I have really had no thoughts to spill for my blog lately but I think I have something now!
I stopped reading Elder Widtsoe's book about the Word of Wisdom because it was just sad and I think I was just overwhelmed with the don'ts that it talked about. I picked it up again this week though because I felt like there were good things to learn from it still. I'm pretty happy with what I have gotten out of it since reading it again. I still don't know how to cook or put all of this together for a meal but I am not worried. It will come together with time. I went through and highlighted what I thought was important to know, read on if you enjoy healthy tips.....
From the section discussing the Six Groups of Food Constituents:
1. "Proteins are the body-building foods, essential for growth and repair. They are found in meats, eggs, milk, cheese, grains and vegetables. Indeed, some protein is found in all natural foods. White of egg is a pure form of protein. Everyday the body must have its full quota of protein foods, for the cells of the body are being constantly destroyed through the activities of life and must be replaced if health is to continue".
2. "Carbohydrates include the starches and sugars of fruits, vegetables, and cereal grains. They are the energy or fuel foods which keep up the body temperature, and provide energy for all life processes, and for mental and physical work."
3. "Fats are energy foods like the carbohydrates, but are more concentrated. ... Some of the fatty acids found in natural fats, (as for example in butter) are indispensable to complete health. They are utilized to produce heat and to supply energy for work. They have other functions and if absent from the food an intense craving for them exists. They seem to cushion nerves and nerve-ends against shock for without them great irritability ensues. Thus they play an important part in the health of the brain and nervous system. In fact they are necessary for full health and vigor. 'It is by no means tampering with the truth to say that, in it's higher forms, life without fat is impossible'. The most common used fats are butter, meat and fish fats, and vegetable oils)."
4. "Mineral Salts..."
5. "The Vitamins are essential chemical substances present in minute quantities in all natural foods but in varying amounts. They act as body regulators, and promote reactions without which full nutrition is impossible. When vitamins are lacking in the diet the body becomes diseased and in time perishes. Vitamins are partially lacking in foods after storage or even totally lacking in certain refined or preserved or dried foodstuffs".
6. "Water..."
"The essential thought remains, that to abstain from the things forbidden in the Word of Wisdom as injurious to health is not sufficient; it is equally important to partake of foods that build the body properly and meet bodily needs".
"....By stripping cereals of all their outer coats and refining sugar until it is whiter than the whitest snow, we have made a good start on the road to the ruin of human health, for fine milling removes 75 percent of the minerals. Super-refinement of natural foodstuffs has probably been as successful in promoting American ill-health in the past two generations as the most virulent disease germs."
About Minerals and Psychological Attitudes..
"Psychological as well as physiological effects are conditioned upon the presence or absence of certain minerals in the food. A study made by Dr. Walter Timme of the Neurological Institute was reported in an address give before the New York Academy of Medicine. He stated that: 'Crossness, tiredness, misbehavior and all the other symptoms of problem cases, both child and adult, result when the blood has too little calcium.'
When the supply of calcium is reduced:
'There is apparently a disturbing effect on the nerves and subsequent conduct of the individual who then misbehaves, showing inordinate fatigability, irritability of temper and at times even incorrigibility, non-amenability to discipline or even assaultiveness. '"
Source of Minerals....
"Vegetables, grains and fruits form nature's storehouse of food minerals. If grown on fertile soils all the edible plants and vegetables usually contain, in varying proportions, all the minerals needed in maintaining bodily health. For example, vegetables rich in calcium are beet greens, cabbage, broccoli, kale.... Those rich in phosphorus are whole grains, corn, peas, soy-beans; those rich in iron are legumes, nuts, and nearly all greens.... All grains and nuts and fruits are rich in minerals, especially in calcium, phosphorus and iron. Milk and cheese are the richest source of calcium and phosphorus..."
"Food minerals are best obtained from foods, as nature made them, for man's nourishment. If man eats right, he has no more need of 'Mineral broths' or inorganic 'Mineral pills' than has a cow or any other animal. Money should be spent for good food rather than for commercial inorganic substances."
Daily supply of Minerals...
"To insure enough minerals in the diet, each adult should have daily, at least one pint of milk which is the richest calcium food (children 1 quart), the liberal use of all vegetables in season, especially leafy ones, eggs or cheese frequently and meat occasionally (but not all of them everyday), the frequent use of seafoods, fresh if possible, or canned, if in a goiterous region, and the use of whole grain breads and cereals".
Variety Necessary...
"Man should partake in plenty of all edible fruits and vegetables. It is a mistake for a normal person to say: 'I don't like this vegetable or that', and refuse to eat it. Children should be taught from the weaning period to eat and enjoy all the different kinds of vegetables (prepared in milk soups at first but later mashed until the child can chew them) so that their bodies may grow in bone strength and nerve tone as well as in size. This practice should be encouraged in adults as well, for all have need of the nutritive value of fruits and vegetables. One should insist that every vegetable to be found in the market forms some part of the week's food supply." ( Ughhh...
: / Haha. ) "One should be familiar with and help create a demand for all kinds of vegetables. The farmers will produce what people call for. It is a great pity for an individual, a family or a nation, to confine its taste to two or more vegetables. Meat, potatoes and cabbage may make a good meal occasionally, but served everyday they produce a very one-sided diet."
So...pretty intense but some good points made. I'll just do what I can for now though and it will probably get easier with time.
