Good health is important, and the physical and spiritual aspects of life affect each other. When one suffers, so does the other; when one improves, the other follows. The American diet has been described as too much and too little. We consume too much sugar and alcohol, while getting too few fresh fruits and vegetables, exercise, pure water, and self-control. This imbalance contributes to a national problem with obesity, which is linked to twenty diseases, some of them major afflictions. Self-control, a fruit of God's Spirit, is essential in addressing these issues. Educating oneself on health principles involves studying personal differences, as some individuals have low tolerance for certain foods like spices, fruits, vegetables, dairy, chocolate, sweets, or alcohol. Despite enjoying their flavors, consuming them can lead to discomfort, requiring limits to be set. Patience is critical, as recovery from poor health conditions may take years, though diligent and patient application can speed the body's repair process.

As we are learning, a perfect storm regarding health issues is building. Virtually all purity, as compared to the way things were when God created Adam and Eve, is lost. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are constantly becoming more defiled. If we fear God, we cannot ignore the warnings and flags being raised about these dangers, because He has given us a charge to glorify Him in our body and spirit, which are His. How can we glorify God in our body if we are knowingly feeding it poison? The problem with food contamination began to surface in the early sixties with the pasteurization of milk, a poor nutritional substitute for raw milk, impacting public health. In the seventies, warnings emerged about fruits and vegetables contaminated with pesticides and insecticides, alongside fluoridation and chlorination of water, and chemical additives in food for coloring, preserving, and enhancing taste. These toxins are difficult for our bodies to eliminate, leading to increased occurrences of degenerative diseases. Now, hybridization and genetic manipulation pose an insidious danger. Modern hybridized wheat, planted since the 1970s, triggers obesity and celiac diseases by artificially stimulating appetite. The average American is now 20 pounds heavier than in 1990, with projections of an additional 40 pounds by 2020, making the United States the most obese nation on earth. GMO corn, with its insect-killing Bt gene, is a major threat, banned in most European countries for its danger to human health, yet 50% of corn grown in the United States is GMO. This corn, along with GMO soybeans, is fed to cattle, passing the Bt gene into the meat we consume. Many processed foods contain GMO grains, transferring these risks to us. Additionally, GMO products include sugar beets, potatoes engineered with vaccines, tomatoes, papayas, zucchini, yellow squash, cotton, rapeseed for oil, and even aspartame, an artificial sugar produced through genetic combining. A GMO salmon is also on the horizon. Dairy cattle injected with the rGBH hormone further compound the issue. These products are widely available, yet labeling is banned, leaving consumers blind to the dangers. Avoiding them requires careful searching and higher prices for organic options, which many cannot afford, and growing one's own food is often impractical due to space and time constraints.

Ancient physicians recognized the vital importance of diet in preventing diseases. In the treatment of disease, the Hippocratic school attached great importance to diet, with the variations necessary in different diseases being minutely defined. Medicines were regarded as of secondary importance, but not neglected. In chronic cases, diet, exercise, and natural methods were chiefly relied upon. It should be a doctor's primary duty to teach people how to live in a healthy way, not to try to cure them after they become sick.