Nourishing and Healing Your Family with Food
You have been given an important role, women, in the health or lack of health in your children and husband. A large part of your ministry to your family should be fixing them nourishing food for their bodies to keep them healthy and free from illness. Please, don’t say you can’t cook or don’t know how. If you can read, you can learn!
My sister had malignant melanoma a few years ago. While she was raising children, she didn’t enjoy cooking for her family but after her health scare she took an intensive nine month study on nutrition. It basically taught her to go back to eating food just the way God intended for us to eat it and now her entire perspective on eating is different. She works hard in the kitchen and loves it! Her entire attitude about it has changed and she knows it is the ministry the Lord has given to her to nourish and heal her family and friends’ bodies by what they eat. Her kitchen is filled with jars of kombucha, all types of vegetables fermenting for healthy gut bacteria, bread that is fermenting and rising, bottles of homemade beef and chicken stock for nourishing soups, and finding recipes and ways of creating new and delicious foods for her family and friends.
The father of medicine, Hippocrates, wrote:
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
God has given me many health issues so I could help all of you! Just kidding. I have no idea why I have had so many physical problems but I do know that God has used them for my good. A few years ago, I began getting horrible muscle pain in my knees, legs, and elbows. I couldn’t get down on the floor without a lot of pain. I was even thinking I was going to have to give up blogging because I thought it was hurting the muscles in my forearm. I spent hours every day doing trigger point therapy and icing but nothing seemed to help. I even had to miss my niece’s wedding because my legs hurt so much. I could hardly sleep due to the pain.
When I saw my doctor, I told her about my muscle pain and she told me it was due to getting older. “It’s just part of life.” I suspected that it was due to my pituitary dying. (I did make a YouTube health update, if you’re interested. One woman commented on it and told me that I have been healed by the whipping post that Christ bore for me. Poor deceived woman. Christ healed me from sin and damnation, but not suffering and eventually death. Yes, God can heal but He doesn’t always chose to do so; take the Apostle Paul as an example.)
I don’t like “It’s just part of life” answers so I search and research for answers. One day a few months ago, I decided to see if any food could cause muscle pain. I eat a fairly low inflammation diet (hardly any sugar, white flour, or dairy) so I didn’t even suspect this for a few years. The first thing listed was EGGS! I had been eating two eggs every day for years! I quickly gave them up and within a few weeks all of my pain disappeared. I can go down on the floor easily now. Who would have thought it was eggs? It sure wasn’t me. I even ate the organic, cage-free ones.
Just around this time, my sister told me about grass-fed, 100% organic, whole yogurt at Trader Joes. I bought some at my health food store and began having this for breakfast with frozen organic blueberries from Costso, properly prepared walnuts, some organic raw honey, a bit of cinnamon and vanilla. It is fantastic! I love having something other than eggs! I don’t want to develop an allergy to this so I rotate this with oatmeal. I take a half cup of oats and put it into a cup of water, then put it in the refrigerator to soak all night. In the morning, I cook it up and in a few minutes, when it is done, I chop up two dates, add some ghee, organic raw honey, vanilla, and cinnamon and thank Jesus the entire time I’m eating it because it tastes so good!
Healing rarely is one thing we do. It took my mom years to heal from colitis and it’s taken me a while to feel better after all I’ve been through. Even though my health will always be fragile, it’s fun to have some good days and being able to eat more food. Any ways, I thought this might be able to help someone with muscle pain and any who may need some new healthy breakfast ideas, along with encouraging you to learn to enjoy fixing nourishing and healing food for your family!
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
James 1:17
22 thoughts on “Nourishing and Healing Your Family with Food”
Thank you for this post! I am just now learning about fermented foods and healing the gut. It hasn’t been easy changing from the typical American diet but it is worth it. I agree that it definitely an important ministry for ladies to take seriously 🙂
The winter issue of Keeper’s at Home magazine has an article and recipes on lacto-fermented foods. I almost was going to ignore it but after reading your post Lori, I will read the article and perhaps be brave and try a recipe.
Lori,
Great ideas! It’s so important to be an informed individual, an informed consumer, an informed patient. My doctor(s) LOVE it that I am informed!
My goiter was noticed in 2004 but my hypothyroid was not discovered until 2006. The stress of a major trial we were enduring for a year brought on the rapid decline of my thyroid; I was in a grave condition. I have been taking 125 mcg of synthroid since then, but this month when I see my doc, I am switching to Armor. He is a listener, and I have encouraged him to “preach a sermon” to me if he needs to! He had Dr. Pierre Cloutier’s book in his office for sale in 2015, and I stopped eating “white stuff” back then. What a difference.
In January I did a 21-day Daniel Fast and stumbled across Dr. John McDougall, author of “The Starch Solutuon” (via the Dr. Marshall you talked about in your book). I went plant-based except for celebrations. It’s been amazing. I’ve never felt badly (except for back in 2006), so I can’t say, “Oh, I just feel so much better.” I just never felt badly. But my body is reducing fat, thankfully, and my mind has been opened to Truth about my temple. I’ve lost 10 pounds since January 11 doing Dr. Marshall’s Biofield Diet until ideal weight is achieved: no meat, no oil, no dairy, no sugar, no refined anything (oil is refined), and drinking lots of water.
These docs plus Dr. Esselstyn and others have informed me about this body God created. I realized more than ever before that I had been abusing the temple God gave me. Food truly is medicine, and our bodies try their best to heal from the things that occur to us and from the garbage we MEDICATE it with or become addicted to. The Word NEED has a whole new meaning for me now, and this is something I must “die daily” to. One day, I will give an account.
Dr. Charles Stanley asked, “What is your body telling others about your relationship with God?” Ouch.
I watched your update video. I’m so grateful!
*hugs*
Kelley~
It sure is, Julie, since eating is an important part of life. Just as we don’t want junk (evil) things in our home, we don’t want junk in our bodies. Why do we think they call it junk? 🙂
I subscribed to that magazine years ago and had no idea they were still publishing it, Regina. It’s a great magazine! One must get used to fermented foods and you don’t need a lot but they are good for us.
We aren’t plant-based and enjoy wild-caught fish (Jesus fed His disciples and the crowds fish!:) ), organic chicken and turkey, and once in a while a grass fed steak. (Just think, in the olden days, we didn’t have to put “wild-caught, organic, or grass-fed” in front of any of those words because they were already those! Unfortunately, man has a way of corrupting what God has made good for us.
I have heard that Synthroid kills the thyroid so this is why I will start with Armor. I would love to know what your doctor says about it! (Email me if you remember.)
Hugs to you, too!
Thank you for this wonderful article. Making bone broth from organic grassfed bones is easy and so beneficial.
If any of you readers out there have large families and don’t think you can afford healthful food, check out azurestandard.com. They are a natural and organic food distributor that sells to individuals and delivers throughout most of the US. They even have raw lacto fermented vegetables and beverages.
We don’t have to go to the grocery store, which is a big time saver.
I have friends and family that buy from azurestandard.com. Most fermenting of food is very cheap to make. All one needs are carrots or cabbage or cucumbers or any vegetable with some salty water and mason jars. It’s so simple to add healthy food to one’s diet!
Thank you for the tips, Elizabeth.
I make 25 to 50 lbs. of sauerkraut at a time. I lacto ferment cucumbers when they are in season and I make yogurt year round. Half of the people we know would rather buy it though.
Lori,
Sadly, we cannot get grass-fed, hormone-free, cage-free, humanely treated foods here on Guam. I do eat the local catch fish here, and the locally grown produce, but all the frozen fish that comes here that says “wild caught” is anything but.
Until I achieve an ideal weight, I will be avoiding anything refined (even oil), anything that’s not treated or not living like God created it/them, etc. It’s sure a struggle here, even with a plant-strong diet. I just do the best I can. Many more options on the mainland.
Dr. Colbert’a book is excellent, “What Would Jesus Eat?”
Dr. Marshall is a proponent of Armor over Synthroid, too. I’ll try to remember to email you about the Armor. The Shameses book “Thyroid Power” is excellent, too.
Have a great weekend!
Kelley~
I will be checking out azurestandard.
Thanks!
My mom has “What Would Jesus Eat?” so I read it years ago. I just sat down to eat my bone broth based soup with shredded broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, Swiss chard, cauliflower, zucchini, and wild-caught salmon that you see cooking in the pot on the stove above. I wish you could come over and join me for a bowl!
My sister makes everything from scratch. I do buy my yogurt but I made my own kefir for years and loved it!
This is a very interesting post. Sadly though, food can’t heal all illnesses 🙁
Cancer took my first husband, despite us always eating a very healthy diet of lots of fresh fruit and vegetables (bought from the local farmers market and grown in my small garden), raw organic milk, organic grass-fed beef and lamb and organic free range eggs (bought from the local farmers market). I made our own yogurt too.
Food has healed many types of cancer, Marjorie, but you are right, sometimes nothing someone can do can heal themselves. When I was young, my mom had a book written by a doctor who cured himself of pancreatic cancer (the worse type)with juice fasting and I know many people have cured themselves of cancers that doctors said were incurable. I know if I ever got cancer, I would go the natural route instead of the chemo route. That stuff scares me.
I am sorry about your husband. That must been a horrible thing to watch. All we can do is to seek, pray, do our best, and leave the outcome with the Lord.
Have you had a chance to watch the documentary, “Forks Over Knives?” It really explains the controlled studies and scientific rational behind a plant based diet. It also shared the stories of folks who were dramatically able to change their lives. One physician, in particular, experienced a dramatic reversal in his serious cardiac condition.
I’ve also fairly recently taken a fresh look at the China Study written by Colin Campbell. This was a controlled study done in a number of rural counties in China by Dr. Campbell, professor emeritus from Cornell in Ithaca.
People in China eat pretty much the same diet all their lives as they do not migrate into different areas. It was found that the population in the counties that ate less animal products, and the greatest amount of plant food, had the lowest rates of various types of cancers, diabetes, heart disease, etc. The study involved thousands of people over many years.
It’s all just very interesting to me as heart disease, sadly, runs very strongly in my family.
But, that being said there are no absolute guarantees. We can only use the knowledge we have to make the best choices. Despite being well informed, I can certainly struggle with the whole eating thing, myself. 🙂
Ultimately, our lives are in the hands of the Lord.
Eggs so not affect me as long as I am moderate in them (else constipation, same with oatmeal) but recently I found that drinking decaf coffee was causing my body to develop pains in the joints and muscles. I suspect coffee is inflammatory for me. Bacon also does this. (Interestingly enough, the other day I did succumb to my decaf coffee temptation, but it was beans rather than the usual instant and I was fine! Which make sme wonder whether it is something in the process of making it instant which is where the issue lies) I felt the Lord was telling me to cut down on coffee and even kidney beans ( I use butterbeans instead) a year ago and I have felt much better since- more energy.
I have heard that decaf coffee causes osteoporosis, something we certainly don’t want to get!
Magnesium deficiency is easy to miss! Id like to reccomend The Magnesium Miracle by Dr. Carolyn Dean. Great book and taking more Mg (as well as learning how it interacts with calcium and why its not in the food as much these days) helped our household. The various symptoms that low magnesium can cause might surprise many people!!
Oh- and CoQ10 and Lions Mane Mushrooms might be interesting to other people as well. I really like both.
Hello I would love a copy of that soup recipe. …bone broth based soup with shredded broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, Swiss chard, cauliflower, zucchini, and wild-caught salmon sounds yummy.
A lot of the time, the fatty meats and snacks is what’s causing this. I was raised with healthy, homemade food. I plan to change the “typical american diet” to something more healthy. Most people think eating healthy is boring, but there are lots of good foods that are very healthy.
In my family, we use herbal ayurvedic remedies to help the immune system, while also using modern medicine for serious cases. (There haven’t been any).
This is the only blog of yours I agree with. Food can be medicine. You should try “Chyawanprash”. It is made up of many kinds of herbs and helps the immune system. Unlike some medicines, it has no side effects, and should be taken once a day!