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The Key to
Radiant Health The Good News of Tomorrow's
World Personal from the Editor
(Herbert W. Armstrong) April, 1971 WE PRIDE OURSELVES on being
the most advanced, enlightened, scientifically developed generation that ever lived. We suppose that we are now
on the doorstep of eradicating sickness and disease, due
to the miraculous advances of medical science. We suppose the great advances in sanitary
measures, in the new "wonder
drugs," in preventive serums, vaccines and inoculations are bringing
modern civilization into a state of wonderful health. WE COULDN'T BE MORE WRONG! Modern civilization is NOT
bringing health nor abolishing disease. While the medical
profession works to reduce TB, cancer, and other diseases, modern
civilization is CREATING NEW DISEASES NEVER HEARD OF A FEW
GENERATIONS AGO. Sickness and disease are on an accelerating INCREASE! It may seem incredible! We
frantically brush our teeth and use toothpastes supposed to
produce "fewer cavities," yet there is more tooth trouble than was known in any past
century. The more furiously we brush
with "fewer-cavities" brands of toothpaste, the more tooth troubles we suffer! WHY? How can this BE? Is
toothpaste to blame? I suppose many would ask:
"But isn't it NATURAL to be sick? Are we not made in such a
way that we simply have to become sick and contract disease? And didn't God raise up medical
science to combat it?" The answer is an EMPHATIC
NO! Sickness and disease are
NOT natural! We were made to BE WELL! When man invents and
produces a fine mechanism -- a fine watch, automobile, jet
plane, washing machine -- he expects the fine watch to keep good
time for years; the first Rolls Royce automobile ever made is still
running; the huge 747 jets make the "polar flight"
every day from about a cheaply made watch, automobile or washing
machine. But the most marvelous and
perfectly made mechanism ever produced is the human body and mind. The Almighty God made the
human body so that -- even though composed of material
substance from the ground -- its CONDITION is one of robust,
invigorating, radiant GOOD HEALTH! Sickness and disease are
ABNORMAL -- they are the PENALTY of VIOLATION OF NATURAL LAWS.
They are PHYSICAL SIN! I knew the
philosopher-author-lecturer-publisher Elbert Hubbard, who died when a
German submarine sank the " before physical health. Once when I visited him at other guests and I were
herded out on the verandah of Roycroft other. It was vigorous exercise. Hubbard kept fit --
watched his diet, got in plenty of
exercise, natural sleep, deep breathing in fresh air. He said: "Of two
things, being thrown in jail, or becoming sick, becoming sick is the GREATER DISGRACE!" One is
thrown in jail for violation of a
MAN-MADE law -- it could be a nonsensical law -- he could have been falsely accused. But when one
is sick, a NATURAL law has been broken -- and there was no
false arrest. One may break man-made
civil laws and not get caught. But when you break NATURAL LAWS, the penalty is automatic! And what does modern
civilization do about it? It -- NOT GOD -- raised up "medical
science" to try to deal with the effect -- ignoring the CAUSE --
attempting to remove the PENALTY which the is imposed for physical violations. Treating the
EFFECT, while ignoring the CAUSE,
is to ENCOURAGE the violation which CAUSES the sickness; to
encourage SIN! Only most people never thought of it that way. Now LOOK AT THE STAGGERING
FACTS: Children of 1910 had many
diseases never heard of three generations before. They grew into young manhood by 1917. They enlisted or were drafted into the army in World War I. But
in 1917, nearly one third of
our young men between the ages of 18 and 31 were so UNFIT
physically they could not be accepted for military duty. Have conditions improved? By 1964, the number unfit
for military duty had climbed from slightly under 33% (in itself a disgrace!!!) to 53%. This
was not all physical unfitness -- a
NEW sinister threat to our national progress and safety was now
rising rapidly -- 16.2% of these FAILED MENTAL TESTS! Nearly one half of all
Americans -- more than 96 million -- are suffering with at least one chronic disease or
disability. Of those over age 45, SEVEN
OUT OF TEN are afflicted with at least one chronic condition. Each day some TWO MILLION
Americans see a doctor! Over THIRTY-TWO MILLION are
yearly spending time in hospitals; about 1 1/2 million are hospital
patients on any one day! There are over TWELVE
MILLION surgical operations performed annually in the In In the NATIONAL VITALITY IS ON THE
WANE! But, one asks, hasn't
medical science made tremendous strides in conquering diseases? But while they are working
on some diseases, several
times as many NEW DISEASES appear in our midst -- diseases unheard of some four generations ago!
Diseases of MODERN CIVILIZATION! Among diseases of modern
civilization are diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, Bright's disease, kidney diseases, acidosis, asthma, rheumatism. There is a definite CAUSE for these. Look at young children
pouring out of public elementary schools today. Notice how many are pale, anemic, round-shouldered, more than
half of them constipated, wearing glasses, having bad teeth, diseased tonsils. How many today live in a
home where there is NEVER a cold or fever, no tooth troubles,
or poor eyesight, or any of these diseases? Where NO ONE is ever sick? Do you know of any such
home? You're a most rare person if you do! All humanity
SHOULD live in such homes. The very FIRST trouble with
our deteriorating physical status is that we take sickness for granted! We seem to
assume sickness is natural and necessary. WE are in IGNORANCE of
the CAUSES. Modern society
treats the RESULT, but IGNORES the CAUSE! WHAT, then, are the
specific CAUSES? One physician said to me:
"We doctors are kept so busy treating sicknesses and
diseases that we simply have no time to study and research into the CAUSES." But SOME of the most noted
physicians and surgeons have given thought and study into the CAUSES. And leading
doctors have said that 90% to 92% of all
sickness and disease results from FAULTY DIET! Some of them
have said that the average American or British dining table is a
dietetic HORROR! Few people, it seems, realize that FOOD has any connection with health or sickness.
The actual FACTS are appalling! Let me give you some
important facts! First, just what ARE we? Of
what are we composed? God Himself ought to know
-- and He says: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return." And again, "The Eternal God formed man of the dust of the ground" (Gen. 3:19;
2:7). Dust -- ground -- is MATTER -- material substance. In the ground
are approximately 103 elements. But the human body is basically composed of 16 of them. And these are the 16 that grow in
food. Elements compose matter in
the two general classifications -- the
organic and inorganic. Organic compounds are LIVING matter. All elements are inorganic -- non-living -- and
some of the elements take little or
no part in the formation of living material. Gold and poisonous mercury are such comparatively inactive elements. But iron, much harder than gold, DOES
grow in plant life into organic or LIVING matter. Beet tops are
fairly rich in iron. In somewhat lesser content there is some
iron in blackberries and cherries. Grapes have very little, yet an enterprising advertising
man years ago took advantage of that small amount by packaging
raisins in small packets at candy counters, with the slogan, "Have you had your IRON
today?" Supposing raisins to be
rich in iron, millions bought the raisins. One of the hardest elements
known is manganese. This metal is used in bank safes. Yet small traces of this
element are drunk in through rootlets of some
plants and converted into LIVING matter in food. Our bodies NEED manganese. But it is a
good thing for us that they need only
small traces of it, or we should not be able to obtain enough of it in organic form. So it is literally true
that "we are just what we eat." Each of our bodies started from
a small ovum, no larger than the period at the end of this
sentence -- and even that was developed through food that grew in the ground. And that ovum had to
be fertilized by a sperm cell only one fiftieth as large. But
what caused that tiny embryo to GROW until you were born? It
was developed from food that grew out of soil -- out of dust. But
you are now much larger and heavier than when you were
born. Where did all the REST OF YOU come from? From FOOD, which
came from the ground -- FROM DUST! So it is literally true
that you ARE what you eat -- and "dust
thou art." Since you ARE merely FOOD converted into a human body and mind, is it not
plain that whatever FOOD YOU put into your mouth has a very great
deal to do with WHAT YOU are -- and WITH YOUR HEALTH or lack of
it? Now let me give you more
facts. Of the TWO kinds of
compounds the 16 elements compose, ONLY organic ones are food. Many inorganic compounds are
actually in fact -- like potassium cyanide, deadly poison! For
example, anemic people need more iron. They have become anemic
through iron deficiency. But if you are to build natural good
health, you must get that iron in
ORGANIC FOOD -- not in pills made of inorganic iron. ONLY organic substances grown through food
are naturally absorbed into the
bloodstream to replenish broken-down cells and supply tissue, healthy flesh and blood. Now of the 16 NATURAL
elements that grow in food, twelve are alkaline-reacting elements. Included in these are iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sulphur,
manganese. These supply the nourishment -- replace
deteriorating cells, build bone, flesh, tissue, skin, hair. Four of the 16 elements
produce carbohydrates -- the acid-reacting foodstuffs. These are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen. Principal of these is carbon. These are found in starch, sugar, and fats. You've read advertisements
advising, "Give your child more
(the brand advertised) to supply quick energy." One thing is wrong with that: IT IS TOO
TRUE! The carbohydrates DO supply
our energy. They are -- up to a certain point (and THAT'S
the VITAL point) absorbed into the bloodstream. On the way back to the heart the blood passes through the lungs. Your lungs are like the carburetor in
your automobile. The "carbon" in your car that supplies
ITS energy is the gasoline (petrol to our British and Continental
readers). As it passes through the
carburetor, it is FIRED on mixing with the oxygen in the air. This is a little explosion, which
forces down the piston and results in propelling the car. In like manner, as your
blood passes through your lungs, it "fires"
upon mixing with the oxygen in the air you have inhaled. Your breath filters out the
waste products the blood is carrying off, and they (broken-down
cells) are expelled through exhaling your breath. That's why you sometimes have "bad
breath." I think you can see what happens
when your lungs are filled with poisonous tobacco smoke. They simply do not perform their
full duty. And THIS damage is IN ADDITION TO what doctors are
now telling us about LUNG CANCER! YOU get a DOUBLE DOSE of bad health! At the same time, this
"firing" of the carbon in the blood supplies not only ENERGY,
it also supplies your bodily heat -- keeping your body at normal temperature of 98.6 degrees. Now here is a MOST
IMPORTANT FACT! Nearly all of us, today, because of what our food
factories have done to our foods, are eating several times more
of the carbohydrates in food than we should for normal good health. So WHAT HAPPENS? If this
carbon in the blood supplies not only
energy but also our bodily heat, WHY does it not raise our
bodily temperature up to two or three times the normal 98.6 degrees? The answer to that is
IMPORTANT! That is something DOCTORS
OUGHT TO BE TELLING US. Why don't they? I guess you'll have to ask THEM -- I can't answer
for them. Perhaps they are just so
busy TREATING the PENALTY YOU have incurred by BREAKING
NATURE'S LAWS, eating an over-abundance of the carbohydrates. But I will tell you what
happens. And YOU had better HEED! If eating twice as much of
the carbohydrates as you should actually DOUBLED your
bodily temperature, you'd die of high fever before the doctor could get to you. But YOUR CREATOR
provided a preventive, so it does not react quite that way. Just as some taxicab companies put a
"governor" on the accelerators of their cars, so that the driver
can only push it down far enough to reach the controlled speed
the company has predetermined -- perhaps 45 -- perhaps 55 or
60 miles per hour -- so your Maker designed the bloodstream of
your body to absorb no more carbohydrates than 1/2 of
1% approximately of either the weight or volume of blood -- and at the moment I do not
remember which. What, THEN, happens to the
excess of the carbohydrates you are stuffing down your stomachs? They DO supply a
certain unnatural artificial energy
-- but they are primarily eliminated in an unnatural way,
contrary to nature's laws, through the kidneys. And this process in time builds up and causes a
whole string of these modern diseases of a law-breaking
civilization! But SOME of it IS carried
as a toxin or poison by the blood into muscles and joints. And after so long a time, you
"catch a cold" or "a fever" --
so you think, not realizing that you actually ATE that cold or fever before you "caught it." It
may go into pneumonia! A cold or fever is merely a sudden violent
elimination of toxins and poisons you
have injected into your body by WRONG DIET which has BROKEN GOD'S
PHYSICAL LAWS! Or, this accumulation of
toxins may result in rheumatism, arthritis, or other disease. Actually, your body
requires two or three times as much of the alkaline-reacting
mineral elements as of the carbohydrates -- yet the average American or
Briton is eating at least two or three times as much of the carbohydrates. And WHAT ARE the
carbohydrates? They are the starches,
sugars, fats and oils. Today nearly everything we
eat passes through man's hands -- or his factories -- before it comes to the consumer.
In the interests of bigger profits
the gigantic food industry is giving us a diet of FOODLESS "foods." Take wheat. Wheat is almost
a perfect food. It contains all 16 major food elements, in
near perfectly balanced proportion. But they take that perfect
grain of wheat apart, rob it of the 12 mineral elements, and turn
it into white flour -- containing the four carbohydrate elements. Why? Well, if they were to give
you real WHOLE wheat flour, it would spoil after so long a time. And in the BIG BUSINESS
distribution system, the
flour may not reach the consumer until after it spoils. THAT would mean a loss to the food
industry. One dietitian gave this
advice: "My BASIC RULE in diet is: Eat ONLY those natural
foods that will spoil -- and eat them before they do." What SHOULD we do? Well,
I'll tell you what we do at beef and many other items of food in (vans -- lorries) -- the
largest allowed on the highways -- one a refrigerator truck. We bring our own hard wheat, naturally and organically grown, in our
own trucks to the campuses. There we have our own stone grinders. When our
bake shops are ready to bake
another batch of bread, or pastries, the wheat is ground into flour
-- real whole wheat flour -- and immediately baked. We use honey or natural brown sugar instead
of "refined"
sugar (which has been robbed of its alkaline elements). There are many things more
that we do -- but that serves as an illustration. We feed about 1200 students on all
three campuses three times a day, and we try to feed them on REAL
FOOD, not foodless "foods." There is another area in
which our English-speaking peoples ruin their own health. They take a good steak, or a
mixed green salad of uncooked leafy
green vegetables, or other fruits or vegetables, and then RUIN
them with sauces, gravies, or dressings that will wreck any stomach -- at least in time! People
think they must mix foods into
conglomerations of meat with starch, sugars, condiments,
artificial flavors, preservatives, sea-"foods," and unhealthful mixtures -- IN
CONFUSION! The "best" chefs are those who can
concoct the most injurious sauces and conglomerations. And then the people of this degenerate world suppose it is just NATURAL to be sick! A little baby will put
about everything in reach into his mouth. It seems most of our adults are still doing it. If
we like the taste -- or develop a
perverted taste -- we think it must be good food! But everything that grows is NOT good food.
Nor is every animal good for food. Another reason our bodies
are being robbed of the alkaline minerals is the way our women cook. Ask a woman WHY she does
not feed her children steel-cut oats, and natural brown
rice. "Oh, that takes too
much time!" she will probably answer. So she uses the quick-cooking
minute oats or minute rice -- the kind that has been robbed of all
the real food value and reduced to a starch. She JUST CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE TIME to give her
children good health. She must HURRY -- and build up in their
bodies anemia, and diseases that will KILL them before their
time. A murder is merely ending a
life BEFORE ITS TIME. Many of you are doing that on the
installment plan -- doing it not only to yourselves, but also to your children. Suggest to a woman that she
cook her vegetables on slow heat -- at
a temperature of 180 degrees in a heavy aluminum utensil. She will probably protest
that she can't take the time. Many women, I have found, simply are unwilling to believe the
TRUTH. They think proper cooking
would take more time -- and THEY HAVEN'T TIME to keep their children healthy. If it means
killing their own children BEFORE
their time -- murder on the installment plan -- they simply CAN'T
TAKE TIME to prevent this installment-plan murder! Many children are raised on
a diet of white bread, jellies and jams, potatoes with
greasy and starchy gravy, a little meat, pie and cake and cookies and pastries, and candy. Some
will ask: "Well what else CAN we
eat?" Eat more vegetables --
green leafy raw salad vegetables unspoiled by injurious
dressings; non-starch vegetables cooked at low temperatures -- about
180 degrees, and served with only butter and a little salt;
fresh fruits; clean lean meats (NO FAT); whole grains; fresh
raw (unpasteurized) milk, butter, cheese; eggs and clean fowl. What about potatoes? And I
mean Irish potatoes. Are they not starchy? Only when and because you women pare off the
alkaline part containing the needed minerals. Slice a potato in
half and notice the ring a little way inside the skin. The portion
between that ring and the skin is the alkaline part. The inside
is the starch part. If you cook the whole -- unpeeled -- potato
in a heavy aluminum pan at about
180 degrees temperature, you'll find that the skin is VERY thin
and will peel right off, leaving you the WHOLE potato. In this form, it is called by some
the king of vegetables. If you have bony, knobby
knees and elbows, and would like to be more pleasingly rounded
(or plump without being fat or overweight), try cutting
out the INSIDE of the potato, and eating often of the alkaline part. The alkaline portion outside
the visible ring, a little way
inside the skin of the potato, is strong in potassium. In perhaps six months you'll be surprised
at what this natural, organic potassium will do. But, why not solve this
whole question by avoiding the CAUSE of sickness and disease --
and KEEPING HEALTHY in the first place? Then there is NO PROBLEM, is there? |
