February 25, 2013
Lent
During the early Middle Ages those observing Lent were forbidden to eat
meat, eggs and dairy for 40 days. I can relate to their Vegan experience
because in December my acupuncturist put me on the same diet. I wish I could
say that the last nine weeks have been a spiritually sacrificing experience, but
the reality is that I’m obsessing about the foods that I can’t have. The diet
restrictions, while a test of my will, have not brought me any closer to the
Lord. Certainly I would feel differently if it were the Lord who asked me to
sacrifice meat, eggs and dairy, rather that the acupuncturist. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us
continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess
his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others,
for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Heb 13:15-16 NIV)
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3 comments:
Gail;
-----Some particular health reason might be the only reason anyone could even possibly get me onto a vegan diet. And that only speaks to possibilities. The probabilities are strongly against it. Death is a doorway through which I would gladly escape senseless restrictions against good foods for reasons of only meaning. Life so brims with meaning that even good steaks and ham filled quiche (please don’t tell anyone I like quiche) and fat ole cheese stuffed chili peppers write poetry on the end of my tongue. The only need I might find to abandon such spice of life might be some psychological effect from its absence. But even psychology I understand well enough to choose my own avenues for its effects.
-----Veganism especially strikes me as some form of spiritual voodoo. My mom’s family are Seventh Day Adventists, of whom the more spiritual are vegetarians. Their restrictions against pork and rabbit and the likes comes from the Old Testament dietary laws, which are the only spiritual meanings I would consider applying to my dietary habits. But I don’t. They were for the Jews, whom I love immensely, but one of which I am not. God spread all sorts of loathsome critters before Peter to eat, telling him not to call unclean what He had made clean. So, I eat pink ham and bacon without problems of conscience, but not green.
-----I’ve always taken a “let’s cut to the chase” philosophy towards spirituality and psychology both. If I want to be good and feel good, then I focus on thinking well and doing good. The sense of abandoning a ham and cheese omelet just does not seem to relate to treating my neighbor with kindness and respect. In fact, all of my emotion restraining efforts may well get used up in resisting the omelet till I have none left to restrain me from calling anybody a pig for true faults they do have. If any courageous efforts of resistance are spiritually and psychologically beneficial to our health and survival, they are more importantly forgiveness and forbearance. And those just don’t strike me as having much to do with the absence of steak and eggs. “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” (Col 2:20-23)
-----And we all know the flesh’s greatest indulgence is in anything which puffs up the self.
But of course, you’re not living to get puffed by the philosophy of this acupuncturist. You’re just doing something that makes sense to you, and the vegan thing became a part of it. I have vegan friends with whom I eat veganly for their pleasure. Even these things do have some place in a good life.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Bad Steve! You just tempted me with ham, bacon and cheese. Trust me, my current Vegan diet is temporary and will not become a lifestyle. I will have to give testimony to the diet however. This last year my brother-in-law had a cancer mass in his esophagus, which turned out to be inoperable. This same acupuncturist put him on a Vegan diet because of the acidic levels in his body - apparently cancer spreads faster when your body is more acidic than alkaline. Today there is some cancer showing up in only one lymph node, but the tumor mass is completely gone…and he has lost over 60 pounds. The really good news is that my brother-in-law is now attending church with us, which I attribute to the cancer, not the diet.
Gail
Gail;
-----Whatever other effects come from what we do may be well and good, but the effect your brother-in-law encountered is the one that counts. Sooner or later our bodies will end, so our spirits need the church. In the meantime, your acupuncturist is so totally right. Life is complex, so there’s a couple things at work which veganism improves. Most immediate is the starvation of the cancer. Being out of control growth, cancer has an insatiable appetite for protein. Veganism reduces protein big-time. But the more long-term context in which that immediacy plays exactly involves the ph level of the blood. The body’s first objective is the maintenance of its cells. Acidity kills cells. The body engages a process to reduce acidity that consumes sodium. When sodium begins to deplete, it uses potassium. When that’s consumed it burns through magnesium, until it finally is using calcium. All of these substances are important to the immune system, which is the first line of defense against cancer cells. But high acidity is an immediate cell killer, so the materials important to the immune system goes to that fight first. Then cancer gets its chance to catch on, after which, reducing protein becomes the game. Being a woman, I think maybe you can reason to the end another problem the body encounters from battling high acidity. When the free supply of calcium runs short, the body starts leaching it from the bones.
-----When cancer is in full process, a meat free diet is important. But absent the cancer, reducing the serving size of meat and other protein rich foods to about a third of the usual size we eat and doubling the fruits and vegetables will eliminate the blood’s propensity to go acidic, therefore sparing all those minerals for other uses. Be aware that grains (including corn) and bovine dairy products also tend the blood towards acidity. Breads, cakes, pastry, and anything corn must go on the “reduce intake” list. And eat lots of red. Red cabbage, red onions, red peppers, red chard and the likes have a good cancer preventing substance. If I recall correctly, it has to do with what makes the red pigmentation.
Steve
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