Food
Energy From The Sun:
Greenledge Studios
T h i n k hard, work
soft
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The sun is important to life on earth. The sun produces heat and light, both of which are utilized by plants. Animals eat plants or other animals to get their energy, and all of earth's lifeforms comprise a food chain which is interdependent in many ways. Life on earth is based on carbon compounds which are the source of all food. Thus, life comes only from other life, and no living thing could survive by itself.
Carbon is the basis for all organic compounds, which sustain life. All life is made up of one or more cells, formed by carbon compounds in a way too complex to be understood in all its detail. Cellular structure is enabled by the use of proteins, which are complex carbon compounds. The building blocks of protein are, in turn, substances commonly known as amino acids. There are twenty amino acids required by living things. Ten of these are obtained from food and the other ten are manufactured by the body. Because the body absorbs these acids in a specific combination, a balanced diet is required to assist the digestion of the available protein.
As the Bible record makes clear, originally man ate only plants, until God gave Noah the animals as food after the flood (Genesis 9:3). The historical truth of the flood is more than emphasized by the consistency of the hundreds of flood legends around the world, as well as by a written record which has survived thousands of years (Genesis 6-9).
Theories abound today regarding what constitutes a healthy diet. However, it stands to reason that fruits and vegetables are still the healthiest things to eat, although since Noah's day men have not been as healthy and so eating meats is acceptable in general as well. Noah lived to the age of nine hundred and fifty years, but nowadays the average human lifespan is about the same as in Moses' time, namely seventy or eighty years. The difference is not caused by the eating of meat, but it may be reasonable to consider some of the changes which have come about after the flood as being due to a significant increase in cosmic rays (which prior to the flood were absorbed by the abundant waters in the atmosphere).
Enzymes in uncooked fruit and vegetables mix with saliva during the chewing of food, and this is thought to assist in digestion. So a salad or some fruit is recommended before a meal. Fruit and vegetable juices bought in a store have been heated prior to packaging to kill bacteria; so, because of this, fresh produce actually contains more food value. Some foods may have compounds which are not digestible unless cooked. For example, orange rind contains an indigestible and harmful chemical which is rendered safe by cooking.
Fruit usually does not require cooking. Light steaming may be the best method for cooking some vegetables because colour, flavour, and nutrients are thus better retained. Cooking may be done by boiling or roasting, but cooking in oil or margarine at high temperature may cause cancer and should be avoided. If permitted by individual circumstances, use of animal fats such as butter or bacon fat is preferable for frying. Nowadays many non-stick frying pans are available, some of which are long-lasting, and these often do not require the use of any fat or oil at all. Regal Royal Diamond cookware is effective non-stick cookware and comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Olive oil is known to be healthy in its raw state and can be used on salads every day with health benefits. However, hydrogenated vegetable oils such as those used in margarine, cookies, and many processed foods including potato chips may cause health problems, even when not used for cooking but merely consumed as part of a daily diet. Hydrogenation is the adding of hydrogen to 'saturate' the vegetable oil, the final stage of saturation resulting in vegetable shortening. Saturated fats have high caloric content.
Eating food should be enjoyable (Ecclesiastes 2:24; 3:12,13; 5:18; 8:15; 9:7), and this is true provided one understands the basic principle of what makes food taste good. What I reveal here is by no means common knowledge, nor is it a hard and fast rule, but if you heed the advice you will from now on take great pleasure in all your future culinary endeavours, particularly eating. The advice is this: Keep in mind that the reason food tastes good is because it stimulates the taste buds, and the different kinds of taste buds detect different aspects of taste. Because of this, food tastes best when all of the taste buds are stimulated together, and this is done by combining the flavours of salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. While they need not be combined in cooking, it is essential that they be eaten together. Even though you may already know this, in, for example, sweet and sour spare ribs with salted rice, you may realize the benefits of applying the same principle to many, many other food combinations. Best eating!
"Man must live, not by bread alone, but by every utterance coming forth out of Jehovah's mouth".