Am I Eating Right?

A guy has celery sticking out of one ear, a banana out of the other, and lettuce draped over the top of his head. He goes to the doctor and asks him what's wrong. The doctor tells him, "Well, for one thing, you're not eating right."

That is one of my favorite jokes, and I don't even know why. It just gives me a good chuckle whenever I think about it. Eating right isn't really a laughing matter for those who are suffering from health problems, though. I could go on and on about the things I've "learned" about health in my many years of studying this subject. As we all know, much of the information in this area just follows the latest diet trends, and eventually, much of the advice being handed out by the supposed "experts" on the subject turns out to be bogus if not downright dangerous.

After reading many dozens of books on the subject, and having done my own experimentation in this area, I've come to the following conclusions when it comes to "eating right":

1) There really isn't any quick fix for good health.
2) There are principles to good health, the same as there are principles to good government, economics, the law of tithing, etc. If we want the blessings of health, we must follow those principles, and they are found in the scriptures. These principles include, eating fruits and vegetables in their season, with a large percentage of them being eaten raw when ripe; eating grains, legumes, nuts and seeds to add bulk to the diet; eating meats sparingly; getting plenty of rest; and drinking an adequate amount of water. I don't actually know if that last one is in the scriptures, but it is well accepted as a fact.
3) Staying away from the "don'ts" in the Word of Wisdom, and keeping other unhealthy foods to a minimum.
4) If we expect to receive the blessings of good health, as mentioned at the end of section 89, we must follow the plan the Lord gave us to receive those blessings.
5) And this last one that I hate to even acknowledge: exercise. Yep, some form of exercise is necessary if we want to maintain good health.

Hugh Nibley taught a gospel doctrine class on the Word of Wisdom and I just found the transcript to that class. In very simple terms he taught what the Word of Wisdom is, and what it isn't. It can be found here: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/?id=118 .

I finally stopped reading so many diet books, because I always ended up right back at the Word of Wisdom. Realizing that everyone's body is different, and that many of us have certain inherited weaknesses, it is up to us to find out how to adapt those principles to our own situations. However, in the first few verses we are told that the Word of Wisdom was "adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints," so everyone should be able to apply this to themselves in some way. We'll leave that up to the Spirit to guide us in that area.

One of the great blessings about the Word of Wisdom, is that it has the ability keep us safe from the traps of those conspiring to ruin our health to pad their wallets. The Word of Wisdom talks about them, too, and tells us that the reason we were given this law of health was to protect us from them. I know that there are a lot of companies out there that fall into this category, but I think some companies haven't quite caught onto this principle yet. I figured this out on a trip to the grocery store some months ago, and I wrote about it in my journal:

"So I started this diet yesterday, replacing 2 meals a day with protein shakes and a cleansing drink, then a regular meal for the third meal. (I actually lasted a couple of days on this diet that was supposed to last two weeks.) I'm walking through the grocery store, and they have a guy there giving out free FAT BOY ice cream sandwiches. I thought to myself: Is he kidding? No, wait, that's not what I thought. What I actually thought was: Are they kidding?? referring to the namers of that product, which wouldn't be the guy that was handing them out. So you've got this product that will actually contribute to obesity and heart disease and you blatantly announce it on the front of the box. Whatever happened to conspiring men? That is so obvious! I mean, I didn't have any problem at all walking right by, seeing as how my diet was only a few hours old. I think they ought to make a couple of other products and call them HEFTY MAMA, or FATTY GIRL and see if their sales improve. That might be a whole new niche that hasn't been tapped into yet. But what do I know? I don't have an MBA or anything."

Of course, maybe they are smarter than I am and there's something subliminal going on, or some form of reverse psychology. Keep your guard up; you just can't be too careful these days. :)