Friday, August 28, 2009

To use Grains, or not to use Grains- that is the question!

From a practical standpoint, I have NO grounds to argue this- in fact, I don't desire to argue this at all! I just want to offer a different point of view and something to THINK ON! ;-)

My DH is the one who pointed this out to me some time back and its a verse from the Bible. This first verse doesn't deal specifically with grainss, but its where I want to start.

1 Tim 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
.......1 Tim 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
1 Tim 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused
, if it be received with thanksgiving....

NOW, what's interesting here is; you see that word "meats"???? Well, it is translated and defined in the Greek as "that which is eaten, food, meat, victual". If this is "food" then this verse goes on to tell us that "nothing to be refused".

Ok, now, Jesus in a couple of places (John 6:35 and John 6:48) called Himself "the Bread of life". Now I only want you to think about that. If He used bread as an illustration of "life", don't you think bread and what it is made of was pretty important to that day?

And in the Lord's prayer, we are instructed to ASK for daily bread! Not daily meat or daily fruits and vegetables, but daily bread. (Again, I use this to support the notion that grains are not to be forbidden.)

I also was thinking about a verse that cautioned about staying too long at the wine table, but nothing about staying to long at the grain (carb) table. (Ok, I just threw that in to be funny!)

BTW, do you know the word "bread" is mentioned 361 times in 330 different verses? Fruit is mentioned 208 in 184 verses and some of those times it means fruit of the womb. The word "vegetables" isn't mentioned at all. 'Herbs' is mentioned 18 times, while 'herb is mentioned 19 times. 'Plants' is mentioned 8 times. 'Plant' is mentioned 42 times in 41 verses but is a verb in many of those. 'Corn' is mentioned 102 times in 94 verses. 'Wheat' is mentioned 51 times.
(Ok, that gets a little boring to some...)

Let's look at a few verses that talk about grains.
2 Sam 17:28 Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
2 Sam 17:29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine....
(See the food they brought? Legumes, dairy, and grains. BUT, the word pulse there does mean vegetables. Pulse is only mentioned 3 times in the Bible.)

In Gen 27:28, we see 'blessings' being pronounced and one of them being "plenty of corn". In Gen 27:31, we see him making savoury meat. Then on down in verse 37 we see this; "with corn and wine have I sustained him".

Do you remember what Joseph stored to prevent famine? Grains.
Gen 41:49 And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
Gen 42:1 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,
Gen 42:2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt:
Gen 42:3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
Gen 42:5 And the sons of Israel came to buy corn
Gen 43:2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn
Gen 44:2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money.
......Let's see, there's a famine, Egypt has corn, they keep going to buy corn...is corn all they are eating do you think? I'm not suggesting that we live off corn, just that it should not be forbidden.
Once Joseph's identity is known, here's what he does;
Gen 45:23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father

Here's a little funny but just to illustrate the importance of corn and grain;
Exo 22:6 If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
A law was made to protect it!

Corn seems to be recognized as pretty important;
Deu 7:13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Deu 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
Deu 33:28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn
Ruth 2:14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
(Grains were the food she went after to keep her and her mother-in-law from starving.)
2 Ki 4:42 And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
2 Ki 18:32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die:
Many places they tithed on their corn such as here,2 Chr 31:5.
Neh 5:2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.
Neh 5:3 Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
(They mortgaged their homes to buy corn!?!!?!)

Well, what about wheat?
Deu 8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
Deu 8:8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
Deu 8:9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness,
Judg 6:11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
Ruth 2:23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.
1 Ki 5:11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
1 Ki 5:12 And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.
(Wheat brings peace?!)
2 Chr 2:8 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants,
2 Chr 2:9 Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.
2 Chr 2:10 And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
(Wheat was part of the payment for the timbers needed to build the Temple!)
Psa 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Psa 147:14 He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

As you can see, grains were very important! (There's many more verses!) There were many times in the OT where God would punish through their grains; sending rain on wheat harvest day, sending enemies to destroy their corn.

As you seek to learn how to feed your family, please don't neglect the Word of God.
Prayerfully consider the first verse I mentioned in 1 Tim.4.
May God bless your homes and kitchens!

(I'm posting this link on Laura's blog in response to a question that she asked. Laura's been a great blessing to me! ..I love learning about eating healthier for the sake of my family. And I've loved NT and Eat Fat, Lose Fat and a host of others....but I love the Word of God more. Its authority is higher, therefore I feel it must be considered on this and all issues. God bless!)

Now, to soak or not to soak- leavened and unleavened bread- ....maybe I'll do a part two sometime....:-)

12 comments:

Laura@HeavenlyHomemakers said...

Great post Donna! Thank you so much for sharing this link! I've often thought about how many times "bread" and "grains" are used in the Bible, but I never realized there was SO much about it! Bring on the bread!!

Now, what do you find in there about chocolate? :)

Marnie said...

Hi Donna, thank you so much for posting. I agree wholeheartedly that grains are vital to life and should be eaten often. Although, it is so important for modern people to realize the importance of using freshly ground grains for bread.

Another thing that has been on my mind though, is that grains have been altered due to human intervention in our modern age. Many people have developed a host of allergies to grains. I don't think that was an issue in ancient times. Therefore, careful research on the which grains to use is essential. Spelt or Kamut are ancient grains that are great substitutes for wheat.

Organized Nutrition said...

Thanks so much for sharing!
This was a topic at church 2 weeks ago...
The pastor explained that JESUS used the word BREAD to discribe himself... DAILY BREAD "DAILY JESUS" That maybe he could have used FIG, or PEAR, but choose BREAD.... maybe because it nurishes the body so welll.... WHO KNOWS....
ALL I KNOW is I will continue to eat grains!!!!!!!!!!! YUM!

Donna said...

Laura- how I wish I could find chocolate! There's much about honey! :-)

Marnie,
Excellent points! If a non-hybrid wheat can be found- that would be better-- or organic as that's supposed to be non-hybrid. I have read that spelt is excellent however, where I get my wheat, spelt is almost 3times the price of wheat! But its worth it to keep looking for me or to try to save up my $$!

Denai,
The idea that first 'sold me' on wheat is Jesus saying that He was the Bread of Life! I knew it must be important, and much more than pour ole white flour!

He is truth and He is life!

Millie said...

Excellent Donna! Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

Toni said...

Hi!
I found you through Laura of Heavely Homemakers. I totally agree with the fact that we do need grains in our diet. We also did a study on the verses about Jesus being the bread of life. When made with pure wholesome ingredients bread is very good for us! Blessings,Toni

Donna said...

Milli and Toni,
Thanks so much for posting!
There's so many more things that could be added to this post.

I still keep thinking about Jesus feeding people "loaves and fishes". There just has to be something to that! :-)

..Think I need to come up with a recipe for a fish sandwich! We have eaten salmon patties on my homemade buttermilk buns! ;-)

David said...

Hi Donna,

Just stumbled on this post here, and read it with interest. I thought that I might give another perspective on the grain/wheat/bread issue.

I, like you, am a Christian, and have definitely spent some time wrestling with this issue, trying to see it in a way that makes sense of nutritional science, while at the same time remaining faithful to the Bible. I wrote a post about it on one of my blogs (back in January) and I would encourage you and your readers to take a look at it. You can find it here:

http://valetudoprovita.livejournal.com/3211.html

Blessings,

David

Donna said...

David,

Thank you so much for posting.
I read through your article and found it to be very interesting but it is in fact the viewpoint for which I did this particular post.

You see, when any form of science seems to contradict the Bible- the Bible should rule.

EX. They just found a skull that they claim is 1.8 million years old. That contradicts the time line in the Bible, therefore, science must be in error. The skull cannot be 1.8 million years old.

Now, I do agree with you about part of what you said. I do believe that it is PROCESSED wheat flour (usually known as WHITE FLOUR) is responsible for many many illnesses. But real wheat- unprocessed, unmodified, unrefined, etc. no, I don't think it is the culprit.

Soaking grains...I do that sometimes but I take more of this belief about it:
http://www.breadbeckers.com/phytic_acid_friend_or_foe.htm

That article also deals with phytic acid specifically and she has a degree in food science I think, so I value what she says but above that, I value what she concludes Biblically.

While I respect your views and I respect science, I refuse to allow the Bible to be over-ridden in my personal convictions on this. Likewise, food and diet and nutrition will not be my religion either...but I will seek information so as to feed my family as well as possible.

I do find the info on soaking very interesting. I also practice this from time to time, as I said, but after being almost healed completely of UC by doing nothing more than introducing wheat into my diet some years ago, I can't toss it out and I cannot find a Biblical reason to do so either.

Again, thank you for posting!
Blessings!
-Donna-

David said...

Hi Donna,

Thanks for taking the time to read over my article, and even though you disagree with my conclusions, I appreciate that you've disagreed graciously and with kindness.

Just a few thoughts, however (not for the sake of debate, but rather for clarity's sake).

1. I want to make extra clear that I hold the Bible to be supreme, and I hope I made that clear in my article. My discussion never stooped to the level of smearing God's good creation, and my prohibition on grains has more to do with therapeutic context than of any type of supposed "moral status" of the food in question. My comparative argument (under the "What if you had Liver Disease?" heading) brings this out, I hope. Certain foods are simply inappropriate in the context of specific diseases or conditions. If (for a variety of reasons) these types of preexisting conditions were not present 2-4,000 years ago, then this kind of dietary avoidance would be unnecessary. I believe I am being faithful to the Bible in this way, as I am not making a universal judgement that is in any way at odds with the Bible. I am not at odds with the Bible any more than a person with Celiac who refuses to eat gluten grains for his or her contextual health problems.

2. I read the article you linked to by Ms. Becker, and was especially interested to see what she had to say in the section on phytic acid (PA). Now I'm sure Ms. Becker is a very bright and fantastic person, but I was honestly disappointed in this article. The entire section on the benefits of phytic acid was presupposed by the assumption that PA is broken down by phytase in the intestine. She quotes the Journal of Nutrition study to prove her point, and then runs with it. However, upon looking up the original study, I discovered that it's a rat study! Rat studies should not be extrapolated to humans so carelessly. This is an embarrassing oversight on her part, as human intestines contain 30x less phytase than rat intestines, and are not comparable at all!

In fact, human intestines don't have enough phytase to break down PA at all, and PA reduces mineral absorption in humans without a doubt. This has been proven in feeding trial after feeding trial and isn't really disputed at all.

I don't say this to argue, but rather to say that the information in that article is certainly not what it seems, and it should be read cautiously.

I'm glad that you handle wheat so well, and I can't argue with anyone's personal experiences. No one thing works for everyone, and if something is working well for someone, I'd definitely encourage them to stick with it.

I wish you the best, and may God bless,

David

Donna said...

David,

I have written to see if someone from Breadbeckers could provide more information on her position.

I do understand that there are people with allergies and illness and such. Mrs. Becker deals with that on a CD to an extent.

I also understand that hybridization seems to have caused problems as well. (Therefore Marnie's suggestion above should be taken to heart-organic, non-hybrid, heirloom or spelt.)

But I think you can see from what I wrote in the original post, that my position is that it is not wisdom to take grains out of the diet. It is in fact, unBiblical. (1 Tim 4:3-4; meats being translated as victuals or food, not just meat.)

Jesus fed people loaves and fishes.
(Bread=grains)

It was blessing in the OT for grains to be "blessed" by God.
Would God bless and prosper and multiply things that were bad for us?

And the whole issue of soaking, I didn't get into on this article. This one was just dealing with removing grains from the diet.
Soaking would be leavened and unleavened bread I believe, and they did eat both. Leaven translates 'fermented, leavened' and unleavened is 'unfermented'. (Interesting to me especially, is that God forbid leaven or honey in the bread for an offering.)

That would take me about an hour or two to type up, run Scriptures and get into...perhaps I will sometime....

As believers, we all desire to hold God's Word as Final Authority. Can we do it if we are challenged? Can we do it if someone tells us that a certain verse means something else, or science contradicts it, or that it was only relevant to that 'culture'- when the Bible doesn't say that any of it was relevant to another culture?

I simply want to encourage those who read here, to examine the Bible FIRST! There is no verse to support doing away with grains. (Health may dictate it for some, but the Bible doesn't support the idea that no one should eat them at all.)

However, I will admit that due to OT, that I try to limit pork, and that science happens to back this up. But even when I didn't know that science knew anything about pork, I still wondered why God put that in there- there had to be something to it!

Likewise, there must be something to bread, grains, and yes, even wheat.

Science changes everyday. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Blessed be His Name!

Thank you for keeping a good spirit. Let's see if the Beckers have the time to chime in- I do hope so!!!

Unknown said...

Just a quick point: only the KJV translates that word "corn" since "corn" was the early modern English word for grain. Corn (maize) is native to South America, so Joseph would not have grown or gathered it. If you check other translations you'll see it rendered "grain" or "wheat." Even the 1599 Geneva Bible says "grain." So the Bible can't really answer the corn question.