It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 1 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Program No. 1295 SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW JB: You know, it is said that you are what you eat; but if you survey the population as a whole, you find out that a whole lot of people are... sick, and could it be that many people are sick today because they are what they eat? Now, why does this even matter on a Bible discussion program such as It Is Written? Well, I'll tell you why. Jesus said He came into this world so that we might have life and that we might live it more abundantly. But in the midst of an obesity epidemic, an increasing--radically increasing-- incidence of things such as diabetes and other lifestyle illnesses, it doesn't look like a lot of people are enjoying a more abundant life, but instead a less abundant life. Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this today and find out how we can enjoy the more abundant life that Jesus offers to us. I'm being joined today by my guest, Dr. David DeRose, a specialist in the areas of internal medicine and preventive medicine. We'll talk about that today, big-time. Dr. DeRose comes to us from Compass Health Consulting in Northern California. Thanks for joining me today, David. I'm glad you're here. DD: It's great to be with you, John. JB: So it's true, you are what you eat. Yeah, you've got to be careful but what we eat impacts us in a massive way. DD: Literally, we are what we eat. The elements that make up our bodies are those very things that we ingested--or that our mother ingested. JB: Somebody mentioned this to me recently, and I think a lot of people are really surprised by this. Your blood is made from what you eat; what you put into your body. What you put in actually, literally, physically becomes part of who you are. Correct or not? DD: That's right. It's not just your blood, it's every single cell of your body. I mean, those are the raw materials that make up the body. They have to come from somewhere. They don't just come out of the air, although oxygen, of course, does. But we actually need to eat in order to make every cell in our body. JB: So, as cells are being regenerated, rejuvenated, repaired, it all comes back to the fact they are being made from--what we are is being made from--what we put in. DD: That's right. And some of those cells are turning over very rapidly. You mentioned the red blood cells. They turn over about every three months, about a hundred-day
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 2 lifespan for the red blood cell. And although some things are recycled--like the iron in the red blood cell, that's largely recycled--but other things we need to ingest in order to make those new cellular components. JB: You know, it seems to me, if we are being regenerated at a cellular level by the things that we put into our bodies, wouldn't just knowing that make you stop and say, well, I need to be putting in good stuff to make good cells or red blood cells or whatever. DD: One of my favorite texts when we speak about this topic actually is in the book of Genesis. JB: All right. DD: Because there God is creating a perfect world. And in Genesis 1-- JB: Right at the beginning. DD: That's right, right at the beginning. First chapter of the Bible, you go down to verse 29 and you see that God has a specific plan, as far as our nutritional program. God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food." God is giving mankind, humankind, a vegetarian diet in the very beginning. And what we find today, John, is the optimal diet to avoid most of these chronic diseases that we're talking about is a diet that focuses on those whole plant foods. JB: Okay, but also, later on, God said, "Take the Passover lamb"-- DD: No question. JB: And they re made out of kale and all of that-- DD: You've got it. JB: Well, they eat grass. DD: That's right. JB: Take the Passover lamb and eat that. That's not a--it may have been a vegetarian lamb, but people who eat lambs aren't vegetarians. So, what was God doing back here. Eat these things that don't have mothers or faces; and over here, go ahead and eat meat. DD: And you could even take that a step further. When Jesus fed the multitude, He didn't just give them bread, which is a vegetarian product. He gave them-- JB: Bread and fish.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 3 DD: That's right. JB: So, are we seeing a contradiction here? DD: What I find so interesting, John. It's an excellent question. God meets people where they're at. God's first concern--as I read the Bible as both a physician and as a Bible student--his first concern has always been our spiritual health and our relationship with Him. But you see this theme running throughout the Bible. When God wants to give people an optimal diet, whether it's in Genesis or in their wilderness wanderings, God does not give them animal products. There was no raining of quail until the people demanded it, if you will. JB: And then when they ate the quail, they became sick from eating it. DD: Yeah, at least the second time around. JB: So in the wilderness, God gave them a type of food that matched up with what we find in Genesis chapter 1. DD: Exactly. So, here's the interesting thing, though. Let's talk about some of the things we want to avoid today, and it really brings out this dialogue. The lamb of Jesus' day; the fish of Jesus' day. They didn't have one of the big problems that we're dealing with today, and that is an accumulation of toxins in their tissues. Today, a huge issue is our contaminated environment. And some of the things that are contaminating our environment are heavy metals. Things like mercury or cadmium. Things like toxins. Toxins like DDT, and it's metabolized. You say, "Well, we don't use that anymore." But it's still in the environment. Lead--still in the environment. What happens is, if you look at living creatures, the higher up you move on the food chain, the greater the concentration of those toxins. Roughly speaking, about a tenfold increase, every level you go up. You take the phytoplankton, living in the water. Those waters are contaminated. They have a concentration of a toxin in their tissue. Then you look at the small fish that eat the phytoplankton. Roughly about 10 times as much of that toxin will be in their tissue, gram for gram. You go to the bigger fish that eats the smaller fish. Now you've got a hundred times what was in that phytoplankton. When you get up to things very high on the food chain, like the birds of prey, you can understand why the California condor was dying out, before we started to get serious about controlling the environment. It doesn't mean all the toxins are gone, but the point is, those foods that in Jesus' day, we would say would be good sources. People living on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wouldn't reasonably say you can't have fish; that was a staple in their diet. But a much healthier choice back then than it is today. JB: It's true that you are what you eat, and you want to live a long, happy, abundant, healthy life. The longer and healthier you can live, the better quality of life you can have, on balance, and the more you can glorify God. So, if you are what you eat, what are you eating? We'll find out more with Dr. David DeRose in just a moment.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 4 EVERY WORD JB: I was eating the other day, as you do, when it occurred to me again that I'd have to eat again in just five hours or so. We eat, and then we have to eat some more. We're dependent on that food, that fuel. God didn't have to design us that way, but it seems He might have done so to try to get us to remember something. Just as you are dependent on constant, regular nourishment to get through life, you're dependent on the grace of God to get you through each day. We ought to be leaning on God and feeding on His Word for spiritual strength, just as we feed on food for physical strength. Some of us are guilty of eating a little too much and guilty of feeding on the Bible a little too little. In John 6, verse 48, Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." I want to encourage you today to eat well. I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written. Let's live today by every word. RETURN TO PROGRAM JB: This is It Is Written. I'm John Bradshaw. Thank you for joining me today. And we are being joined by Dr. David DeRose from Compass Health Consultants in Northern California. Dr. DeRose, today we're talking about what people eat. That old saying, you are what you eat. And a moment ago, we were starting to talk about foods that are a little higher up the food chain. The higher up you go, the greater the concentration of toxins, and perhaps poisons and heavy metals in those foods. The bigger foods, more than the smaller. In the beginning God gave the human family, without a doubt, a vegetarian, a plant-based diet. Then later He said, well, okay, you certainly may eat some of this or some of that. He never did say you'll be better for it. And you notice too, that when animals entered the menu was at the same time that people started living dramatically shorter lives. DD: Very interesting. Very interesting. JB: Yeah. Clean and unclean food. It's certainly biblical, but is it valid today and is it just for the Jews? DD: Well, first of all, the distinction of clean and unclean animals and the thing about being a Jew. If you read the account of the flood, that great deluge, Noah was instructed about the animals, and there were clean and unclean that were identified in that account. So it's not something that God added just for the benefit of the Jews. JB: In Genesis 7, in verse 2, "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and the female, and of the beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." God identifying clean and unclean animals before there was even a Jew on the planet. DD: And many have said, "Well, why?" Well, we see there's sacrifice after the flood, but there was also going to be apparently a necessity to eat some of those animals after all the vegetation was essentially wiped off the earth. JB: And if you ate one of the unclean, you'd go from two to one. The species would be gone.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 5 DD: And so the very point about how many were taken on was making a powerful, powerful statement about what were sacrificial and potentially permissible animals to eat- -only those that were clean. JB: Is there health benefits to abstaining from these animals that are called unclean? DD: No question. Now, you've identified some animals, like the horse and the rabbit, that are largely vegetarian. So they'd be lower on the food chain, if you will. But many of the animals that are excluded--you read a description, for example, in Leviticus 11 of what those unclean animals are--and you'll find the scavengers, like you mentioned. The pigs, the crustacea of the ocean. You'll also find things that are very high on the food chain, like the birds of prey. All of those things were off limits. We know today, the technical term is called "biomagnification." What that means is, like we were expressing earlier in the show, if you eat things that are low on the food chain--those small, little fish--they're going to have low levels of toxins and contaminants. As you move up the level, you will get higher and higher levels of toxins. JB: When you think about something like a shellfish, you can say, well, if God didn't intend for us to eat it, why did He make it? And the shellfish is a classic example. They've shown this in places such as the Chesapeake Bay. When you introduce shellfish, they filter the water. They take out the toxins and return the good water back into the ecosystem. So, thank God that we have them, but imagine when you're eating that, you're eating all those toxins. DD: And this brings up a whole other point: many transmittable diseases are traced to these unclean foods. You mentioned pork earlier; you mentioned shellfish. Pork is a classic example. Our Centers for Disease Control in the United States speak about neglected parasitic diseases that are not on the radar screen. One of them is cysticercosis. It actually comes from the pork tapeworm. And this can cause serious illness. It's actually--john, this may be surprising to you--one of the leading causes, if not the leading cause, of epilepsy worldwide, is from the pork tapeworm. Something called neurocysticercosis. Cysts that actually invade the brain and are a leading cause of seizures worldwide. As I read through the Bible, I find it fascinating that when Jesus was resurrected, in Luke 24, we read those stories of Jesus' encounter with the disciples. Or on the Emmaus Road. Jesus points them back to the Old Testament. Many of my Christian friends think the Old Testament is a book that's just to be set aside. Jesus wanted their faith anchored in the Old Testament. Now, he was especially referring to the prophecies that spoke of Him. But what's interesting to me as a physician is--i don't know of any example where God gave a ceremonial law that didn't have some significant health connections that persist today. Well, we're speaking about these so-called ceremonial health laws. In other words, God didn't tell them to avoid unclean foods just to teach some spiritual lesson; there was sound health information there. We could talk about circumcision, or how the Jews were able to be clean after contact with death. All of these things have valid health principles. But you don't have to sacrifice a red heifer today. Do you see my point?
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 6 JB: Absolutely, but bring them back to this, because someone's saying, "Oh, look, this is well and good, but those guys are off base, because that was just a ceremony, and when Jesus died, none of that mattered anymore." DD: Let me go to this example. Maybe we should turn in our Bibles to it. I'm turning to the book of Numbers. It's a fascinating example. I'm going to Numbers chapter 19, and in Numbers 19 we read these laws of purification. This is the "red heifer sacrifice." Any Christian who's studied this realizes that the red heifer was symbolizing Jesus. He was the sinless one who was killed outside the camp. Today, you and I, as Christians, don't need to sacrifice a red heifer. Jesus IS our all-sufficient sacrifice. JB: Right. DD: But if you read through Numbers 19, you find that embedded in that red heifer sacrifice and its aftermath were restrictions and laws for scrupulous cleanliness after contact with death. Because the Christian world set that aside for decades and centuries, we had in the 1800s, in Europe, for example, epidemics of childbirth fever. Ignaz Semmelweis, the famous Austrian physician who brought this to the fore, he realized that women were dying. One in six women or more were dying in childbirth, in the main hospital there in Vienna, because doctors would examine the dead women and then they'd go and examine the living women. They were transmitting disease. If they'd followed the principles of Numbers 19, this would never have happened. JB: Important principles because, after all, you are what you eat. And, if we made simple, small changes in the area of what we eat, we would see big results in our physical health and certainly in our spiritual health as well. Now, in just a moment, I'm going to tell you what this is. And you will be amazed, when you discover just what you're eating. Back with more, straight ahead. OFFER Fasting. It's a very biblical concept, but it's also very misunderstood. Jesus fasted, we know that. But does He want people to fast today? And what does God intend that fasting should be? And, how can it benefit you? I'd like to send you a book from our Healing Insights series, called "Fasting and Prayer." This book is absolutely free. Just call (800) 253-3000, and ask for "Fasting and Prayer." Now, if the line is busy, please do try again. You can write to us at It Is Written, Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401, and we'll mail a free copy to your address in North America. You can also download a free digital copy at ItIsWritten.com. Thank you for your continued support. Our toll-free number is 1 (800) 253-3000, and our web address is ItIsWritten.com. RETURN TO PROGRAM JB: Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written. You know that it is said so often that you are what you eat, and if that's the case, then we are sick because we're eating food that makes us sick. Dr. David DeRose is joining me today. I want to ask you, Dr. DeRose, where are the problems? What are the problem areas in what we eat?
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 7 DD: Well, if we want to speak physiologically, one of the big ones is fat. And the reason I say physiologically is your cell membrane is made up of fat, among other things. The type of fat you eat will affect how fluid that membrane is. You say, well, what difference does that make? It's because the cell membrane is where the action takes place. In your brain, the neurotransmitters, the brain chemicals, interact with other membranes. What happens is, if you're eating more of the saturated fats, more of the trans fats, these two categories of fats, they make the cell membranes more rigid and make nerve transmission more difficult. They make insulin signaling worse, and so they lay the foundation for diabetes. So it's not just a question of amount of fat, but what kind of fat. Those saturated fats primarily in animal products; trans fats in those partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. JB: Good fats, avocado; good fats in nuts. Those are good fats, right? DD: Very interesting. Back in the '90s, people were lumping all these together. They were saying nuts were bad for you. At least many people in the preventive medicine community. But then in the '90s is when researchers at Loma Linda University came out with some of the early studies showing that nuts had powerful, heart-preventive properties, and that started to swing the pendulum in the other direction. JB: But the bad fats are no good. I want to show you something when it comes to fat. Each time you eat that well-known burger from that well-known burger chain, you're getting that much fat. Dr. DeRose, what does the body do with this much fat? DD: That's saturated fat, largely saturated. That animal fat. JB: Right. DD: What happens is, first of all the blood becomes what we call lipemic. When you eat that fat, it goes into the blood stream and that actually affects the fluidity of the blood. But then it has that impact, that long-term impact, on the cell membranes, and actually it's setting the stage for many of the diseases that we experience today. JB: But this is how much fat there is in a candy bar. Take a look at this, typical candy bar. A small one. And this is how much fat there is in a reasonably small bag of potato chips. DD: We've cultivated, as a society, a desire for higher saturated fat. Higher sugar. Higher salt. With the research shows us though--let's talk about fat--as you get away from that high fat consumption, your tastes change. Big study, interventional study in women with cancer. Breast cancer. Decreasing their fat consumption--when they did the pilot study, over the course of the year, they found the women that cut their fat dramatically, they tended to develop a distaste for the high fat foods that they used to enjoy.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 8 JB: And this is how much sugar there is, in a can of soda. Ah! Stop and think. I mean, I wouldn't take the top off this and chug this much raw sugar, ever. You just wouldn't do it. But you do when you buy a can of soda and pour that down your throat. DD: And the data really suggests this is one of the things, the sugar-sweetened beverages, that are fueling the epidemic of obesity our country, John. JB: This is how much there is in a cup of ice cream. That's a lot of sugar. DD: And you add the fat to that equation, in those foods. And many of those same foods that are high in fat and high in sugar often are high in salt. Did you know, for example, that you can put a lot more salt in a food if it's got a lot of sugar in it, and not even taste salty? JB: Okay, you'd better go off the ice cream and onto the brownies, because, whereas this was as much sugar in a cup of ice cream, the one on this end here is as much sugar as there is in a brownie. A two-inch-square brownie. DD: And who sticks with a two-inch-square brownie? JB: Oh, no, it's not good until you've had two or three. And when it comes to sugars, you can find in some food products 2-3-4-5 different sugars, right? There'll be sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, any number of other sweeteners that are in one food item. DD: And the reason why some manufacturers apparently do this is you have to list ingredients in order of their prevalence in the product. So, even though sugar in its various forms may be the top ingredient, if you put five different sweeteners in there, you may be able to put the whole wheat first, even though it's only 10 percent whole wheat and 40 percent sugar. JB: Now, are there any sugars that are really pretty good for you? Because there's debates about high fructose corn syrup, and you read "cane sugar" or "dried cane sugar" or whatever. Can I look at that and go, oh, it's got that sugar; that's good for me? DD: The sweet things we were designed to enjoy are the fruits, the sweet vegetables, things of this nature. If you're getting those whole foods in nature, you can have those things satisfy the sweet tooth. No, it's not going to taste like the brownie or the ice cream- -not at first. But if you stick with eating those healthy sweets that God provided, in Genesis 1, you will find a distaste tends to develop for those artificially sweetened things. Whether it's "natural sugar" that's being used to sweeten it or some artificial sweetener. JB: Man, if you get some of those good dates, those Medjool dates they grow in Indio, California, around there. Oh, they're sweet and they're good. DD: In moderation, of course.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 9 JB: In moderation. Some Americans are eating this much salt. Two and a half teaspoons of salt in a day. Many. It is said that the average American is consuming maybe about this much. Maybe about this much. DD: One and a half teaspoons. JB: Whereas, what we should be consuming is merely this much. A teaspoon of salt a day, and no more. DD: No. And actually, although people have tried to downplay the relationship between salt and disease, a major study in the New England Journal of Medicine back in 2010 actually looked at all the data, and how many people in America are dying because of just having a half-teaspoon of salt more a day. In other words, if we were to decrease--all of us, across the board--decrease our sodium consumption, salt consumption, by just half a teaspoon, we would save tens of thousands of lives from things like stroke and heart attack. JB: From a biblical point of view, why we're driving at this is because Jesus wants us to have a more abundant life. And you say to yourself, well, yeah, I'm drinking three sodas a day. And I know people who carry around the Big Gulp things. They carry them with them, everywhere they go. I don't know how much they're getting--it's got to be killing them. Or you say, well, yeah, I'm eating lots of ice cream and all of that sugar that comes with it, and I'm getting the brownies and whatever. What you're advocating, when you say decreasing the amount of salt, you're not saying eat no salt, eat no sweet stuff; eat zero fat. Just make a little change here. Eat moderate amounts. Get more of the good and less of the bad, and perhaps start the change incrementally. I mean, it would be ideal for somebody to go cold turkey, off the bad and onto the good. It doesn't always work that way for people. But small changes can bring big results. DD: They can be powerful, and yet, the most powerful things to actually reeducate your taste are larger changes. JB: There is hope for you. And for me. And I'm glad, because Jesus not only wants to give us the more abundant life, but it is through Jesus--through the power of the Holy Spirit--that we can get from where we are, if perhaps we're living an unhealthy life. And with the power of God we can put down some of the stuff that's simply killing us, and take up the sorts of things that will enhance our lives, increase our lifespan, and give us a more productive, quality life while we're living here on this earth. Our time here on this earth is so short, we ought to be making the best of it, not ruining it. DD: Most definitely. JB: Our time on this program is short, too, Dr. DeRose. Thanks for joining me today. This has been a blessing.
It Is Written Script: 1295 Scriptural Solutions: You Are What You Eat (DeRose) Page 10 DD: It's always good to be with you. JB: And thank you for joining me. I want you to be encouraged today. Why did Jesus come? So that we might live. How does He want us to live? A more abundant life. That's what He offers you today. Why don't we pray together? Ask God for that life, and thank Him for it as well. Let's pray. PRAYER Our Father in heaven, we are grateful that Your thoughts toward us are for good. We are thankful that it's through Jesus, through Your power, with Your help, that we can have a more abundant life. I am thankful today that with Your help we can be the sorts of people You want us to be, and live the kind of life You want us to live. Lord, where we need help, give us that help; where we simply cannot do in us what You want to see done. We thank You today and we praise You, and we claim the more abundant life in Jesus. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It Is Written PO Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401 USA Tel: 423-362-5800 Fax: 1-877-507-3239 www.itiswritten.com