Good for you?
Tomatoes….poison or panacea? The Solanum family includes deadly nightshade, along with peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. I once had a neighbor in Iowa who told me to use deadly nightshade in my cooking. She did it all the time! She pointed to the plant growing under our deck — the one the USDA was warning about sickening the local livestock — and urged me not to “waste it.”
Her native China may have a plant that looked similar, or maybe she built up an immunity to it, along with her Caucasian husband and their lovely, healthy son. Or maybe deadly nightshade (Belladonna) is not as poisonous as we once thought. I really didn’t have the inclination to try it!
Now, even tomatoes have come under attack for their natural alkaloids and tendency to aggravate intestinal permeability.
Of course, there may be some good and bad in just about every plant.
The same goes for any fruits and vegetables that contain carbohydrates. Those of us who are diabetic know that a bowl of fruit salad, even unsweetened, could cause cellular damage from high blood sugars. But does that mean we should all stop eating fresh peaches and bananas? Of course not; since not all of us suffer any damage from them.
Strawberries and blueberries don’t contain carbohydrates and would be a better choice for a diabetic or someone doing a ketogenic diet. Yet they could wreak havoc in the belly of someone afflicted with diverticulosis, who would be better off with those sweet peaches.
One of the goals in our family is to keep a couple of beehives. We would welcome extra pollinators for our gardens, and who doesn’t love the sweet honey? Well, that may not be the best food for someone with blood sugar issues.
It is hard to keep up with the so-called “experts” who advise us in one decade to avoid coffee and chocolate, but in the next decade, they are singing the praises of these antioxidant-rich foods.
Many of my friends are avoiding dairy products for the reason that it causes problems in some people, especially those who are lactose intolerant.
It is hard to believe that God would describe the Promised Land as one flowing with “mucous-causing gut killer” and “blood sugar raising cell destroyer.” Milk and honey must be good, especially in their purest forms.
The same goes for bread. Did Jesus really say he was the “candida-causing bloater” of life? No!
Now, there are surely a few individuals who cannot tolerate some of these basics spoken about in the Scriptures. But it is not realistic to think that basic, whole foods are making half the population sick!
Many of us choose to use these foods in moderation, trusting that they must be intrinsically good to be spoken about in the Bible.
“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NASB).
One food that is never in question is the spiritual food and drink that God provides.
“Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.’”
“Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, always give us this bread.’
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’” John 6:32-35).