THANK HEAVEN FOR SACRED FOODS

Over the weekend, there was a Confirmation in our family.   The pastor at the service shared a fable about a farmer who wanted to save some money by feeding his donkey saw dust in place of his regular food.  The farmer increased his ratio of saw dust for food gradually, not noticing any ill effects to his donkey, until the rations were all sawdust.  When the donkey died, the farmer seemed perplexed with the cause of the donkey's demise, so the story went.

The pastor brought the moral down to being watchful of what one adds to their life--as in good food, good thoughts, good deeds, etc.; my husband, later sharing his view of the story, claimed the farmer was just a cheap business man who was so trying to keep all the profits, he killed the product; my thoughts hogtied the food issue, of course.  Isn't this what has happened in our food industry, I thought?  Isn't this why our food is full of ingredients we can't pronounce and devoid of any life-giving content?  And finally, has anyone taken any notice of this in this church, or anywhere, but me?

Sadly, I probably was the only one who even went to that issue when food was, in fact, the issue. Interesting to be in a place of worship when what we ingest was the topic.  Once upon a time, people all over the planet saw foods as SACRED.  Yes, sacred.  That's why there were so many ceremonies wrapped around them, why foods were usually involved in all ceremonies and festivities, and why many foods were called SACRED FOODS.

Weston A. Price traveled the world and found out what those sacred foods were--he even wrote a book about it.   If you haven't already, check it out on the bottom left.  Sally Fallon's, Nourishing Traditions (where I got my blog name idea), is a cookbook filled with many of those sacred foods.  Certain foods were thought to be sacred because indigenious people worshiped these foods by observing their blessed effects on the bodies of their children.  They noticed that with these sacred foods their babies were born healthy, had round faces with adequate room for all their teeth to come in (no need for braces--is that even heard of anymore?) and free of cavities, and robust health, both physical and emotional.

Imagine children with warm color in their cheeks, no circles under their eyes, beautiful smiles, happy dispositions, high intelligence, with no attention deficit problems or hyperactivity; children with round faces (not pointy chins, sadly, like myself and my children) with adult teeth that come in perfectly spaced, bright, pearly white, and immune to dental decay (even if you DIDN'T brush and floss); children that have perfect eyesight, great hearing with no ear infections, beautiful blemish-free skin, shiny hair, and strong, lean bodies  (without joining every sport offered).

This would be Heaven, but not Earth, you say.  This WAS Heaven on Earth before modern foods!  Please, please do yourself and your family a favor, and go to www.westonaprice.org and look at the beautiful specimens of that Heaven on Earth.  They were the Adams and Eves we thought only existed before Eve grabbed that apple.  The real evil was not knowledge, but walking away from our knowledge.  We humans had the intuitive instinct that guided us towards what to eat to keep ourselves healthy and happy; we followed these principles body and soul.  Sadly, today this knowledge seems obscured...coming around, but still quite under the radar.

This knowledge is slowly coming back into the mass consciousness, but marketing is still king, and our taste buds still rule.  As long as there are ingredients in modern foods that fool (and cheat) our taste buds, our bodies will still fall victim to the malefic effects of modern food.  Today, however, I was happily surprised to read an article on, drum roll please....kefir!  Perhaps there is still hope.

Native Americans believed that what we do today affects the next seven generations.  In fact, Seventh Generation, a green company, uses this slogan for their earth-friendly products.  Today's children can benefit, with some amazing results, from the sacred foods of our ancestors.  Perhaps the "heaven on Earth" will take a few more generations to attain the ideal we once lived; but if we can pass on one thing to the next generation,  let it be that what we put in our bodies must truly sustain us--in a sacred way.  We might even see a few more healthy donkeys.