BETTER HEALTH — MADE SIMPLE !

Thirty-four Steps to Happier Living – A Complete Online Health Course!

Published by TRAIL GUIDES - Altamont, TN 37301 USA

Road maps for pilgrims traveling home

LESSONS 33 - 34

LESSON THIRTY-THREE - EATING FOR STRENGTH

1 You probably have had your supper by now, so you are not hungry. But if I were to cut a lemon in two right now and suck on it, your saliva would begin to flow! You say you cannot help it, and you are right. Your body reacts to even the thought of food and prepares for digestion. Is that not wonderful?

2 Now reach up and feel your hair. How is it? Coarse? Fine? Thin? Thick? Getting Bald? Now look at your fingernails. Long? Short? Need cleaning? Look at your hands. Did you ever stop to think that each part of you-your hair, nails, hands, eyes, ears, skin, bones-every part-was once your food? Food becomes your blood, nerves, brain, muscles. Food becomes your size, energy, strength, resistance. Food has much to do with your personality, efficiency, and emotional stability.

3- Now, of course, everyone eats, but WHAT you eat, HOW you eat, WHEN you eat, and WHY you eat all make up your individual eating habits. And your eating habits are either a help or a hindrance to you, depending on whether they are good or poor. How we look and feel tells us something about our food habits. At every age the outward and visible signs of good eating habits usually show in our physical appearance, our disposition, our emotional reactions, and our vigor and stamina.

4- We have mentioned that 90% of all illness is caused by improper diet and eating habits; let me give you an example of how WHAT you eat can even affect your life when you are not sick.

5- At a large university an experiment was conducted to see what effect Vitamin B would have on learning ability. They took a group of students and gave them all capsules. Half were given capsules that had no vitamin B in them, but the capsules looked just like the other half which did contain Vitamin B. The students did not know which capsules had the Vitamin B. Both groups were given identical examinations at the beginning of the experiment. At the end of 6 weeks another examination was given to both groups. The group given the Vitamin B reached an average grade 27% higher than the other group who did not get the Vitamin B! What you eat does make a difference! Your food either has the elements your body needs or it does not.

6- So, first of all, WHAT DO YOU EAT? Appetite has been called the desire for food. Hunger has been called the need for food. Appetite is often a very poor guide to follow if you want to insure good eating habits. Some people have very decided likes and dislikes which limit them to just a few items of food.

7- Often, the ones they like best are nutritionally very poor! Good eating habits mean eating a balanced diet with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, unpolished grains, legumes and nuts. This insures your body enough fuel, building, protecting and regulating material to keep you in good health.

8- You do not need a great variety at any one meal, but you should have a variety from meal to meal and day to day. Daily your diet should contain two or three servings each of fruits and vegetables. You should have two or three servings daily of protein rich food to insure materials for building, repairing and maintaining your body. All dried beans (legumes) especially soy beans have liberal amounts of protein, plus many other important elements. So do cashew nuts, peanuts, and other nuts.

9- Some foods do the body harm. For example, spicy food, and vinegar irritate the delicate digestive linings. Lard, and fats contribute cholesterol which can clog the arteries, you remember, and cause high blood pressure, and heart disease. Sugar also clogs the arteries and affects circulation.

10- Some foods simply do the body no good, and often do harm as well. A chocolate bar, cookies, or a bottle of pop may give you some calories, but they are "empty" calories because they do not give you vitamins or much else. The vitamins and minerals needed to digest them must be stolen from somewhere else in the body. Since all foods contain calories, our main concern should be to choose the foods also rich in other health-insuring elements.

11- Why not develop an "international appetite?" Learn to enjoy all good wholesome food. Perhaps you did not know that a person's interest in new foods and flavors is usually one indication of the breadth of his social, experience and his interest in the world beyond his own back yard!

12- WHEN DO YOU EAT? Is the next question you need to answer. Most people eat whenever they think they are hungry. You notice that I said, "think." If you are in the habit of eating between meals, your mind can signal your stomach to call for food when it is actually needing to rest!

13- Of course, it you start off on your day without a good breakfast, your stomach has a right to call for body fuel! Good eating habits say: eat a substantial balanced breakfast. Eat a balanced lunch 5-6 hours later. Eat very lightly in the evening, and be sure the meal is 2-3 hours before you retire. Eat nothing between meals. Your "appetite" may protest for a little while until your new habits have been formed. But the real hunger of your body will be satisfied, and you will be richly rewarded.

14- Here is an extra tip. Do not eat when you are overtired, or emotionally upset. Wait awhile until you recover. The mind has a great influence on the organs of digestion. To get the most out of your food, mealtime should be a relaxed, happy time.

15- Next is the question, HOW DO YOU EAT? Are you the kind of person who sits down and empties your plate almost before anyone else has started? If so, you have a poor eating habit. Since digestion begins in the mouth, your food has no time to be well mixed with saliva. Also, the food is not being chewed, and since your stomach has no teeth, you are cheating your body of much of the nourishment it could get from your food. If you just stop to think, you cheat yourself financially too! So, slow down, fast eaters! Chew you food thoroughly.

16- Our last question is, WHY DO YOU EAT? Are you a slave to your taste buds, to your appetite; in other words, to poor eating habits? Are you a victim of self-indulgence? If so, this is a form of self-destruction. Or do you think of your body as something wonderful and sacred to be treasured and cared for?

17- It is safer and easier to build good food habits than to correct poor ones. But ridding ourselves of poor food habits need not be hard if we stop trying to find excuses for them. When you think of your body as loaned to you by God you begin practicing true temperance. True temperance is total abstinence from all that is harmful and the moderate use of that which is good.

18- In return your body will give your health and happiness, and help you to build a strong character. WHAT YOU EAT, WHEN YOU EAT, HOW YOU EAT, AND WHY YOU EAT all have a great deal to do with BETTER LIVING!

19- The rules for good eating habits are all based on scientific facts. But did you know that God gave us these rules long before science knew about any of them. This is not surprising for He has always given needed information through His prophets so that His people could know how to choose the best.

20- As we have already mentioned, the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy in the Remnant church has been in the life of Ellen Gould Harmon, who became Mrs. E. G. White after her marriage to Mr. James White in August 1846. Ellen was born November 26, 1827 near Gorham, Maine, about 12 miles west of the city of Portland. This is the home where she was born. She and her twin sister were the youngest of 8 children.

21- Leaving the school one afternoon, the nine-year-old Harmon twins were pursued by a youthful classmate enraged at some trifle. A stone was thrown which struck Ellen on the nose, and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Her nose was broken, and the blood flowed freely. Neighbors had thought that she would die, but her mother believed she would live even though Ellen was unconscious for 3 weeks! By God's grace she was all right. She was, however, unable to continue with her schoolwork.

22- It was while she was yet a girl of twelve that William Miller in 1840 came to the city of Portland with the message of Jesus coming soon. The Harmon family attended the meetings. Scores of other protestant ministers joined him in sending the glad tidings. Ellen was from a Methodist family. She was baptized by immersion in Casco Bay. This was the beach in front of the home where the poet Longfellow was born.

23- A few weeks after her seventeenth birthday Ellen made a visit to the home of the Haines family in South Portland, across the causeway. This home is pointed out as the Haines' home and it is understood that in a room on the second floor, she joined four other women in morning worship. As she earnestly sought God for light, heaven seemed near, and Ellen was wrapped up in a vision of God's glory. This was in 1844, about two months after the great disappointment of October twenty-two.

24- It is estimated that 200 visions were given to Ellen White in her 70 years of service. She wrote tens, hundreds, and thousands of papers under the inspiration of God. She has written about 50 books. She wrote articles on medical subjects which the medical scientists are just now finding out. On astronomy and many other topics, her prophecies are coming true in every detail. How could she do it? She had very little education. It was not she, but God working through her.

25- She meets all the tests of a true prophet. During her vision she was not breathing, Daniel 10:7. During her vision her eyes were open, Numbers 24:4, 16. During her vision she used to have supernatural power. Many tested her and were convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that her visions were from God.

26- Once during her vision she held a big Bible weighing about 20 pounds for 30 minutes continually on her outstretched hand. She picked up the Bible, and rising to her feet, placed the open book on her hand, and lifted it high somewhat above her head. Thus, while looking upward and away from the Bible she turned its pages with her free hand, and pointed to certain texts as she quoted them.

27- In 1915 Ellen White was 87 years of age. On a Sabbath morning in February as she entered her writing room, she tripped and fell. This accident resulted in a broken hip, and she was confined to bed for five months, when on July 16, her fruitful life came to a close.

28- She has written on the evil effects of Tea, Coffee, Tobacco, Alcohol, and many other narcotics. She has condemned eating between meals, the use of too much sugar, eating candy, ice cream and hot spices, etc. She has promoted vegetarianism. All those following the health principles outlined by her are greatly benefited. She has instructed on social, moral, health, and other very important phases of human life. She is dead but her written pages still speak. There is still much more to know of her life and work. It is all illustrated and God willing we shall tell you more about this in the future.

29- God has not kept His church in darkness. He has revealed through His prophets the truth that is needed for our salvation. He had prophesied by the Prophet Joel, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." Joel 2:28.

30- The Lord, therefore, counsels us, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets; so shall ye prosper." 2 Chronicles 20:20. The Apostle Paul says, "Despise not. prophesying. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." I Thessalonians 5:20, 21.

31- Jesus will soon come back to this world to take His elect home to heaven. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12. (or the Spirit of Prophecy). Are you among them? 

LESSON THIRTY-FOUR - HEART WORK

1- The great throbbing center of all human life and activity is the heart. No other organ carries so much responsibility for the well being of the body. Every other part of the body is entirely dependent on the heart. All the organs have their own special work to do. The lungs enable us to breathe. The kidneys filter the fluid of the body. The stomach and intestines digest our food for us, and all the rest play their parts. But the one great organ on which all the others depend is the heart. Constantly, day and night, year after year your wonderful heart continues to beat. When you are at rest it beats quietly, and slowly, conserving its great reserve powers for the times when they might be sorely needed.

2- If an emergency should arise, your heart will quicken its pace, speeding up the circulation of the blood wherever it may be needed. When your heart is strong and healthy, the whole body benefits. But it is so important for you to take care of your heart, for upon its condition depends your ability to get the most out of life.

3- Now, if you'll place your hand on your chest, a little to the left of the center, you'll feel that great throbbing center at work. That is your heart. Its function is to move the living stream of blood through all parts of the body, feeding all the cells, and removing all the waste materials. If your heart should fail, your life would end. For that reason it is important that we give this wonderful organ all the care it deserves.

4- What causes the heart to break down and wear out? Can a man strain his heart by overwork? No, it's very unusual to strain the normal healthy heart by overwork, surprising as that may sound. The heart is much more likely to be damaged by disease and poor habits of living rather than by overwork.

5- Some common causes of heart trouble include severe nervous and emotional strain, insufficient proper exercise, overeating, and the lack of proper rest. All these tend to weaken the walls of the blood vessels in the heart. Fortunately, the heart is built of very tough materials that don't break down easily. The muscles of the heart are more durable than any other muscle tissue in the body. When we examine the inside of the heart, we find that it is divided into 4 large chambers. These chambers are lined with a very smooth durable lining which offers no resistance to the blood­stream as it rushes through on its way to the lungs and to the rest of the body.

7- The outside of the heart is covered with a tough fibrous bag called the pericardium. This protects the heart from damage on the outside. At the same time it also provides a smooth water-lined casing in which the heart can move freely without interruption.

8- It is simply amazing how much work the human heart will do in a day. At a normal rate of speed the heart beats about 70 times a minute. This amounts to more than 100,000 contractions every day, or 37 million a year. In 70 years this adds up to more than 2 billion heartbeats. Such figures are too great for us to really comprehend.

9- People often ask, "How does the heart keep going so long without breaking down or wearing out?" No machine made by man can begin to match the human heart for efficiency or durability. Every day your heart pumps between five and ten tons of blood. That is an enormous amount of work for an organ about the size of your fist.

10- For its size the heart is the most wonderful pump in the world. And, you know, there is not one piece of metal in it. Although it may weigh only about 250 grams or ½ pound, it continuously sends a living stream of blood coursing through many miles of tiny vessels, feeding every cell in the body, and helping to repair the tissues wherever damage may have occurred.

11- The human heart has great reserve powers. Normally the heart pumps about one quart of blood every minute when the body is at rest. But during hard exercise, or hard work, it may pump as much as twenty-five quarts of blood each minute. That means, that in an emergency your heart can pump about 25 times as much blood as it normally pumps while at rest.

12- And here's another wonderful thing; if your heart has been damaged by diseases, it repairs itself while it works. If infection should strike, and the valves begin to leak your heart will thicken up its own muscular walls to compensate for any lack of efficiency.

13- Even while it works, the heart's own cells are busy selecting from the bloodstream the materials they need for their own growth and repair. Your heart will do this for perhaps 70 or 80 years; maybe more, if you are good to it, without losing even a few minutes for repair.

14- Your heart beats according to the needs of your own body. The heart of an athlete, because it has been developed by hard training and exercise, beats more slowly than the heart of the average person. The heart of a child beats almost twice as fast as that of an adult. It would seem that the smaller the animal, the faster the heart beats. For instance, the heart of a mouse or a small bird beats about 1000 times a minute. That is almost seventeen times a second.

15- Compare this with an elephant whose heart beats only twenty-five times a minute normally. Do you ask, "What causes the heart to beat?" Well, this is a question to which scientist don't know all the answers. However, there is a very delicate machine called the electrocardiograph which reveals that tiny electric currents are generated within the heart itself. These electric charges are apparently responsible for the contractions or beats of the heart.

16- The speed at which the heart beats is governed by what is called the pacemaker. This is located near the top of heart at the right side. The pacemaker is like a small radio station broadcasting its waves out over the auricles. These waves are picked up by another substation lower down in the heart. From there, they are transmitted along a special network of very fine filaments or fibers to the ventricles. In this way, the beat or rhythm of the heart is controlled by the impulses from the pacemaker. These, in turn, are controlled by the needs of the body.

17- How do we keep the heart running smoothly? By following the laws of health which you have been learning in these studies. Proper food, fresh air, pure water, sunlight, rest and proper exercise. These things will help your heart to work well for many extra years of happiness.

18- Long before scientists knew all these things about our wonderful hearts, the wisest man that ever lived, King Solomon, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God wrote, "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." The heart has long been considered the source of our emotions, love, hate, anger, jealousy etc. These are things that make us the people we really are.

19- From our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, we have inherited hearts that are by nature at variance with God. We are born rebels against God and His government. This is something we have inherited.

20- One of the most important lessons man can learn in this life is that he is by nature a rebel against God, a sinner. God has told us about this through the Prophet Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9.

21- As soon as man begins to recognize this as a fact, he immediately starts looking for ways by which he can justify himself before God or do some penance or punishment of his own body that he thinks will please God and so persuade God to overlook or pardon his sinfulness and rebellion.

22- God disclaims any willingness to accept anything a man may do to cleanse himself of sin. Again through Jeremiah God says, "For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." Jeremiah 2:22. There is no amount of washing and bathing in any water or river of this world that can make us clean in God's sight.

23- Again, through Jeremiah, God says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" "Or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 13:23. We recognize the force of God's question at once. No man or animal can change his inherited characteristics of color or skin markings. Isaiah explaining the condition of man writes, "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isaiah 1:6. In Chapter 64 and the 6th verse, he continues, "But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.

24- Man having sinned is doomed for ever. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23. It is only Jesus who can save us from death because it is only He who has shed His sinless, spotless, and sanctified blood for the human race. He never committed a single sin in his life on earth, yet He died to pay for all man's sins.

25- So, He invites the sinners to come as they are in their sinful condition. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18. Jesus invites all because all need His cleansing and sanctifying power. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11 :29. We are to come to Jesus as we are, and having come to Him, we are to confess our sins to Him who is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unright­eousness." I John 1:9.

26- Who ever comes to Jesus will not be cast away. "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea." Micah 7:18, 19.

28- This was what David was thinking of as he prayed in Psalms 51:10. "Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, renew a right spirit within me." David knew that he could not do anything for himself, but God could do everything for him, if he would go to God as he was.

29- Sanctification is the goal for us to reach. Nothing short of this will prepare us for heaven. This is possible as Christ dwells in us through His spirit. We should allow Him to make His dwelling place in our hearts. This can be accomp­lished as we choose to be led by Him and follow the path of obedience. Jesus is coming soon and only those sanctified through His blood will be ready to go with Him. May God bless us so that we can live a sanctified life through Him.

Here is additional information about the plan of salvation:

"For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."­ Ezekiel 18:32.

"Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."-Revelation 22:17,

"He (Christ) was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."-Isaiah 53:5.

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy Him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."-Hebrews 2:14.

"But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."-Romans 5:8-9.

"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, 0 Jacob, and He that formed thee, 0 Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine."-Isaiah 43:1.

"Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me."-Psalm 51:10.

This concludes your ‘BETTER HEALTH MADE SIMPLE” course. May God bless you as you put to use what you have learned.

CONGRATULATIONS!