A Dieter's Prayer at a King's Table

A DIETER'S PRAYER

Lord, grant me the strength that I may not fall Into the clutches of cholesterol. At polyunsaturates, I'll never mutter, For the road to hell is paved with butter. And cake is cursed and cream is awful And Satan is hiding in every waffle. Beelzebub is a chocolate drop And Lucifer is a lollipop. Teach me the evils of hollandaise, Of pasta and globs of mayonnaise. And crisp fried chicken from the south— Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth.

The more I live, the more I realize that we all need to be discerning about all things. That includes the ambiguous food of this ambiguous world. We have to be as percipient as the prophet Daniel when he arrived at king Nebuchadnezzar’s table.

We live in a consumer-based economy, if we don’t consume, the economy collapses. It’s as simple as that.  We are constantly being pitched a zillion things that look good, sound good, smell good, but are terrible for us.

Having recently read Salt Sugar Fat from Pulitzer-prize winning author, Michael Moss most major food empires heavily engineer food intake for a “Bliss Effect”, which is the perfect combination of fat, salt and sugar. It makes us want more, but isn’t good for our long-term health. Indeed, it messes with our cardiovascular system, including our blood chemistry.

The real truth is that American processed food appears to be putting the average American in a constant state of inflammation – not for hours, or days, or years, but for decades. What this essentially means is our poor God-given bodies are constantly in a state of rejecting that blissful food we are all injesting.

Sadly, even our daily bread, made from genetically engineered dwarf wheat, not the Einkorn wheat of the past, is making us tired and bloated.  What’s the solution?  Get away from as much processed and fast food as possible, eat as fresh as you can – vegetables, fruits, some grains, some protein.  Stay clear of sugar, salt, and limit your dairy intake. Push clear of the king’s table. That royal food is not only giving our teenagers pimples. Long term, it’s killing the rest of us.

(Painting by Jan Davidszoon de Heem. Source of the poem is unknown but it can be found is The Jesus Habits by Pastor Jay Dennis where it appeared in a blog by Stephen A Pickert, M.D.)