Meat Consumption Is Destroying Planet. Bananas. Update.

For Scripture Sunday:

Meat Consumption Is Destroying Planet, Says New Study

“Scientists say livestock production has 'major negative effects on the environment'”

Cows on a feedlot being raised for beef.

Cattle used for beef are commonly fattened up in feedlots, which force animals to live in filthy, overcrowded conditions, and consume inappropriate feed that causes health problems. They are subjected to painful mutilations without painkillers, including “branding,” which scorches third-degree burns into the animals’ flesh; castration; and de-horning, which is the removal of sensitive, nerve-filledhorns.

Eating meat has a number of negative side effects

Eating meat has a substantial effect on people's health, and livestock production can have major negative effects on the environment, according to new research published today in the journal Science.

The data shows that average per capita consumption - as well as total consumption amount - are rising as a result of the growing global population and increasing average incomes. While consumption of many meats has fallen in the UK over recent years, it is rising is countries like China.

Scientists have labeled this a worry, with review co-author Prof Tim Key - an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford - telling The Guardian: "What's happening is a big concern and if meat consumption goes up further it's going to be massively more so. On a broad level you can say that eating substantial amounts of meat is bad for the environment."

Health

Speaking about health, the study says: "In high-income Western countries, large prospective studies and meta-analyses generally show that total mortality rates are modestly higher in participants who have high intakes of red and processed meat. The strongest evidence of a specific adverse effect is the increased risk of colorectal cancer with high intakes of processed meat."

Going on to discuss the impact of animal agriculture on the planet, it adds: "Meat production is the single most important source of methane, which has a relatively high warming potential but a low half-life in the environment compared with that of CO2. Careful management of grassland systems can contribute to carbon storage, but the net benefits are likely to be relatively modest.

"Agriculture uses more freshwater than any other human activity, with nearly a third required for livestock, so meat production in water-stressed areas is a major competitor with other uses of water, including that required to maintain natural ecosystems."

Intakes of certain types of meat are linked with increased incidences of some cancers

Stimulating change

While the health and environmental impacts of meat consumption need to be considered, more evidence is needed, more 'effectiveness of different interventions to influence food selection' is needed, says the report.

While Governments use economic arguments to shape food policy, 'there is less agreement over the degree to which the state should use health, environmental, or animal welfare considerations to control the supply of meat through interventions that affect the production, sale, processing, and distribution of meat and meat products or the price to the consumer' say scientists.

The report adds: "Policy-makers are increasingly grappling with the economic, health, and environmental consequences of rising meat consumption. It is not clear the degree to which policy-makers have the societal license to intervene to influence meat consumption, and if they do, what interventions might be effective. These issues are particularly complex given the multiple narratives about eating meat that influence everyone’s behavior."  From: https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/meat-consumption-destroying-planet-new-study       

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Bananas  

An Amazing Fact: “Bananas are a fruity miracle. They are colorful, nutritious, not to mention the amusing shape is easy to hold, peel, and eat. Bananas also contain three natural sugars—sucrose, fructose, and glucose—combined with a healthy dose of fiber. When a hungry person eats a banana they receive an almost instant and sustained boost of vigor. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. This is why bananas are the favorite fruit of Olympic athletes.

In fact, compared to an apple, a banana has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of most affordable fruits around. So maybe it's time to change that well-known proverb to "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Studies have shown that bananas can also help overcome or prevent a substantial array of illnesses and conditions ranging from depression, heartburn, and anemia, to stroke and morning sickness. Around the world different parts of the banana plant are used for clothing, paper, and tableware, and the skin of the banana is used to heal everything from insect bites to warts. Indeed, the banana appears almost perfectly designed for human consumption and distribution. It is difficult to conceive of a more practical blueprint for the ideal fruit.

Have you noticed the banana has no seeds? Amazingly the banana is a mutant; it is the result of the cross pollination of two almost inedible Asian fruits. The banana is a freakish genetic amalgamation; one that has survived through the centuries due to the sustained intervention of diligent humans. These fragile fruits can only be cloned from suckering shoots and cuttings taken from the underground stem of existing plants.

Over time, Arab traders carried the new wonder fruit to Africa, and Spanish conquistadors brought them to the Americas.
So if you have ever pictured Adam and Eve savoring bananas in the Garden of Eden you better think again. Bananas only happen through man participating with God’s creation.

This is also true regarding the fruit of the Spirit. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). I wonder what types of fruit will be on the tree of life in heaven.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2

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Update.   

Well, not really one, as not much has been done around here.  Just the usual mowing, weedwhacking, raking and everyday stuff.  A few more boxes of stuff sorted out to donate the next time I go to Conroe.

I was taking my computer to a gentleman from our church for him to fix the noisy fan in it.  I had to do an emergency stop on the way, it slid forward and banged against something else in my van.  When I got there, the fan was no longer noisy!  Easy fix!

An electrician man, and I will not call him a gentleman, came to look at the open ground in the mini-house.  I don’t want to be around him again, but he said that I need a new breaker box outside.  So I will have to find someone more respectful to do the work.  I wish we had an elecrician in our church!

As I still had 3 lb of that cooked ground beef in my freezer, the Pastor’s wife and I decided, well, she did, that it should be made into a Shepherd’s Pie for the Sabbath potluck.   So, on Friday, I defrosted the meat, reheated it in some Bisto gravy, separated the meat from the gravy, and mashed some potatoes.   But couldn’t assemble it until I got to the church because I didn’t have a big enough pan.  

Now usually, after I have mashed the potatoes, I use the hand masher to pick up the potatoes, bit by bit, to plop them over the meat.  It seems to keep them airy and light, so I did all that at the church, after adding a few peas and sliced carrots to the meat for color.  As you know, I am from the land of Mashed Potatoes and Shepherd’s Pie, Britain, and it never seems to taste right unless it is made with Bisto Gravy Powder from Britain, which I had.  Then the gravy was kept warm in a little crockpot, because if you have too much gravy the potatoes get soggy.   It was very good, according to the people at church.  There was also lasagne, a great big brisket, and lots of veggies, cakes and cookies.  I think the Sabbath is a ‘cheat day’ for all of us! 

The Bible readings were Deut. 3:23-7:11, Isa. 40:1-26, Mat. 23:31_30, and Mark 12:28-34.  The Teaching was about ‘Spiritual Surgery’, how it is painful, but healing.

Well,  I wish I could park my van in the shade at church, but it is too far to carry everything.  It is August, so we are having 100° days.

Transatlantic Turmoil Escalates. Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey? Update.

 

For “Scripture Sunday”

Transatlantic Turmoil Escalates

“For 70 years now the military and economic partnership between the United States and Western Europe has produced unparalleled peace and prosperity. Now a growing rift threatens that alliance, and many question whether it can or should survive. Where will this divide lead?

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Donald Trump shortly after he took office, the new U.S. president, according to officials, immediately stirred the pot, brashly declaring, “Angela, you owe me a trillion dollars.”

That was his estimate of what Germany agreed to contribute to its own defense under a North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrangement versus what it actually spent over the past 14 years.

Since then, Mrs. Merkel has issued her own barbs that Europe can no longer count on the United States and must take matters into its own hands.

The divide between these two leaders has often been painfully visible, as Mr. Trump has made the German chancellor one of his favorite rhetorical targets, often assailing Germany’s anemic defense, trade and migrant policies.

At the NATO summit in July the president raised the level of contention, shellacking Germany for being “totally controlled by Russia” because of its dependence on the Kremlin’s monopoly on energy.

Labeling the EU “a foe” on trade

“Since the Soviet collapse,” according to The Economist, “the sense of threat has receded and the barriers to working together have risen.” Because of this, “the Western alliance is in trouble. That should worry Europe, America and the world.”

Foreign Policy went even further, announcing, “RIP [Rest in Peace] the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, 1945-2018.”

Differing priorities, divergent beliefs and clashing political cultures have fueled a dangerous escalation in the war of words. President Trump lashed out at the European Union for allegedly ripping off the U.S. on trade and freeloading on security. He even stated that the EU is “a foe” on trade, “set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker—whom Mr. Trump has also sharply disparaged—voiced Europe’s need “to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigor, and because of it, in the long term, influence.”

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, echoed that blast, chastising the American president by saying:

• “With friends like that [President Trump], who needs enemies?”
• “He is on a mission against what we stand for.”
• “Dear America, appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many.”

Economic giants across the Atlantic

Because nearly one-third of the global trade in goods occurs between the EU and the United States, a transatlantic rift morphing into a trade war would have enormous impact. U.S.-EU trade totaled nearly $1.1 trillion in 2016, with the U.S. running a trade deficit with the EU of $92 billion that year.

The EU’s 500 million consumers make it America’s largest export market. It buys nearly $270 billion in goods from the U.S.—more than twice the total U.S. exports to China—and over $230 billion in services. With over 70 percent of all foreign direct investment into the U.S. coming from the EU (a figure that has doubled in the last 15 years), Europe is also the largest investor in the American economy. (Though the numbers for the EU will change with Brexit, the percentages for all of Europe remain the same.)

Quarrels between friends

Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/discern/september-october-2018/transatlantic-turmoil-escalates/?

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Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey?

“Many believe Jesus taught that Old Testament laws were canceled or replaced.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/QUqMSPQ8jS8

Transcript:

[Steve Myers] “If you’re like me you love a discount. I love a deal. You never know what might be waiting on the often overlooked shelves and corners of a thrift store. It’s always interesting, sometimes entertaining and occasionally an educational experience.

A while ago I stopped by a local thrift shop and began my search. I was looking through all kinds of oddities hoping I might find something valuable.

Then it caught my eye. It wasn’t a useless trinket, a broken gadget or an old knickknack. It wasn’t just any old junk item. There it was on a shelf amid the clutter of discarded decorations and cast-off curios. It seemed to me to be a priceless possession, but it was marked with a blue sticker that read only one dollar!

It was a charming plaque inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the law of God, certainly worth more. After all they are God’s guidelines to a successful life, yet marked for only a buck.

This brought a question to my mind, “How much is God’s law worth to me?” What price do you place on God’s law?

The decoration reminded me that the most widespread controversy about the teachings of Jesus concerns God’s law. Do you think that Jesus’ instructions in the New Testament discounted or replaced the teachings of the Old Testament?

Most churches and denominations believe Jesus brought new doctrine that was very different from the instructions of the Old Testament. Many believe that Christ did away with the teachings of the Old Testament, in a sense casting them off to the thrift shop.

So, what exactly does Jesus have to say about the law? Has he relegated it to a quaint plaque? You need to know the surprising answer, “Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey?””

Continued at: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/which-commandments-do-christians-have-to-obey

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Update.

Zack, my neighbor, and I managed to clean off and move the yard sale tables back into the 10 x 20’ storage tent. The company settled about sending the wrong size top for it, and I will just have to make do with it. But this time we didn’t put the end flaps down, so the breeze is blowing through there all the time.  It is so much easier to just walk in it than having to put down whatever, and unzip the front panel to get in.  The carport looks so much better, as we took down all the plastic sheeting walls, too.  We used some of the plastic to cover the items on the tables in there so they wouldn’t get dusty.

We also cemented the Formica back splashes in the mini-house kitchen.  I am getting so tired of working on that place, now I need to put in a whole new breakerbox, as the old one is really outdated, but better safe than sorry.  I have had one house burn down, and I sure don’t want to go through that again.

Most of the last two weeks have been taken up with learning more about nutrition in ten 2-hour webinars each week.  Now that two hours cuts out quite a bit of the day, so I became really behind with my online jobs, or even getting stuff listed for sale.   Taking Lauri places until she can go for her TX driving test on the 30th. takes up time too.

On the 11th, as I had planned to go to two Willis churches, I made zucchini and yellow squash for the first church’s potluck, and egg salad for the afternoon church.  At the morning church, the Bible readings were Num. 33:1-36:13, Jer. 2:4-28, 3:4, and James 4:1-12.  The Teaching was about “Our Father”.   I gobbled down a few veggies at the potluck, and then went on to the afternoon church.  The Teaching there was “Do You Not Know?”  We have such easier access to the Bible, but are we more spiritual?  You know about God, but do you know God?

On the 18th, to the morning church, I took long strips of roasted yellow squash done in the air fryer with only 1/2 teaspoon of avocado oil and some seasonings.  I made more egg salad, but this time there wasn’t any minced onion or red bell pepper in it as some folks don’t like them.

The Bible readings were Deut. 1:1-3:22, Isa. 1:1-27. and Acts 9:1-21 and 1 Tim 3:1-7, and the Teaching was “Common or Unclean” about when Peter said he had not eaten anything common or unclean. Then it tells that the Jews were eating with the Gentiles, which was unheard of, and God made all men clean, no matter who they are.  In other words, do not a racist be!  I didn’t make it to the afternoon church.

Thank you all!  On the 17th, my FaceBook page came alive with greetings for yet another birthday.

A Matter of Health? Influenza. Update.

For Scripture Sunday:

A Matter of Health?

“Do science and medicine help us better understand why the Bible designates some animals as unfit for human consumption?  However, theological as well as medical researchers have recognized the benefits of following the health laws of Scripture.

  Sweet Ice Cream Photography/Unsplash

Are distinctions between clean and unclean meats a matter of health? Can consuming animals classified as unclean bring immediate or long-term harm to our health?

Why did God, in the Scriptures, distinguish between clean and unclean meats—the animals people may or may not eat? Is there more to the story? Can we find a health connection?

The specific reason God gave the Israelites for forbidding them to eat any unclean animals or even touching their carcasses was to “be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45). Here God does not distinguish between clean and unclean animals specifically for health’s sake.

However, the larger context of Leviticus and Deuteronomy includes many issues of health and hygiene. The four chapters of Leviticus that follow the listing of clean and unclean meats deal with precautions after childbirth and the means to identify and eliminate the spread of communicable diseases. So the distinctions between clean and unclean meats appear in a context of health and well-being.

Are distinctions between clean and unclean meats a matter of health? Did God reveal them as health guidelines for the ancient Israelites and, by extension, for people today? Can consuming animals classified as unclean bring immediate or long-term harm to our health?

Scholars offer their view

Many factors such as diet, genetic makeup, environment, exercise and good and bad habits affect our health. However, theological as well as medical researchers have recognized the benefits of following the health laws of Scripture.

Commenting on Leviticus 11-15, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states: “In general it can be said that the laws protected Israel from bad diet, dangerous vermin, and communicable diseases. Only in recent days have better laws of health been possible with the advance of medicine. These were rule-of-thumb laws that God gave in his wisdom to a people who could not know the reason for the provision…

“The Hebrew was not only to avoid eating unclean animals; he was not to touch their dead carcasses. Thus the laws automatically helped control vermin. Common unclean animals would be spiders, flies, bugs, rats, and mice. A dead rat in a Hebrew house was not overlooked. It was carefully taken out and buried. In an effort to avoid such problems, the Hebrew housewife would normally keep a clean house…

“It is, of course, true that some cultures have adopted similar rules out of sad experience. The [Old Testament] did not get its taboos from surrounding cultures, but some other cultures in later times adopted by experience some of these taboos…The laws were wonderfully fashioned by God for the general health of the nation” (R. Laird Harris, Vol. 2, 1990, p. 569).

Theology professor Roland Harrison writes: “The classification of animal species into clean and unclean categories (Leviticus 11:1-47) is significant because, being part of the Pentateuchal medical code, it constituted the basis of dietary regulations that are still adhered to by orthodox Jews and by those Gentiles who are concerned with maintaining good physical health.

“This categorizing is also important in view of the fact that it is unique in the annals of Near Eastern literature because its emphasis is not so much upon the avoidance of magical practices associated with certain animal species as upon the positive delineation of dietary principles intended to insure the physical well-being of the individual and the nation alike through a consistent [preventative] approach” (Introduction to the Old Testament, 1999, p. 603).

Doctors offer their view

Do the health laws of the Bible have a foundation in medical fact? S.I. McMillen, M.D., and David E. Stern, M.D., summarize their view of the laws God revealed to the Israelites: “For centuries epidemics had killed thousands of Egyptians and Hebrews. Ancient treatments rarely helped. Often the ‘cure’ was worse than the diseases. Yet here [Exodus 15:26] God made a fantastic promise—freedom from diseases.

“God then gave Moses many health rules, filling a whole section of the Bible…Moses recorded hundreds of health regulations but not a single current medical misconception.

“Thousands have died through the centuries, however, because doctors ignored the biblical rules. Finally, when doctors read and tried these guidelines, they quickly discovered how to prevent the spread of epidemics. Thus Moses could be called the father of modern infection control. Even today we are still benefiting from God’s 3,500-year-old instructions” ( None of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21st Century, 2000, p. 11).

Rex Russell, M.D., adds: “As we look at modern science and nutrition, we will find that…there is an amazing overlap between God’s original laws of clean and unclean and solid hygienic principles…Scripture and medical research agree that modern lifestyles lived without reference to God’s laws and design shorten life and hasten death” ( What the Bible Says About Healthy Living, 1999, pp. 14, 16).

Nutritionist David Meinz says that, even though we may not understand all aspects of the biblical dietary laws, we would be wise to follow them.

“Much of the wisdom revealed in the Bible now makes sense to us from our modern perspective,” he says, “but should that mean we won’t consider the areas that haven’t yet been scientifically proven?

“We’ve only discovered that animal fat is bad for us in the last 50 years. To the Christian a century ago, the directive in Leviticus 3:17 to avoid animal fat made no sense at all. Yet it’s clear to us today. What if there’s something in lobster that’s harmful to our health? What if we don’t discover what it is until 50 years from now? Do we require scientific proof before we give the Bible the benefit of the doubt?” ( Eating by the Book, 1999, p. 226).

Reginald Cherry, M.D., comments on why medical doctors and researchers have come to agree with the Bible’s instruction not to eat fat.

“Why is this prohibition against fat so important for us?” he asks. “Over 53 percent of people in large industrialized countries die of heart disease. Heart disease is most commonly caused by fat deposits that build up in the arteries, often beginning in the teenage years” ( The Bible Cure, 1998, p. 34, large-print edition).

Cultural taboos or divine revelation?

If some of the Bible’s dietary regulations have been shown to offer proven health benefits, what might that tell us about its other instructions? Dr. Cherry continues: “…The Old Testament…overflows with many revelations from God about hygiene, healthy foods, and the…prevention of diseases. As a medical doctor specializing in preventative medicine, I find the Old [Testament] fascinating and intriguing. Throughout its ancient Hebrew text, one finds many unveiled secrets and mysteries concerning what we should eat, how to avoid contaminated and diseased objects, and what natural substances can be used to effect healing…

“The Hebrews did not seek to know more about anatomy, science, or the natural order as did their counterparts in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Greece. Quite the contrary. Anything that might be uncovered in the ancient Hebrew texts of the Bible had to come to them through divine, supernatural knowledge revealed by God. So what we shall unearth from the Old [Testament] does not arise from human speculations on health and medicine but rather from God’s particular Word to us about his pathway of healing for us—His creation. As Creator, God knows more about our bodies, His creation, than we could ever discover either through philosophy or science…

“The lists of clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 have a significance often ignored. Far from being a catalog of food taboos based on fad or fancy, these lists emphasize a fact not discovered until late in the last century [the 1800s] and still not generally known: Animals carry diseases dangerous to man” (pp. 27, 30, 39).

Health risk to humans?

Dr. Russell asks, “What is so good about ‘clean’ meats, and what is so bad about ‘unclean’ meats?” He goes on to explain that “the flesh of clean animals such as beef, and fish that have scales and fins, is ideal for the health of humans—just as we would expect from the hand of a loving Creator…Many land animals God designed for food provide an additional benefit in that they generally eat grasses and grains that were also designed for food” (Russell, pp. 73-74).

In contrast, David Meinz summarizes the potential health risk of eating creatures the Bible classifies as unclean. “Almost all of the creatures on the unclean list are scavengers,” he notes. “In many cases they don’t hunt for their own food; they eat the dead and decaying matter of our environment. A catfish does that at the bottom of a pond; lobsters and shrimp do it in the ocean. A pig will eat anything. Vultures, almost by definition, are known for their scavenger habits” (Meinz, p. 225).

Dr. Russell notes that “an animal doesn’t have to be a scavenger to be unclean. Horses and rabbits, for example, are unclean because they do not have split hooves. Although they are considered to be good food in some countries, studies have shown that horse meat often contains viruses and parasites. Rabbits, as innocent as they appear, are the cause of tularemia (an infectious disease) in humans.

“One reason for God’s rule forbidding pork is that the digestive system of a pig is completely different from that of a cow. It is similar to ours, in that the stomach is very acidic. Pigs are gluttonous, never knowing when to stop eating. Their stomach acids become diluted because of the volume of food, allowing all kinds of vermin to pass through this protective barrier. Parasites, bacteria, viruses and toxins can pass into the pig’s flesh because of over-eating. These toxins and infectious agents can be passed on to humans when they eat a pig’s flesh” (Russell, p. 76-77).

Don Colbert, M.D., adds: “Besides being gluttons, swine are also extremely filthy animals. They will eat garbage, feces, and even decaying flesh. All that is eaten usually becomes part of the pig’s own flesh…Aside from the diseases routinely carried by swine, pork is also a very fatty meat. The toxins in pork are held especially in the fat, which is not isolated from the meat as can be the case in lean beef, but rather, it is dispersed throughout the meat” ( What Would Jesus Eat?, 2002, pp. 49-50).

Poison on a plate?

Dr. Russell’s supporting evidence for his views isn’t for the faint of heart. He writes: “In the United States, three of the six most common food-borne parasitic diseases of humans are associated with pork consumption. These include toxoplasmosis, taeniasis or cysticercosis (caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium) and trichinellosis…

“It has long been recognized that the meat of shellfish—shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.—is especially dangerous. Many illnesses, including instant paralysis, devastate some people every day as a result of eating shellfish.

“The largest cholera outbreak in the United States occurred in Louisiana from August through October 1986. (The symptoms of cholera are explosive diarrhea, leading to rapid dehydration, unconsciousness, hypotension and death.) What did the stricken people eat? The incriminating meals were found to include rice noodles with shrimp, pork, vegetables, mussel soup, pig blood coagulated with vinegar, and salty brine shrimp with mixed vegetables.

“Shellfish can be placed in a body of water that is contaminated with cholera bacteria, and they will purify the water. Shrimp, oysters, crab, scallops and mussels are particularly efficient at this. They filter large volumes of water every day. Sewage laden with chemicals, toxins and harmful bacteria, parasites and viruses become concentrated in those shellfish. The cause of cholera outbreaks in several areas has been traced to contaminated shrimp, crab, oysters and clams.

“Reading all this, you might not be surprised to learn that the state Legislature of California proposed a law requiring the food industry to label shellfish with a message warning: ‘This food may be dangerous to your health.’ Why? In a single year, 50 deaths and many hospitalizations were found to have been caused by eating shellfish” (Russell, pp. 78-79).

What purpose do they serve?

If such creatures weren’t designed to be eaten, why did God create them? Dr. Russell explains: “For one thing, they serve a useful role just cleaning up the place. Many unclean animals, however, notably pigs and shellfish, are unhealthy because their diet consists of society’s disease-laden refuse.

“Pigs have eaten Philadelphia’s garbage and sewage for more than 100 years, saving the city $3 million a year in landfill costs. This is a wise use of hogs. They are designed to clean our environment.

“Even when stacked in cages, piglets thrive on offal when only the pig in the top cage receives food. Farmers have increased their profits by feeding free raw sewage to pigs. Chicken farmers often keep a hog so they can dispose of dead chickens without having to bury them” (Russell, p. 81).

Some species of fish and shellfish perform a similar role in the water. Dr. Russell notes that “among commonly eaten fish, catfish…always show the highest levels of contamination in chemically polluted water. After chemical spills, local fishermen are warned not to eat catfish” (ibid.).

Even commercially raised catfish are a potential health risk, he notes. “Consumer Reports tested fish bought in multiple markets in the United States. Fish are considered spoiled when bacteria counts are greater than 10 million per gram of flesh. Nearly all catfish had counts that went off the scale at 27 million per gram, even when properly prepared” (ibid.).

Dr. Russell’s conclusion? “Although swine help clean the earth, and shellfish and catfish are ideally designed to purify the water, we don’t want to eat what they clean up!” (ibid.)

In light of such seldom-publicized facts, we can better understand and appreciate God’s words through Moses: “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 12:28).

May we all be careful to “discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23).”  From: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/what-does-the-bible-teach-about-clean-and-unclean-meats/a-matter-of

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Influenza

An Amazing Fact: “Most people think the deadliest plague in history was the bubonic plague that killed two million victims a year. Actually, the deadliest plague occurred in the 20th century! And it started right here in the USA. It was the influenza of 1918 that hit right after World War I.

The war killed nine million men in four years, but this killer flu took at least 25 million lives in one year. In the first year, nearly 20 million cases were reported in the United States alone, accounting for almost one million deaths. That’s more than were killed during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.

It all started on March 11, 1918, at Camp Funston, Kansas, when a company cook reported to the infirmary with typical flu symptoms. By noon, 107 soldiers were sick. Within two days, 522 people were sick, many gravely ill with severe pneumonia, the deadliest part of the sickness. Reports started coming in from other military bases. Within a week, every state in the Union had been infected by this airborne killer. In two months it spread to South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The United States had the lowest death toll. But a large percentage of the Eskimo population was wiped out in Nome, Alaska. Eighty to 90 percent of the Samoan population was infected, many survivors dying from starvation, too weak to feed themselves. The disease seemed to peak within three weeks of entering a given city, then subsided. In the end, it’s estimated 25 to 35 million people died worldwide.

Eighteen months after the disease appeared, the flu bug vanished, leaving a mystery as to its source, until March 1997, when Armed Forces Institute of Pathology researchers found specimens that 1918 Army doctors had preserved. It appears the virus started from birds, passed to pigs, and then to humans.

These are the deadliest of all viruses because when the hearty pig immune system kicks into action the virus is forced to mutate. Both the deadly Asian flu (1957) and the Hong Kong flu (1968) came from mutated pig viruses.

   
The scary part is that hog farms continue to breed pigs for food near populated areas. It could happen again! Perhaps this is one of the reasons God said people should not eat pigs. His laws are always intended to bless us.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.  Leviticus 11:7”

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Update.

This week has been basically devoted to cleaning the place up, getting stuff put away, thrown away or sorted to be donated.  Different agency’s thrift shops specialize in different things.  We didn’t put anything back in the 10 x 20 storage tent yet, as the refund for the wrong size roof hadn’t been issued.  Finally I contacted them, and all I got was a lousy 10%!  But I just couldn’t go through installing another canopy roof, so I am stuck with the one I have. 

As there was hardly anyone at church last week, we froze my ground beef and noodles, my mashed rutabagas, and many of the other dishes, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time cooking on Friday.  But I did run a big baked potato through the Salad Shooter’s crinkle slicer, added some butter and seasonings, so it made another tasty, popular dish for this Sabbath’s potluck.

The Bible readings were Num. 30:2-32:42, Jer.1:1-2:3, and  Matt. 5:33-37.  The Teaching was about the Conversion of Saul, who became Paul.

Sunday, I must have got in my 10,000 steps.  A neighbor and I walked around the big flea market at Olde Security, then the two at Fostoria Road, near Cleveland.  Then to the indoor “Treasure Chest”, east of Conroe, as he was looking for good place to sell his stuff.  I must have lost some weight today!