The Ideal Meal

Consider the environment of the ideal meal. It is one of the beautiful pleasures of life shared with precious family and friends – not rushed, but greatly enjoyed. With the proper food, properly and lovingly prepared, the ideal meal provides nutrition to the body, the mind, and the spirit. Not only does it provide nutriment to all three, but it can provide healing for all three as well.

I am so incredibly blessed to have a Sweetheart, who is also my wife of 50 years, who prepares meals this way. We have learned some very valuable lessons to bring us to this point. As a result, I have personally enjoyed the reversal of several different “Western diseases” over the last decade or so. (See Reversal of Health Challenges.) I write this in celebration of our fifty years together, and to let the world know of some of the very important lessons we have learned. We have truly seen the “destroying angel pass by as the children of Israel.” We feel these truths have great value as we approach the coming of our Lord.

The average American diet is a disaster, and science now labels the resulting diseases evolving out of this diet “Western Diseases.” Dr. T Colin Campbell has written the definitive book, [The China Study], showing the relationship between diet and disease. His work is considered by experts to be the most significant study ever done on this topic. I was so impressed with his book that I took the time to write a fairly comprehensive book report on it. It agrees, in a profound way, with the revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants Section 89 – known as the Word of Wisdom – given 176 years ago today.

New York Times #1 best seller author, Michael Pollan, has written two additional, very informative books – complementing Dr. Campbell’s work – toward knowing what is THE IDEAL MEAL. The first one is Omnivore’s Dilemma. The second one is In Defense of Food. Pollan documents the disaster our industrialized food system has created – being almost the total cause of all the epidemic diseases that afflict our western society. He shows that we get over half of our calories from tax-subsidized, corn: corn feed beef, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and processed corn-based foods, etc. It is mostly about money with empty words promising nutrition. He shows that corn-feed is not the best-feed, and the whole system is supported by fossil fuels in contrast to renewable, healthy, solar based food chains that can come from your own garden, for example.

Pollan further shows that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is pervasive in the American diet – in almost all soft drinks and as the sweetener in a large and increasing percentage of processed foods. It is the cheapest sweetener and prolongs the life of that to which it is added. From pure economics it was a major breakthrough when it was developed in the 1960s. Its use started in the1970s, and now it is a challenge to buy food without it.

From a health standpoint, it is subtle disaster. HFCS is linked as the main cause of the obesity epidemic as well as to the diabetes epidemic. It tends to suppress the satiation sense, so that when we have eaten enough, we don’t know it and overeat. It also tends to be addictive. Its abundance in the American diet is often causing liver problems. As a synthesized sugar, the body doesn’t know how to digest it and turns it into fat: (Ref )

When I learned from Pollan that HFCS “is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels” [in 2006], I was aghast. This is a major conspiratorial activity where the rich get richer at the expense of your health, and you are paying for it through your taxes and because it is a fossil fuel based industry, as Michael proves so profoundly. The middle-man folks doing the processing [Cargill and ADM, for example], who make most of the profits from this cheapest and most pervasive of all sugars in America, would not let Michael review their processing procedures. It now has been discovered that some of the HFCS in use has mercury in it at harmful levels, which comes in as part of their processing procedures. His book tracks how we get our food in America, and it is a real eye opener. Interestingly, Cargill and ADM have a significant influence on the FDA, which has approved HFCS – regardless of it being harmful. Worse, it is a slow poison that will kill you if you persistently use it as most Americans do. This is a classic example of “conspiring men in the last days, ” and is another motivation for me to write this article to counteract this seditious trend in our society.

Michael Pollan says, “Eat food [by this he means “whole fresh foods rather than processed food products]. Not too much. Mostly plants.” This reminds one of Thomas Jefferson, who was basically vegetarian using meat more as a condiment. He believed one should always rise from the table just a little bit hungry. This is in total contrast to the typical American diet, which is meat and dairy centered – resulting in the large variety of “Western Diseases” that are the major killers of Americans. Dr. Campbell has shown that casein, which is 87% of cow’s milk protein, is the most significant carcinogen on the planet. His research results are ignored because “conspiring men...” care more about money than our health. The FDA has also approved MSG – a flavor enhancer often used in restaurants – which is also harmful to the body and has been shown to do damage to the brain.

Dr. Campbell simply says, “…eat a whole foods, plant based diet, while minimizing the consumption of refined foods, added salt and added fats. Daily supplements of vitamin B12, and vitamin D for people who spend most of their time indoors and/or live in [high latitudes – like the USA] are encouraged.” The Lord says to eat meat “sparingly; And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.” I am convinced that this diet has not only saved my life, but reversed twelve of the “Western diseases” that were afflicting my body. The benefits are profound, and I have found flavors and enjoy my food more than I ever did before – thanks to my Sweetheart wife, who is one outstanding ‘cuisiniere.’

The French say of us Americans, that we eat to live, and that they live to eat. The French eating paradox is that they have less of heart disease, etc. than Americans, yet their typical diet is not as healthy as it could be. The key is that they eat slowly with family and friends; they greatly enjoy their cuisine time, yet they typically don’t overeat, and their food is mostly fresh and prepared elegantly.

If you take the French attitude of relax with family and friends and enjoy, add the whole plant based foods, prepared with love, eaten with gratitude and with conversation that is uplifting – providing spiritual nourishment to the soul, then you have the IDEAL MEAL. You will be properly and enjoyably nourishing body, mind, and spirit. Couple this with keeping the commandments of the Lord – loving Him and your neighbor – then you have His sure promise that you “shall receive health in [the] navel and marrow to [your] bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto [you] a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass [you by], as the children of Israel, and not slay [you]. Amen.” (D&C 89:18-21) This I know and am most grateful to the Lord for the blessings of health to body, mind, and spirit in my life. As the father of a large family, as a research physicist, and as one desiring to serve the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind and strength at age 72, I am passionate about these truths.

The Ideal Meal

See also: