Greetings,

In today’s class we will be entering into a new chapter entitled, ‘The Body and It’s Needs’. This class in particle we will focus on the elements needed to establish and maintain health. As in the natural, so in the spiritual; we must establish and maintain a healthy relationship with Jesus!

Replacement of Losses

The chart below gives the chemical composition of the body and the approximate amount of each kind of element found in it. It necessarily follows that the body must be nourished by the same elements as those of which it consists—replacement of losses must be of like kind. Therefore, beside the man is a column showing the amount of each element needed daily to maintain health. This is a balanced ration in broad outline: moisture, 8 lbs.; protein, 2 ½ ozs. ; fat, 2 8-10 ozs.; carbohydrate, 16 ozs.; mineral salts, .4 oz. Vitamins will be discussed later.

Question: Based on the what you’ve learned thus far, fill in the blank with the missing word. Answer can be found at the end of the class. “The reason for Dr. Kress’s poor health is his overdrawing on his bank stock of health and then failing to __________ the amount drawn out by wholesome, nutritious, palatable food.” {12 MR 176}

 

The pen of inspiration has set forth this principle in the following profound statement: ‘

Our bodies are built up from the food we eat. There is a constant breaking down of the tissues of the body; every movement of every organ involves waste, and this waste is repaired from our food. Each organ of the body requires its share of nutrition. The brain must be supplied with its portion; the bones, muscles, and nerves demand theirs. It is a wonderful process that transforms the food into blood and uses this blood to build up the varied parts of the body; but this process is going on continually, supplying with life and strength each nerve, muscle, and tissue.’

There are 92 elements known to chemist which are constituents of the physical world, (living and non-living). “Investigators are not yet entirely agreed as to how many of these elements are essential to our nutrition.”

The latest the writer has seen as this class goes to press is the following:“There have been some fifty to sixty essential nutrients isolated from food—and the end is not yet.”

For the purpose of this class it seems most practical to use only the basic 16 elements shown in the foregoing diagram. Should we endeavor to trace 40 more of them back into their food sources both the writer and the reader would get lost on the way. Consider wheat as an example. Chemists have found in the wheat kernel dozens of elements which are never mentioned when wheat is discussed as a food.

It will be noted from the chart above that the body consists of certain definite substances often spoken of as the “sixteen elements of life” (not to mention vitamins). If these all are secured in the daily intake the proper amounts, and no other substances are put in to hinder the work, manifestly the body will be well nourished.

Next in order the reader should note that these sixteen elements all find their places in five groups of substances: first, water; second, protein; third, fat; fourth, carbohydrate; fifth, a group of minerals. Now that these sixteen have been resolved into five groups, it will be easier to locate them in foods.

Let us now turn our attention to foods and see from which ones these five groups of substances can be obtained.

Grains

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued charts showing the analyses of grains as follows:

How wonderful is that! Behold, all of the five groups of elements needed by the man for food are found in every grain that grows! Evidently the same Mind planned the man and the food to nourish him

It does not follow that grains are a perfect food, but it is plain that they are an ideal food and adapted to be a staple article of man’s diet.

The proportions of these elements in the grains are not the same as in the man, and they also vary in the different grains. Therefore, the first step in securing a proper balance of food elements is to use a variety of the grains rather than confine oneself to a single grain.

 

Vegetables

The same chart show the content of the Potato:

Then the charts go on to show the composition of other vegetables and that they usually contain the same five groups of elements.

Manifestly they, too, are planned to be food for the man. The second step in getting a proper balance is to add vegetables to the grains; and the third step is to use a variety of vegetables and not be limited to a certain few.The Creator has provided a great variety of foods to afford man much pleasure in partaking of them, and in doing so protects man from malnutrition because in a wide variety of food he obtains a wide variety of elements, which is an important feature of a balanced ration.

Legumes

The charters also reveal that the legumes are composed of similar groups of elements. Consider a sample of shelled beans:

And so it is, with varying proportions, with all of the other legumes. Thus the fourth step in securing a balanced ration is to add a variety of legumes to the variety of grains and vegetables already obtained.

 

 

 

Fruits

A further study of the charts shows that the fruits also contain the same five groups in still different proportions. Here are two examples:

The fifth step in getting a balanced ration is to add the fruits to the other foods, and then, because
of the variation in the content of the fruits, use a variety and so tend always toward a balance of all elements when we have finally encompassed all of the foods.

 

 

Nuts

Next we study the chart of the nuts and find the same five groups once more, but with quite a variation in the different nuts. Two examples will suffice.

Logically the sixth stem toward a proper balance is to add a variety of nuts to the fruits, legumes, vegetables and grains.

A Complete Ration

Inasmuch as each of these classes of foods contains the same substances as does the body of the man, if the man will but learn to know the right quantity of grains, of vegetables, of legumes, of fruits, and of nuts to use in each day’s rations, and will change his selection from the various groups now and then to get the variety, every nutritional need of his body will be met; every muscles, nerve, gland, cell, and secretion will have the wherewithal to carry on normal processes of life, and that means health.

The foregoing foods are the true and primary sources of nutrition. There are secondary foods such as milk, cream, butter, and eggs, all of which, with the exception of eggs, contain the same five groups of elements in varying proportions; but there is no element in these secondary foods which was not first found in the primary foods—grain, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and nuts.

By the process of a very little thinking it will be recognized by every reader of these lines that in the ultimate, all animal life, man included, is sustained by the vegetation of the earth. Even those animals which eat other animals are but getting vegetation second hand because the animals so eaten had lived on vegetation. Were there no vegetation on the earth all animal life would cease.

Therefore, if a child or adult is allergic to milk, butter, or eggs, such a person may have a balanced ration without those foods. Or, if one wishes to be a strict vegetarian, it is evident that he can do so and be perfectly nourished by giving attention to the foregoing instructions concerning a balanced ration, and to the following portions of this class in which more explicit directions will be given.

“that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” Colossians 4:12

Next week we will discuss how it is possible to secure a balanced ration without any animal products!

*adapted from the book Abundant Health, by Julius G. White

*answer to question is replace