By Cherie Caborn
We pray for healing but what if it doesn’t come? Some people are healed and then their illness comes back, often because they returned to the lifestyle that made them ill. It’s time to look at our part in the healing process. What can we do? What is expected of us in addition to our faith and prayer for healing?
Drowning in a Bowl of Ice Cream
You just came from a church potluck and now you feel sick. Was it that you ate too much or was it what you ate? Food is a big focus in church groups—and everywhere we go actually— from family gatherings to social events. We’re always serving up food in this country and lots of it. We chuckle about our desserts and our cravings. But it isn’t a laughing matter. Often we are “digging our graves with our teeth.” We know about eating too much, but it isn’t just the amount of food we eat—it’s also what we eat.
The American diet is focused on sugar, fat, refined flour, and salt. Of those foods, sugar and refined carbs are now considered worse than fat. Journalists such as Gary Taubes and Mark Bitumen have found in their research that “sugar harms our body’s organs and also disrupts our hormonal cycles. They say that consuming sugar in excess is a primary cause of obesity and metabolic disorders like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”1 There are many maladies such as colds, flu, insomnia, fatigue, sinus problems, headaches, skin conditions, and immune system disfunction that are connected with what we eat, and sugar in particular. In my practice as a nutritionist, I’ve seen many conditions link back to sweets and refined foods. When people cut these foods out of their diet and start eating more vegetables and drinking vegetable juices and green smoothies, their maladies improve or go away.
Obstacles to Health
I could say that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are our biggest obstacles to health, but I actually think it’s our mindset that may be a bigger obstacle. How we think about food and the cravings we can’t seem to overcome trip us up. For others, it’s lack of knowledge about how important it is to eat whole foods and live foods, and to cut out the foods that aren’t life-giving.
In my latest book Sugar Knockout, I address the many conditions linked to poor diet choices, like inflammation, high cholesterol, ADD, ADHD, autism, aging, GERD, low thyroid, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. I know firsthand how diet can be an obstacle to good health. I developed chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia when I turned 30. I was so sick I could no longer work. Treks to doctors led me in a circle of frustration. No one knew what to do to help me improve my health. My condition couldn’t be cured with a prescription pad. I decided I had to do my own research, if I was going to get well. I discovered my diet was the major culprit in my illness. I knew I had to change everything about my diet if I had any hope of getting well. I ditched all sweets, most grains, meat, dairy, coffee, junk food, and fast food. (I’m not vegan today, but I was for a short time to heal.) I bought my first juicer and embarked on a 5-day vegetable juice fast. I then kept juicing and added in whole foods—lots of vegetables, brown rice, quinoa, nuts, seeds, beans, and good oils. It took three months of strict eating and juicing. One morning I woke up and felt like I’d been given a new body in the night. All my pain, fatigue, and other CFS symptoms were gone. What had happened? I’d given my body the nutrition it needed to heal and removed the foods and substances that hindered healing. When you detox your body and give it super nutrition, your body will do what God designed it to do—heal.
Lack of knowledge or education about healthy foods leads to poor nutrition, which leads to poor health.
“My people perish for lack of knowledge.”
Lack of knowledge or education about healthy foods leads to poor nutrition which leads to poor health. Do you have a few aches and pains, insomnia, headaches, or sinus problems you’ve just accepted as part of life, maybe as part of getting older? Or do you have a disease like diabetes or hypothyroid that you think will require medication for the rest of your life? This article certainly doesn’t offer a crash course in everything you need to know to turn your health around, but hopefully it will pique your interest and inspire you to want to learn more.
After I recovered from debilitating illness, I wanted to learn more and become a credible source of information. I went back to school and earned a graduate degree in whole foods nutrition. My mission became helping people learn how to make life-giving food choices. Twenty-nine books later, I’ve heard from people all over the world who have turned their health around through their own good choices.
But Does It Taste Good?
In many parts of the world, people are happy with simple food. We’re all about taste. We find a new recipe and the first question is “How does it taste?” Someone tells us about a veggie juice and we want to know if it tastes good. Do you worry about healthy food being flavorless? Food that’s good for you can taste great! We serve yummy raw food at our health retreats. Food that’s healthy doesn’t have to be bland. You just need good ideas and a few healthy recipes books.
Then there’s the cost factor. Are you thinking that eating healthy will cost a lot more? More organic items can be found at big box stores these days, and prices are down because of demand. When you give up chips, soda, snack foods, junk food, and sweets, you’ll have more money to spend on veggies to juice and make into green smoothies. Plus, when you get healthier, you will spend far less on over-the-counter and prescription medications. That’s a big savings! Many people have told me that once they started juicing, the whole family was healthier all winter long.
Supernatural Healing or Practical Action StepsSometimes Christians over-spiritualize healing when God has given us choices and wisdom in taking practical steps as well. Of course we believe in divine healing, but we also believe in taking care of the bodies God gave us and incorporating healthy habits. It’s a marriage of the supernatural with the practical. One is not more spiritual than the other. God has given us the “leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations.” We must do our part in the healing process. Can we really expect God to continually heal us when we are tearing down our bodies with poor food choices? Eating life-giving foods and praying for our health and healing go hand in hand. At our retreats when people eat a raw plant-based diet with three days of juice fasting, we see many healed during the week. It’s not either prayer or healing diet; it’s both.
I pray that you are inspired to learn more about making life-giving changes in your diet as you pray for your health to spring forth speedily, so you can enjoy vibrant health.
Notes1 Cherie Calbom The Juice Lady’s Sugar Knockout (Siloam) 2016
Cherie Calbom, M.S.N.Cherie is a leading authority on juicing for health and detoxification. Known as The Juice Lady, TV chef, and celebrity nutritionist, she has helped in pioneering the fresh juice movement around the world. A graduate of Bastyr University with a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition, Cherie is author of 29 books including The Juice Lady’s Sugar Knockout, The Anti-Inflammation Diet, The Juice Lady’s Big Book of Juices and Green Smoothies, and The Juice Lady’s Turbo Diet. She has worked as a nutritionist with George Foreman and Richard Simmons, and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows and in scores of magazine articles. Cherie and her husband hold health and wellness juice retreats yearly along with health cruises and workshops. You can sign up for her “Juicy Tips” Newsletter at www.juiceladycherie.com
