Whenever I'm reminded that, as as child, I contradicted my stepmom, I'm ashamed.
I was a child and had no business thinking my stepmom was doing something silly. I thought regularly drinking cranberry juice to help prevent certain ailments was only a wives-tale; and that's what I told my stepmom. But it was a doctor who had told my stepmom to drink real cranberry juice regularly.
And, today, I'm thankful to know better than I did then.
Today, I know that real cranberry juice can help prevent serious, serious problems, not just the problem most folk are probably familiar with now.
For example, when body yeast becomes so much a problem that it thins the intestine, that yeast can cause "leaky gut," releasing bacteria into the bloodstream. But elements of cranberries help coat the intestine — not just the bladder — helping block irritation that leads to infection.
Of course, working with a doctor, taking the right prescriptions, eliminating wrong activities and foods in life, also are important to healing any health problem. But God also has given us some things in nature to help ease and even prevent health ailments.
The key, though, is including healthy ways in our everyday lives, not just every once in a while.
What got me thinking about all this is a healthy cookbook I just read. It's called Gout Cookbook, by HR Research Alliance.
I don't agree with how the cookbook's authors use the popular expression that some people have times of gout flare-ups. The gout crystals that form around joints don't flare up; the crystals just form, so that there is new gout (new crystals) causing problems for the patient, or something is going on with that patient to aggravate areas surrounding old crystals.
But once I got past kind of cringing at calling new and worsening gout a "flare," and once I got past the book's implication that food remedies are almost like a cure, I really liked this book, a lot (never mind the misspelled word!).
This book is encouraging. It's a really helpful, useful, and possibly life-changing book that I hope I can order as a gift one day, for someone.
And, because of it, I felt inspired, today, to put together a list of a few things I've learned about helpful supplements for meals. Not everything on the list appears in that cookbook, but the list does rely on a lot of what I learned from the book.
With hope someone can use this, day to day.
But remember: Always talk with your doctor to be sure you're not eating or drinking too much of anything that may adversely affect your health or contradict your medications!
Our hope is in Jesus, instead of in food.
But thank Heaven His love made food to be a help.
