose to more toxic reaction. A few induced vomiting caused violent vomiting. It was harsh and it had to be done. After the stomach was empty I handed her half glass of warm water. The idea is to clear the digestion tract and dilute the toxins. I also applied acupressure technique on acupuncture points Hegu, Quchi to reduce the heat and stomach toxins. Half and hour later, with all the combined techniques she got better. With facial numbness and body temperature subsiding, we knew the situation was under control and were much relieved.

We decided to just rest for the evening.

Then again human beings can't be tamed easily. 3 hours later when the temperature is cool, rashes gone and numbness disappeared, she wanted to go out and explore. Well, knowing she's much better, I was eager to walk around the neighborhood too. We decided we wanted to walk south to the Nusa Dua direction. Along the way there are plenty of restaurants and small travel agencies. And to my surprise, Polo Ralph Laurent seems to be everywhere and so much cheaper (Then later we also saw plenty of just "Polo", so there are two Polos?) than it is in Malaysia. Souvenirs shops are everywhere too and the arts of bargaining came in readily. Ha. Louise and I are not so much shoppers (For sure I'm not) but we were ready to get something simple for a few friends and colleagues.

Before that was the necessity to take dinner. With the shadow of food poisoning Louise wanted to eat porridge to replenish fluid in stomach. Porridge? Steamed white rice is everywhere but not porridge. We walked further to the south and to our pleasant surprise there was indeed a Chinese restaurant! And it's pretty exclusive too! Being half vegetarians and in the need of porridge it came handy with the Chinese lady boss who can speak Mandarin pretty well. She patiently listened to our need of fluid and vegetarian menu and recommended exactly what we needed. While waiting for the dinner, we came to understand she was originally from East Jawa and just moved to Bali not long ago. She doesn't write the Chinese much but communication in Mandarin is splendid. She also briefly told us when President Suharto was around, things were hard for the Chinese culture to be kept. And guess what, Suharto passed away during noon time on the first day we landed on Indonesia. The man who was there for 32 years, probably the longest ever premier of anywhere in the world, was gone and dead…

I only got to know in the evening when we got back to hotel room and switched on the TV for some local news (My habit or checking out local newspapers, news, magazines). And then Berry, my Indonesian friend who lives in Jakarta, smsed me about the news later. My question as that time was: "How is he going to be remembered in the history of Indonesia and Asia?" Probably I'd compile a story on this later. It helps too in understanding Indonesian history for the past three decades.

By the way, food at this Chopstick Restaurant (at Club Bali Mirage, Jalan Pramata 72, Tanjung Benoa, Nusa Dua, Bali) was very authentic indeed. The taste and the way the food are prepared and cooked were just so typical of Chinese style. I say this because many Chinese restaurants in the USA and Europe have their foods heavily modified to suit local needs and tongue of favours. While it's understandable to do so to blend in, the authentic taste of the food is no longer Chinese.

When we are hungry there is not much we can and want to do in life. Now that Louise and I are full and spirit rising high, we went back from the way we came to book 2 daily tours for the next day. (Pic: Garuda, Half-man-half-eagle)