Hi Doug,

I like some of the fake vegetarian stuff too, like Cedar Lake and La Loma and Worthington Foods. Some of them you can can take any recipe you'd use for meat and just substitute.

I think you can eat stuff like macaroni and cheese once in a while ... most of the time you could have whole grain macaroni and they have lots of recipes for "cheeseless cheese" you can make that doesnt have all the fat... they even have Cedar Lake cheeseless sauce that is good.

Its best to slowly change over your diet and substitute good stuff for the bad, as you learn different methods of cooking, different recipes and so on.

Hold on, I will try and find a quote for you that I have tried to keep in mind by James White..

Claudia

Well growl, I cant find it right now, but anyway it was a quote by James White, its in Councils on Diet and Foods and it says something like that we should make sure to change our diet but to do it one thing at a time when we get a good victory over one thing... then move onto the next.

Some people go too far and just think they should get rid of this and that "bad" thing and they dont take care to add the good dietary things their body needs.


Eccl:10:17: Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Doug,

I typed in the right key words into that online Ellen White writings site and found the quotation I was looking for... here it is (sorry its in all capital letters)


Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 498, paragraph 1
Chapter Title: Teaching Health Principles
WHILE TOBACCO, TEA, AND COFFEE MAY BE LEFT AT ONCE, ONE AT A TIME, HOWEVER, BY THOSE WHO ARE SO UNFORTUNATE AS TO BE SLAVES TO ALL, CHANGES IN DIET SHOULD BE MADE CAREFULLY, ONE AT A TIME. AND WHILE SHE WOULD SAY THIS TO THOSE WHO ARE IN DANGER OF MAKING CHANGES TOO RAPIDLY, SHE WOULD ALSO SAY TO THE TARDY, BE SURE AND NOT FORGET TO CHANGE. THE PLAINEST FACTS POSSIBLE DEMAND A CHANGE FROM THE COMMON HABITS OF LIFE, BUT LET THEM NOT BE MADE SO FAST AS TO INJURE THE HEALTH AND CONSTITUTION.


In my opinion, Doug, people should be careful both ways.. they should be sure to change their diet but also not make changes too fast and/or make changes without bothering to supply an adequate substitute so as to give your body the nutrition it really needs. Thats why sometimes you will be vegetarians or "health conscious" people who end up looking like they are death warmed-over or like they just came out of a concentration camp... they dont take care to eat right stuff, instead they just focus on not eating wrong stuff.

But anyway, I think you should endeavor not to eat fried foods... but instead learn how to wean yourself away from that.. along with other things that are not so good for you.

Like, you can learn to bake french fries (french baked, is what I guess you'd then call them

Bake them and then make some kind of dip that has all good stuff in it, to dip the fries in... and maybe add a little spicey stuff onto them... to give them more flavor... something you like... then later find a herb mixture you can put over them or whatever. (because the Spirit of Prophecy says that grease and spices are not so good for you). Have you ever seen that stuff at the store, its like a Shake and Bake but only you use diced potatoes? I like to get that and slice up potatoes like french fries and put them in the bag and shake them and it coats them with the herb mixture... then spay some of that Pam Cooking spray, the olive oil flavor onto a baking sheet and a little onto the fries and bake them, then dip them in catsup when they're all done cooking. You can learn to do substitutions like that with all kinds of things and just kind of learn new habits. You dont really have to "give up" anything of real value. But just change things gradually and dont try to go from zero to a hundred miles an hour in one day.

You wouldnt pour grease down your sink every day and expect it not to get clogged up after awhile, right? Well just think what that would do to your body. Its not a legalistic thing, its just that God loves us and wants us to be healthy and happy and to feel good and live longer and so on.

Well anyway, sorry I went on so long about this, I saw where somebody said on here that they should forget about the diet thing and go onto another topic.

Wait, I want to say something else first though while I'm at it. This thread is about Harmony with God. In Christ's Object Lessons it says in the "Wedding Garment" chapter that we need to have one mind with God and be of one will with Him. Well remember when the Disciples said at the woman at the well story that He needed to stop and eat something? Jesus said "My meat is to do the will of My Father in Heaven". It's like Jesus was saying that doing the will of His Father was number one priority and everything else was subjected to that one thing. His "food" wasnt most important, it was doing God's will that was important.

And remember how God made His people eat manna in the wilderness? Deut:8:3: "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live."

Again, its like God was teaching His people that they had the wrong priorities. Eccl:10:17: "Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" Everything we do is supposed to be ffor God's glory, not for our own satisfaction. You eat in order to strengthen your body that God gave you, so that you can be in top condition to serve God.

Mt:6:33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

See, like, a Christian can start setting out to get right of this and that sin, and maybe even accomplish it by sheer will power, yet not be with God at all. We have to truly love God first and then do everything because of that... even when it comes to our diet. Or esle its really spiritually useless.

Mt:6:22: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

And then when you have the right outlook on things, giving up this and that thing that is "bad" doesnt seem to you to be something you have to force yourself to do or that you hate to do. Its more like you just dont really want to do that thing anymore because you view it as something that's hindering your goal. People should take time to read "Acts of the Apostles" by Ellen White, the chapter on "Called to reach a Higher Standard" ... the chapter about setting aside any and every thing that keeps you from winning your goal. Like the Apostle Paul said. Laying aside every besetting sin... that weighs you down, so to speak. http://www.egwtext.whiteestate.org/aa/aa30.html


Claudia

[ December 16, 2004, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: Claudia Thompson ]

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[ January 01, 2005, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: Doug Meister ]