Biblical Herbs, Biblical Food and
Wrinkle Prevention, see Appendix C
The above title for a book indicates that the American public has finally discovered herbs which most ancient cultures knew of many millenia ago. You can read multitudes of testimonials as below:
"Her doctor suggested Elizabeth try St.-John's wort instead of drugs. In no time at all, she snapped out of her depression. "I feel tremendously normal, it is a wonderful feeling. I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face.""
One pill for the digestive system contains the following:
A powdered natural food supplement contains the following:
One list of super foods shown below contains only one non plant food item.
But is plant food for every creature?
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life,
I have
given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
And God saw everything that he
had made,
and, behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:30-31
Many have concluded from the above that when first created all animals were vegetarians only. However, possibly the intended meaning is that plants are the basic source for all growth and energy. Those animals who eat flesh get it secondarly from the flesh they eat, for somewhere within the food chain there is a vegetarian animal. Eagles eat many rodents and rodents live on plants, seeds and nuts, and the same goes for wolves, cyotes, etc. Some species are just without doubt designed to eat flesh and other species are designed to very efficiently utilize plant food, as is the cow which many people love to eat.
Plants are the most efficient source for food and energy for many species, for it takes many pounds of plant source food to generate a pound of flesh. But when plant food is directly turned into energy within the digestive track of many species the process is much more efficient pound for pound than getting the same amount of energy from flesh food. In other words, if the human species ate mostly plant food, more people could be fed properly from the same farming acreage and with less expended energy (see Appendix A ).
And as we have already indicated, in addition to growth and energy from plants, they are the basic source for many many healing vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other organic compounds. More and more every day we read and hear of the result of medical studies that show that eating plant based foods provides for increased health for the human species. For example one recent study by a Swedish medical group showed that in a group of women who ate just one half a carrot each day and ate less fat there was up to 68-percent lower risk for breast cancer. Some experts have estimated that 60 percent of the illnesses in the United States are due to poor diet ( see Appendix B ).
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there he put the man whom he had formed. ...
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. ...
(Genesis 2: 8 , 16 KJV)
To support his evolutionary hypothesis "The Obligate Fruigivore", in which he explored "the relationship between diet, bipedalism, mothering, and how these factors enabled our superior cognitive development", J. S. Coleman setup and ran a "Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) is a neural network designed to categorize data sets into alike groups based on corresponding similarities in data magnitudes". The purpose was to "establish the affinity between human breast milk and other raw foods by grouping according to similarity of their nutrient profiles. We would expect the relative proportions of nutrients of an animals milk to reflect in the nutritional value of the foods eaten by a species as an adult, otherwise a smooth transition during weaning would be too difficult, and cellular requirements would not be sufficiently matched for optimum cellular metabolism and therefore survival."
"These results seem to support the suggestion that human milk and a variety of
fruits have statistically similar nutrient proportions. This in no way indicates
that they are a suitable replacement for each other or that any particular fruit
is an ideal food on its own. These data could also support the hypothesis that
commercial fruit is of similar nutritional value to the ancestral fruits that
may have occurred in our evolution, though we now know that wild fruits are
generally richer in protein and fats, and in minerals."
(quotes from http://venus.nildram.co.uk/veganmc/origins.htm )
The results were that first just behind mother's milk was raw peaches followed by raw grapefruit and then raw European grapes. Possibly one of these three was the famed forbidden fruit of Eden? Possibly not, it is doubtful that the analysis would be that exact! Apples came in at places 9, 28 and 29. There are also traditions that it was the pomegranate or the apricot and they came in at places 46 and 44 respectively. And then there is the obviously question, why would the best food in the garden be forbidden? And as one would expect, the first 89 places were taken up by the fruits, vegetables, and their juices. A total of 41 fruits and vegetables were rated in the same category as mother's milk, with the vegetables being at the bottom of this category. The vegetables in the top category were tomatoes, cabbage, squash, carrots, cucumber and eggplant. The first non plant food was wild raw oysters at number 90 and the bottom of the list, places 124 through 230, are taken up by the various forms of non plant foods, with the eggs being first. It should be noted that not all the known beneficial nutritional compounds were/could be considered and therefore some of the results are puzzling, such as the known super food broccoli coming in at the 108th place, therefore it must be assumed that its most beneficial ingredients were not among the 24 factors considered. (see results table)
Has J. S. Coleman scientifically demonstrated one of the secrets of the Garden of Eden, RAW FRUIT? It would seem that way!
Conclusion:
And God said, Behold, I have given you
every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree,
in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be
for meat (food).
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree,
in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (food).
Appendix A: Food calories produced per calorie of fossil fuel input, for some plant and animal foods. Note that US produced feedlot beef is the least efficient.
Appendix B: National relationships of breast cancer mortality rate in proportion to dietary fat consumption. Note that the less developed countries with the highest rate of vegetarian diet are the healthiest.
Appendix C: Wrinkles
"Scientists conducted a study of elderly people living in Greece, Australia, and Sweden and found that those people whose diets included high amounts of fruits, and vegetables, and legumes had fewer wrinkles. In contrast high intakes of meat, dairy products, and butter were linked to more wrinkled skin.
Across the board, the study subjects in each country who had the least skin wrinkling and damage followed diets that included low intakes of butter, margarine, milk products, and sugar products in conjunction with high intakes of vegetables and legumes. Researchers also noted that three specific dietary staples -- prunes, apples, and tea -- accounted for a significant advantage in skin condition among a smaller subgroup of Australians. (note: Australia as a country on the whole, due to their predominately outdoor life style, has a very high incident of severe skin cancers.)
Antioxidants get the credit for these antiaging benefits. The study team suggests that these foods, rich in antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E, help block damage from the sun and other environmental exposure. (reference: J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 20:71-80, 2001 and Dr. McDougall Newsletter) Also per the Journal of the American College of Nutrition the legumes (especially broad beans and lima beans), asparagus, celery, onions, leeks, garlic, nuts, olives, cherries, melon, dried fruits, pears, eggs, yogurt and water all significantly helped to prevent wrinkles. The foods associated with enhanced wrinkles include milk, meat (especially processed meat), potatoes, soft drinks, cakes, pastries, and sweetened fruit drinks.
Also, it's not often that you find a food that will do so many things due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities including improve your skin, cleanse your liver, help to halt tumor growth, and is heart healthy, that food is the carrot. To repeat, the Swedish study showed that women who ate just half a carrot a day, and ate less fat, enjoyed up to 68 percent lower risk for breast cancer. Eating a couple of medium-sized carrots a day is one of the simplest and least expensive ways to improve the health in many ways. It would take a couple of pages just to list the various beneficial nutritional components found in the carrot. ( reference: Dr. David Williams newsletter)
So it seems that the age-old search for the Fountain of Youth would have been better spent harvesting the "Garden of Youth" which is in reality eating the food of the Garden of Eden.
