Shane Idleman addresses the biblical perspective on health and nutrition, emphasizing the importance of stewardship over our bodies and the need to return to God's design for eating. He highlights the epidemic of obesity, substance abuse, and chronic diseases, advocating for a balanced approach to food that prioritizes nutrition and health over indulgence. Shane encourages listeners to seek wisdom from God regarding their dietary choices and to consider the impact of processed foods on their health. He also discusses the significance of accountability and community support in making lasting lifestyle changes.

My big challenge this whole week and even this morning, I was up at 4 a.m. and fell back asleep and up again, is I have enough information for a book. So going down from, you know, seven hours to six hours to five to four to three to two to try to get this an hour, hour and 15, I'm trying to get as much information as I can. So I edited some things out. I'm going to recommend some good books, some things to get some more information. But the title is Healthy Eating, What Does the Bible Say? Now CDs will be available if you want to get this to a friend. I would encourage you to listen to it again and again. The notes, everything I'm talking about, I was sent it to Susie this morning, so the office will have it. We'll post it underneath the video when it goes on our website. I've got some free books you can grab on your way out that would help. We're also putting together a support group of people who want to meet and just, you know, accountability and iron sharpens iron. And when you're meeting once a week it helps a great deal. So we've got all that out in the lobby. And as many of you know, we are at the crossroads. Opioid and alcohol abuse are leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Obesity is skyrocketing and plaguing the young as well as the old. It has reached epidemic levels in children now. Caffeine, sugar have taken us captive. Diabetes is plaguing millions. And cancer and heart disease are the number one killers in America. Is there an answer? Is there an answer? And my whole premise this morning is, yes there is. What does the Lord say? Well, I like Jeremiah 6. Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls. My thought is we need to go back to the old paths to truly find freedom and deliverance. Now obviously Jeremiah, the context, is talking about walking in moral purity, walking in God's commandments. But the overlapping principle still applies in this area because when we go back to what does God's Word say in this area, there is safety, there is peace. Now just a little bit of background. I had to really edit all this down. Many of you know I had a background with 24-hour fitness and when I was there I studied under an organization called the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Everything from kinesiology to biology to physical therapy and different things and would read their literature, would talk to the representatives. Never got a degree in that but I studied underneath them. As a result I wrote my first book, What Works When Diets Don't. The reason is being in the fitness industry I see people go from almost going in the hospital to now running marathons in six months. Off their diabetes medication, off six, seven different medications, now back to good health. Blood pressure, cholesterol, mental illness, everything was changing by the way they took care of their body. A lot of it was. Now in that though, I wanted to say you look at what works, what doesn't, and why from a biblical perspective. So I had this manuscript, I sent it to a large publisher and they were interested. And we met in Orange County. Jack Hayford came out of the room right when I went in and talked with them and it didn't, it just didn't, it didn't fit. It didn't, looking back now it's because God didn't call me to do that. So I declined their offer and then they happened to pick up a manuscript instead called The Maker's Diet. Have you heard of that one? Best-selling, millions of copies. My wife is probably going, why didn't you take that off? You know so he's Jordan Rubin has became a household name in the area of nutrition and God didn't have that calling for me. And I actually ran into him a year ago and I told him you need to thank me for the publisher picking up your manuscript. So we had a good talk. And I've just always had a passion for that, working in 24-hour fitness, seeing this. Now I should clarify, this can become a point of idolatry when we were too focused on our body. We're too focused on our looks. We're too focused on measuring the rice and the chicken breast and it can get, it can get obsessive. But the other end of that is we just don't care anymore and we don't care what we do to our body. We're just going to indulge, indulge, indulge. So trying to find that middle ground. I was 275 pounds at my height. That was when I was also on a lot of steroids. Growth hormone, testosterone, decadirabolin, antivar, anadrol, Winstrel-V from a veterinarian. And at that time I was actually denied life insurance and I actually ended up in the hospital with myopericarditis. It's an inflammation of the heart muscle. In my 20s and I went into the emergency room. I could have a hard time breathing and this is, this is what I look like going in the emergency room. And she, you know, she goes, okay we'll just have a seat for an hour, right? So they finally put a test on me and they go, oh my gosh EKG cardi, we need a cardiologist stat. And they start wheeling me into this room and so it became very apparent that maybe it was a heart issue, heart attack, something was happening in my 20s. But it was strep throat had went to my heart as a secondary viral infection around the heart muscle. And I had to jump on that one pretty quickly. So looking back, I'm very thankful for what God has brought me through. Four days in the hospital. So that's kind of my background of health and fitness, nutrition, wanting to help people in this area. Here's what's happening. This is a confusing area, isn't it? Confusion leads to discouragement. Discouragement leads to failure. Because, I mean, I can tell you, take you to wonderful programs right now that say don't eat meat. Don't eat dairy. Don't eat lectins, which are mainly nuts and grains. Don't eat grains. And so we're left with water and salad. That's what we, you know, basically. So I wanted to put together what works, what doesn't, and why. We also lack motivation. We are not prepared for the battle ahead. That's what happens. And I've seen it. I helped thousands of weight loss clients. And those who succeeded and those who failed, it all rested on this. Motivation. Motivation. Because we don't eat perfectly, do we? If you would have saw me at the father-daughter dance, you know, that's not perfect. I didn't eat perfect. I don't promote that because it can become my doltrine. I want to enjoy the evening with my daughters. But we have to, people say, Shane, that's too drastic. And I say, no. Cutting you right here and opening up your ribcage and doing surgery, that's drastic. Let me show you what a heart looks like in an obese person that passed away. That is the fat that is wrapped around the heart because of a diet that is very unhealthy. I guess this will tie into a little bit with my testimony. A year and a half ago, because I can get off track too, a year and a half ago I weighed 240 pounds preaching. Now I'm about 210. So I've lost 30 pounds in a year and a half. And some of that motivation was the doctor said, your testosterone is low for your age. This might be why you're gaining weight, why you're not feeling good. So instead of looking at diet, what do they say? Here's some androgel. Okay, start putting that on. It's really steroids. So I was a little excited, right? Get back in, lifting weights again. But I told my wife, I think it was after two weeks, I said, I can't, I'm just an angry guy. Knowing that, and I texted my doctor, fortunately I have a cell phone. And he said, oh yeah, that happens in about 3%. And I'm going to say, no, probably 90%. If you're, you're adding that testosterone back. So I said, this isn't working. So I said, what? Well, I know what works, you know. So I got back on track. Had it tested two weeks ago, it was 500 and something. So now you're fine. I said, see, but without that drug. Without that. I also wanted to, at that time, I went to a doctor office here in Lancaster on Avenue N. I'll leave it there. And he gave me, he did my blood pressure and said, oh my gosh, you're way too high. And started pulling out medication from the cabinet. And he laid it on the, I remember, like this one's for this, there's two a day, and I'll write it down. I said, wait a minute, I think she used a small cuff to measure my arm. Can we try the big cuff? And he goes, oh, she didn't use a big cuff? Yeah, let me do that. Oh, 120 over 85, you're good. You almost just put me on all this stuff. Now I'm going to get to that in a little bit. Don't give me, I'm going to get ahead here. So I have a passion for this, because I think we're lacking wisdom. My people perish for lack of wisdom. Now but shame, that applies to God's word, how we live right. But again, the overlapping principle. When we lack wisdom, we will perish. So here's the biblical view. I'm not prescribing a diet, I'm actually prescribing a lifestyle. That we look at food as stewardship, and not being mastered by it. Paul says we shouldn't be, not be mastered by anything. If anything begins to control you, it becomes, begins to master you. So I've labeled this down to ten points. Ten points, this would make a great outline for a book. Here's the first chapter, or the first point. Food here, this really is helpful. Food is primarily about fuel and nutrients. It's about stewardship. That's the main reason for fuel. God said I will give you this food for fuel, for nutrients, to keep the body alive. However, it's also connected in the Bible to enjoyment, right? To come together and feast, and and come together, and fellowship over food. The problem is we put the feasting first. The fellowship is first. So it's all about the food, and the fellowship, and the feasting. That, we're actually, no, no, that comes, that's later. The whole point of food is nutrition and fuel for the body. This is why I don't agree with, and I get post any, it just has happened this month, posting this on Facebook. You know, I hope you know that not everybody is, is, is a fan of Shane Eidelman, right? There's a lot of people out there who just don't like anything about our ministry or the church, and they let us know very clearly. Especially when I teach on fasting, I get rebukes all the time from Christians. I'm gonna join my hamburger, you're off base, and all this stuff. The problem is they're convicted, and they need to change, and they don't want to admit it. But anyway, this guy posted this, or said something along these lines. God, Shane, God doesn't care about what I consume. He doesn't care about what I eat. But to me, that's really just an excuse to indulge. It shows a lack of restraint, and a lack of wisdom. God cares about what we put into your body. Pray this, if you doubt me. Would you rather have me, Lord, would you rather have me eat food you created, or food that man altered in order to hit revenue numbers? Food he has damaged and destroyed? Food that has little or zero life-giving benefit? Lord, what would you rather have me to do? Pray it yourself. I'm convinced that God is concerned with what we consume, what we put into our body. Therefore, my focus today is, I believe that God wants us to take care of this gift, this wonderful gift he has given us. God wants us to take care of it. Here's my challenge, though. When we talk about health, from a biblical perspective, it can be affected by three or four different things, looking at the Bible. A person's health can be declining because of demonic attack. People, watch us online, they're going to disregard this point, especially if they're not Christians. There's no devil, and there's no Santa Claus, and all those things. We believe that there is a spiritual battle. We believe, like Jesus said, Woman, thou art loose from your infirmities. Why is this daughter of Abraham, why is she bound by the devil for 17 years? We know that the epileptic, Jesus would cast that demonic element, that demon, out, and the child would be healed. So we know that there's a demonic element, sometimes, to illness. We also know that, this is maybe not a surprise to most of you, but some it is, the way your emotional health is, they tie anger to heart attacks. Have you ever seen an angry, there's a doctor saying, you know what, don't worry about your anger and your stress, it doesn't affect your heart whatsoever. No, even the medical industry knows it. Like, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, besetting sin. We know that these things harm the body. Paul, or actually it was James Paul in talking about communion, but James in talking about people being sick, he said some of you are sick among you and suffering because you're holding on to besetting sin. So we know that, but we also know that we are affected by what we consume, what we put in. So that's my focus today. I don't want anybody leaving here thinking, oh, Shane is just only health oriented. No, I'm going against the demonic realm, I'm going against our thought life, I'm going against besetting sin, and I'm also concerned with what we're putting in to our bodies. So, but that's the focus this morning, this afternoon. And if you need more information on any of these other areas I mentioned, search our website. Put in the topic and it'll come up a sermon I probably preach in all those different areas. So, how does the body work in five minutes? Here's how it works. You're either storing the food and utilizing it, or you are burning the food that you're consuming. So when I consume something, the energy is being used, it's being stored, it's being burned. And how the body works, I don't know, some of you might know this, but even sleeping you're burning energy. Your body doesn't just shut down completely. It's 24-7 all the time. Your brain function, when you're dreaming, when you're sleeping, your body is burning energy. Some people burn more than others. They will call this the basal metabolic rate, how much energy your body is burning at rest. And then you add to that exercise, that will burn energy. And then there's something called the NEAT principle, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, meaning cleaning your yard, not exercising, you know, things you're doing around the house, just doing nothing, you will burn energy. I guess I can sum it up in one thing, we can all go home. The big thing is, we consume too much energy and we don't burn it. That's the problem with the weight problem in our nation, is the energy is coming in, but the energy is not going out. Now remember, the primary role is nutrients and fuel. And there's three macronutrients everybody knows about, right? Carbohydrates, protein, and fat. A macronutrient are these items, a micronutrient, micronutrients are the minerals, the vitamins, and things like this. So the three big things, these are at the head of every weight loss program, every diet, carbohydrates, right? They're the sugar, the starches, the cellulose, it's the main source of energy for the body. So you consume carbohydrates, it's converted into glucose, and then it's converted into glycogen, which is a longer chain of the glucose, and it's converted into the glycogen for energy. Now that glycogen is stored in my liver, and it's stored in my muscle. So more muscle, more storage, right? So what happens when my liver is full and my muscles full? That's the deal with carbohydrates. The problem with them is we eat primarily carbohydrates, we eat too many. And what happens, insulin tells the body to start using the energy. If the body doesn't use it, it is stored as excess energy. These can be too taxing on the body. Have you ever heard the phrase insulin resistance? It means the insulin can no longer penetrate the cells to deliver this. So you're insulin resistant, you have become tolerant. It's too much, too much, and it's broken down the body, you become resistant to insulin. So they pump you with more insulin, hoping that will fix the problem. Then we have proteins. These are the amino acids, the essential building block of our bodies. Muscle, hair, collagen, all these things. Enzymes, antibodies, that's the protein. The problem with protein, when you consume more than your body can use for protein synthesis, meaning when the protein is broken down, it'll be used. Amino acids, they're used and they're converted to where the body needs them. But if you don't need them, then they're converted to fuel. And if you don't need that fuel, guess what it's converted to? Yep. Fat. So now let's talk about fat. Fat is stored energy. It helps the body absorb necessary fat-soluble vitamins and protects our organs. Brain development and it also helps with inflammation. So I get a little, I don't like the no fat, low fat diet things because you need good essential fats. I will actually put fat into a protein shake. Omega-3, Omega-6, fatty acids, flaxseed oil, organic olive oil, grapeseed oil. I'll put it in there on purpose. I'll eat nuts and avocados because that good fat is very important to the body. So here's the problem we all know with fat. It's converted to triglycerides. So when somebody's triglycerides are high, they say go off the fat instead of looking at the overall diet. You don't just go off fat to prevent triglycerides because your body is really good at producing its own things in this area. So obviously removing something doesn't always help. So the fat is converted into triglycerides. At that point it's either burned for energy or it's stored as fat. So the problem is junk fat is hard on the system as is excess. Let me give you an example. Western Bacon Double Cheeseburger. Used 55 grams of fat. But I can eat 4 ounces of lean, grass-fed, organic good meat and it only has 10 grams of fat. So what are we consuming? We're consuming these things in abundance the wrong thing. By the way, that is 1,100 calories so you can sit on your bike for two and a half hours to burn that. One hamburger. You see how the body works. That's how the body works. So in five minutes, hopefully stay within five minutes, the protein, the fat, the carbohydrates are all essential. It's got how God designed us. But the problem is too much of certain things and the wrong things are causing damage. So that was number one. Number two is we have a storage problem and a moving problem. We have a storage problem and a moving problem. We store too much. Do you know this? If I have 20 pounds of fat on me, 20 pounds of fat, that means I have 70,000, 70,000 calories I can use. I can stop eating for weeks and use those 70,000 calories. So that's all fat is. It's stored energy for later. See, we weren't created to eat every three hours or four hours, every time we're hungry. If you think back, there's no convenience store on every corner in the Bible. You didn't stop Del Taco and by the way, I just heard that Del Taco on their meat rating was right above dog food. So just keep these things. I shouldn't go there, should I? But that's what it was. It's right above, it's the bar above dog food and when they rate meat. We weren't designed to eat every three or four hours, so we have a storage problem. Carbohydrates, 500 grams I told you are stored in the muscle and the liver. So once that storage is full, it will be converted to fat. Now, I said something in my book, first book, and I still stand by it even though it's caught a lot of flack, especially nowadays because people say it's not that simple, but it is in this regard. The key really is to eat less and move more. Eat less junk and move a lot more. That's the biblical model. Now, you can't just throw that at somebody and hope they succeed. They need a plan. So eat more or eat less. Now, but people take it this way, eat less. You know, like a little mouse and I'm always gonna be hungry. I'm talking about eating less of the wrong things. Less of the wrong things and more of the right things and move a lot more. And when we do Q&A a little bit later, I think Luke and Tony, I'll announce them in a little bit, but Luke, who's gonna do some of the Q&A, he eats like 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day and still stays, you know, the way he stays because of moving and because of the type of caloric intake. Now, I should explain that. Maybe calorie, you know what a calorie is? It just means a unit of energy. It's really how heat is burned and gets a little technical, but a calorie is just one unit of energy. So it's all about burning that energy. How God, in His design, it's incredible. Let me give you seed-bearing food. Take that grapes, those grapes. Take that sweet potato. That's your glycogen, your glucose. That's gonna give you the immediate energy. Eat that protein. That's gonna build your muscle and sustain your hair and your collagen levels. Eat that fat for health and we consume these life-giving foods. That's how we were created. That's how we were designed. And also, movement is medicine. Movement is medicine. At a computer, eight hours a day will hurt the body. Have you ever heard the phrase, if you don't use it, you will? Well, that is so true because when you don't use muscle, you lose it. When you don't move in your body, your cells deteriorate. They degrade. The whole body basically just falls apart. So movement is medicine. Now, we also have a consuming problem, right? We have a storage problem. We have a moving problem. We have a consuming problem. In the Bible, it's called gluttony. Now, I've been a glutton before, so I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching to us. This is an area that will lead to poor health because it enslaves us. It's feed me, feed me, feed me, and it enslaves us. So what does the Bible say about this area of food? Let me read. In the beginning, most of you know this. I'm gonna go to Genesis 1. God said, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you and every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky and everything that moves on the earth which has life. I have given them and you every green plant for food. So I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as we were originally created, meat was not in the equation. We can get the same amount of nutrients from the plant bearing, from the seed bearing, from the fruit, from the trees. Now, I'm also not gonna argue veganism, paleo, ketogenic diet, Atkins diet. I'm not arguing. I'm just showing you basically what the Bible says because people have strong convictions in certain areas. But most diets also, you have to keep this in mind, they are written from an evolutionary perspective. I listened to one very popular one. I think it's a paleo one. Have you heard of that one? You always hear of a new one. They just recycle sometimes. But the guy said 99.9% of our genes were formed before the development of farming, agriculture. So his thing is farming came in later so we're only supposed to eat scavengers like animals, meat, nuts. Not the seed bearing. Well, from an evolutionary perspective, but from a biblical perspective, we see that the seed bearing was actually, the food was actually created before man was. Man came into the garden to consume those things. So I have to just throw that out right there in the hogwash category. After the fall. Now, this is interesting. After the fall and after the flood. Now, we don't know what happened between the fall of Adam and Eve and the flood. Did people eat meat? Did the dinosaurs eat other dinosaurs? You know, there's controversy there. But we do know that after the flood, Noah, coming out of the ark, probably not a lot of land, right? Not a lot of vegetation growing. He and his family are going out. God said this to them, everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. That's basically why they drain blood from the meat, because you're eating the life of that animal in the blood. It's not good, it's not healthy. So that's why they drain the meat, drain the blood, it's just the meat. So why could they not eat meat? Why could they eat meat now? Well, I'm going to let you toy with that one all day, because I could not find a good answer. Now, personally, I wrote down a few. God said, now I give you, is it permissible, but is it ideal? Now I give you meat to eat, because there might not have been a lot of vegetation, there might not have been a lot of food available. It's permissible, but it's not ideal. I created you to eat the seed-bearing food. However, you can eat meat. You guys have fallen, human nature has fallen, it's part of the Adamic nature now to kill and to eat. Should it be consumed sparingly? Does it balance out nature? You know, do you know how many deer, now I'm not going against those who don't, you know, a lot of people don't believe in hunting and things like that, but the downside to that is there would be an excess of everything. If things, imagine if things never died and were killed or hunted, it would be, there would be excess of everything, animals running everywhere. Look, go to the Hindu, where they don't kill cows and different things. It's just a mess. There's too much there. So I don't have the answer on that. All I know is that God said, now I give you all this for food. Now we don't, throughout the Bible, look, there's like 212 scriptures on food and different things. I did a lot of studying on it, and I didn't really see meat representing healing. I did see meat representing strength, you know, the meat strength of the body, protein, you know, the muscle. But healing was often found in the herbs or in the fruit or in the vegetables or in the healing foods of the body. And it's interesting, in 1 Timothy 4.34, he says, in the latter days, the Spirit says, in the latter days, these deceiving spirits will forbid marriage, and they will command you to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. You know, your King James will say meat, that they will forbid you from eating meat, but the Greek word is broma. It means food in any kind. So there will come organizations or groups that will forbid you to eat food, certain kinds of food. So you look at some of these diets, that's my concern with some of these diets. That was one of my big concerns was say, forks over knives. Meat, casein, C-A-S-S-E-I-N, that kind of, the protein that comes from milk, dairy. Meat, dairy is causing cancer. That was their statement. And I kind of, a couple of paws of concern about that because they're saying avoid these things at all cost. Don't eat these things. Now, unclean foods in the Bible, you might be asking. It's still good not to eat like lobster. I know that's hard to hear. Shrimp, you might want to avoid the pig and the swine. See, all these things, it's interesting. These are unclean and they're also unhealthy. Isn't that interesting? Because lobster, shrimp, what they do, they basically eat off the bottom of the ocean or wherever you find them. That's why the fish with scales are healthier. They're swimming around eating healthy things. These actually eat the toxic debris on the bottom of the ocean. And what you eat, you receive, right? So that's the thing about unclean foods. As you gave, many of you are thinking probably the vision that Peter got, these unclean foods coming down. Peter said, no, Lord, I'm not going to eat. Peter said, God said, whatever I've called clean, Peter, you shall eat, you shall consume. The whole point of that was for Peter to go to the Gentiles. That was the context of that. But it's still an interesting point here. That unclean foods are still unclean. Permitted possibly, but I would avoid them. So the third point. Now, this is biggie. People might just think it's no big deal. I just threw it in there. But I think it's vitally important. Pray for guidance and direction. I truly believe that God will show you in this area. Because I argue with people all the time, whether it's vegan, vegetarian, paleo, ketogenic diet, Atkins diet, everybody's got their strong beliefs, right? God has told me to avoid meat. Take it to Him. Pray for guidance and direction. I truly believe that God will show you. The problem is most are listening to the world's influence. What does the world say to do? And we gravitate to a diet. I mean, this bulletproof book that's out everywhere, it's just coffee. Putting a whole bunch of butter and coffee is what started out. Not healthy, right? Maybe grass-fed butter and coffee, there's something. So now this is the new crave. And then it was Atkins diet, right? Eat all the eggs and steak you want and avoid these foods. And then it was, you know, Weight Watchers comes in. And then it's always a new thing. So you have to be careful who and what you're listening to. Why do we pray for wisdom in other areas of our lives but not this area? I've prayed for wisdom in this area and God has clearly told me many times that I've had this sense that I don't want to fast, avoid coffee, avoid all the sugar, eat God-given food, meat and dairy in moderation, minimal supplementation. When I seek God, He tends to guide me in this area. So I don't want people to say, well, I'm going to try this, seek God. What is He doing? Because He knows what's going on for you. You might actually need more good meat. You might need to switch to raw dairy. You might need to do these things. So seek Him. I'm going to get to that in a minute. The fourth point, the perversion of food and the altering of it is what is causing the damage, in my opinion? They're taking the life, the nutrition and the health out of the food. So that's number four. The perversion of food and the altering of it, that's where all this disease and illness, much of it is coming from. Where are you getting your information from, right? Who are you talking to? Are you reading an article about coffee from Starbucks or from an unbiased group? Because I don't know if you know this or not, but the milk and dairy industry will put out articles praising milk and dairy. And then the meat industry will put out this. And then some diets have an agenda, Mother Earth but no Father God, right, to get rid of animal products. And they have agendas and they will skew things. Because no matter what you read online, it's either, it's not true or it is, organic food, God-given food is the way to go. Others say, no, it really shows no significant increase in our health. And then you read this article, avoid caffeine. This one says, oh, you can have as much as you want. And then you read, it's just, there's, it just uses common sense and wisdom. I believe that God has given us knowledge, but you have to apply wisdom. What do we know? A hundred years ago, they thought smoking was great. What happened? We know. So as we take the wisdom we are gaining, we need to apply that to our lives. And don't get me wrong, I love physicians. They know a lot more than I know in regard to medicine. But often they are taught how to respond with medication rather than nutrition. To treat the symptom rather than the cause. For example, here's the things that drive me a little crazy. People go in and they'll say, take this for your blood pressure and your high LDL. LDL is low-density lipids. It's a type of cholesterol that will bind to your arteries, so they say. And the high-density HDL lipids are what take that away and back to be processed to the liver. So they want that ratio to be good. But they'll say, take this for your high blood pressure. Instead of, tell me about your diet and your eating habits. Tell me about what you're putting in. I mean, if it were me, if I was a physician, I would be a holistic physician focusing first on, let me see what you're consuming first. Give me 30 days, give me 60 days. Let's take a look at it and see if we can alter what's happening. Because the pill, the statin drugs that just affect the liver and they actually take away the cholesterol. Have you ever read the side effects of those? And the side effects are just as dangerous as what's coming. And instead of getting rid of the junk that you're putting in or I'm putting in that's causing it, we take a pill to fix it. So all you do is fix the symptom. What about this? I love this one. Take this pill for your anxiety. No, you might want to get off a thousand milligrams of caffeine a day. That might be a good place to start. You might want to start feeding your body what it needs to operate properly. You might want to start bringing nutrition back in. Take this for your type 2 diabetes. Now this point I can get a little passionate about because type 2, type 1 is when they need the insulin. They're born that way, genetic predispositions. But type 2 is a diet driven disease. A majority of the time you can cure type 2 diabetes by changing your diet because it's diet driven. Too much carbohydrates, too much sugar, too much insulin. Now your cells have become damaged. It can't take the insulin anymore so what do they do? They pump in the insulin. It's like giving an alcoholic more alcohol. And then that, usually what they start with type 2 diabetes is they'll start with medication and then they'll up the medication. They'll give a different medication. Then they have to start them on insulin. And then after insulin then blindness might come and even early death and dialysis. See people are progressing. They don't get better taking these things. You don't have somebody say I just started this medication now I'm completely free and my body don't have it anymore. So the medication gets progressively more strenuous and more, the person gets more desperate and they have to take more and more and more. Just study it. Just research it. Or take this to lower your cholesterol instead of looking at what they're doing. It's the funny thing about cholesterol. People say I'm avoiding cholesterol. Well guess what? Your body makes it. It's a very good thing. Cholesterol, read the benefits and what cholesterol does in the body. Very good. Cook your egg in coconut oil, right? Good. I mean, so you say I'm going to avoid it. Well then your body produces it and it's producing more because it's lacking and then you go to the doctor. What's happening? I have high cholesterol. I don't know. I changed my diet. Well take this drug. So just be careful because the altering of food, the perversion of food and responding to the symptom rather than the cause is causing a lot of damage. Number five, it appears that meat and dairy, I'm getting into the good stuff now, it appears to me, reading through all the scriptures, 212 and counting, it appears that meat and dairy were used but God created us to eat seed bearing as the primary staple. Seed bearing includes fats such as nuts and avocados. Now here's where it gets tricky. People leave here and say Shane said I can do this, right? Now depending on where a person is, that's why you pray for wisdom. You look at your own individual situation and if a person let's say is 70, 80, 90, 100 pounds overweight, I would have them follow something different. I would want them to get into what they call a ketonic state or ketosis or ketones where actually the main fuel of your body then becomes your fat storage and all these carbohydrates you're pumping in. So I would change their diet to more focused on less carbohydrates and more good fat and protein to get their body in that state of weight loss. So this person over here might be, because I can tell you I ate, I don't know if I should say this, three cups of cooked rice the other day. We're talking carbohydrate grams plus some. You know but I just did a two hour bike ride and burned 800 calories. So I was putting back in the fuel that was converted for fuel. So see how you can't, it's not just a blanket statement. You just can't, you've got to look at each person individually and we can help you afterwards if you need help afterwards in this area. Those needing to lose weight, I just wrote, I just said this, should avoid a high carbohydrate in abundance diet for the very reasons I just mentioned. Now here's an interesting thing. You have very healthy people, tribes of people. You can investigate this. There are tribes of people on plant based only. They look great at 80 and 90. On plant based only. No meat, no dairy. But then I can take you to groups in the Himalayas who they are fit as Moses at 80 on dairy and meat. I'm going to tell you why in a minute. I'm building to something here. This is why energy expenditure comes into play. These people, do you think these people in the Himalayas for example are just sitting watching TV? Or are they plowing some land? Are they working? That's why you don't see the people moving a lot, having a lot of problems. Because they're expending the energy that is being stored. They're physically fit because they're moving. Meats, sweets, alcohol in the Bible are often tied to unhealthy lust, cravings and gluttony. I saw that consistently. The king's delicacies, right? Daniel. I'm going to avoid the king's delicacies. They call it a Daniel fast now. Too much of a good thing is often a bad thing. Too much of a good thing is often a bad thing. So let me get to number six. Hold it if you need to go to the restroom. I'm trying to get through this. Number six, consume the food and here's the way he created it. This is where you need to make the major change. Consume food not packaged by man in a factory, altered, but actually how God created. A great book, I've got like twelve copies out there. You can order this online. I'll promote it until the day I die. What the Bible Says About Healthy Living by Dr. Rex Russell. He breaks it down. What the Bible says about healthy eating. From unclean animals to clean animals to many different things. Consume the food and it's God given state the way he created it. I've got a picture here for you. If he shouldn't breathe it, why should we eat it? You're going to eat that. See I'm not sure we have a gluten problem. I think we have a pesticide and poison problem. Because research is too, if you go to organic gluten, gluten is just part of the wheat stock and how wheat was created. Now if people are gluten intolerant and it works for you, wonderful. But be careful because the food is actually being altered. And we're consuming this so we think I have a carbohydrate problem. No I have a poison problem. I have a gluten problem. No I have a poison problem. And here's what happens. This, many people take this right into the store and they consume it. I'm surprised we're not dropping dead like flies to be honest with you. Why? Because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And this never happened. Pesticides are all, I think blueberries are finding have nine different pesticides on them. Nine different chemicals on them that we're putting in. So consume the food and it's life and it's God given state the way He created it. I'd rather brush off, it might be gross, but I'd rather brush off a little bug off my apple. I mean the best grapes I've ever had we have in our backyard. And I have to share them with the ants. And the little birds like to come down. Right? But they taste like heaven. Because it's how God created it. And I won't say the name of the store but they will inject dye into their oranges so they look nice. Have you ever wondered why all the oranges are the same exact size? Same exact color? If you get organic oranges straight from a tree, they're this big, this, this weird. How God created it. So here's the key. The common denominator. The common denominator. I've watched Forks Over Knives twice now. I've read Atkins. The Paleo videos and books. I've read them. The ketogenic diet. I've studied that. I've read that. And just maybe in case you're not sure. The ketogenic diet is talking about ketones. It's a diet that focuses on burning fat. So in this diet they are more concerned about the macronutrient ratios. They want protein and fat high. Where the Paleo diet doesn't care necessarily about your carbs, fat and protein. They just say eat Paleo the way the early ancestors did millions of years ago. Just meat mainly and some berries and nuts. So they differ in different things. But why are they working for people? Why are people satisfied? Here's what I found out in my opinion. They eliminate junk food. They eliminate man-made, man-manipulated food and they just add their own spin to it. So they're all encouraging. I mean if you watch Forks Over Knives, they have an agenda I don't want to get into. But they are promoting, they are encouraging life-giving food. All these other diets I mentioned. They're promoting life-giving food the way, they won't say how God created. They'll say Mother Nature, not Father God. So all these diets that are working focus on getting people a healthier lifestyle, healthier eating. So that's where the benefits are coming from. So you're probably wondering when it comes to eating, what is my rule of thumb? What do I recommend? Well I'm glad you asked because I'm going to share it with you. Now this doesn't work for everybody. There's still people that might not agree. But from my reading of the Bible, from my reading of all these other diets, this is what I've come up with. This is actually what I do. Notice the key word here. My kids will tell you what I aim for. I actually blew it. I'm going to admit this. I'm going to just admit this. I blew it at McDonald's two months ago. We came back, we were up at Silverwood Lake all day, out by the lake, and I was starving. I was like, alright, I'm going to McDonald's for you guys. I got a chicken sandwich grilled. I just was sick all the way home. I'm just not used to that. My big struggle sometimes would be donuts and coffee. Love it. So see, I'm right there with you. I feel the struggle. But I also know there's hope. I know there's hope. So here's a rule of thumb looking at all the diets. The Bible says here's what I agree for, what I would shoot for. Aim for organic, grass-fed meat and raw dairy. Not every day and definitely not every meal in moderation. Okay? Now I can already hear it. Here comes the emails. Raw dairy? Everybody's going to get sick. Haven't you heard of Louis Pasteur and the pasteurized milk? Come on, Shane. Haven't you heard of it? Again, the way God designed it, God-given food. What the animal eats, you eat. So when you're eating the cow that has been given tons of steroids and hormones and growth hormones and eating GMO corn, genetically modified organisms, the corn, all this corn, this big fat cow, you're consuming those things versus a cow that is grass-fed, no pesticides. I should have mentioned that too. Right? And just eating clean, the meat is clean. And I also put on here, it's not every day. I don't eat this every day. And I don't eat it, definitely not every meal. Now here's something interesting. You might want to research this. The journal. Now this is just a journal of allergy and clinical immunology about the immune system. Okay? It's from their journal. It has shown that the consuming of raw milk will not in fact be a death sentence. Researchers, doctors, and other medical professionals from across Europe joined forces to investigate the effects of consuming raw milk and revealed that raw milk isn't just non-toxic but also yields some impressive health benefits. Essentially, raw milk helps to decrease inflammation while processed milk creates more inflammation. Many say that raw milk and honey are the perfect food. Have you ever heard that? How can a child survive a year on just mom's milk? And they say honey from bees, the perfect food. Is it ironic that God says I will give you a land flowing with milk and honey? Now here's a problem. You might be thinking, what happened with raw milk, Shane? What happened here? Well, here's what happened. Raw milk contains over 60 beneficial enzymes for digestion, immune system support, and growth. See, when you consume that raw, those enzymes help in digestion and your immune system. Pasteurization. Here's what pasteurization is. It heats up the milk so everything is killed. So you're basically drinking sugar water when you drink pasteurized milk. The life-giving force of that food is gone because you killed it in the heating process. That's just the truth. You can look, you can compare breast milk and you compare raw milk and they're just all these enzymes, all these benefits. And then you get into raw and you get into pasteurized and everything is gone and missing. So why did that happen? Well, and again, people have their own convictions here. Is it risky to eat raw? Yeah, it's risky to eat raw anything. There's no way about that. Raw chicken touches the wrong thing. Wrong, wrong, spinach. You know, people get sick from spinach and salad, from the bacteria. But the healthier a person is, the better able they are to fight off those things. When something comes in, the body attacks it because it's built up and it's strong. Here's what happened with the, I don't know why I'm getting on this milk kick because, but it is good to know. Does a mother's, does a mother's diet affect her breast milk? You ever seen a baby come off of a, come from a mother addicted to crack? It's a nightmare. Just cries, just tremendous pain. So what happened is they saw that the cows, the living condition of the cows, I think it was a hundred and some years ago, was deplorable, eating their own feces, all these things. So that cow was contaminated, giving it contaminated milk. Let me read you something I found from the Department of Agriculture in 1907. The Bureau, through its dairy, biochemical and pathological divisions, has made a special investigation of the milk supply in the city of Washington, in cooperation with the district authorities, with the result that very unsatisfactory conditions have been disclosed. So what was happening is the cows, the animals in terrible conditions were producing toxic milk. So the answer then is to kill the milk. Kill all bacteria, kill everything. Here it's pasteurized. So you won't get the benefits, is my point. You won't get the benefits because it's not how God created, you're giving the, you're receiving the living enzymes. I mean, I know it might be funny, but I'll buy, I'll get a quart of, of, of raw goat milk and it's gone that day. It just, and, and, you know, I, I drink, if I don't drink, if I can't have raw dairy, I usually don't have dairy. Now, father-daughter dance, right? A couple days ago, right? I mean, it's just, it's not perfect, but these are the goals we shoot for. Now, if you're going to, if you're going to argue this point, all I'm saying is do your research. I told you, do your research. Look at raw. Just look at the benefits of raw dairy. Look at the benefits of, and I'll actually have, okay, on this note, my snack. Raw yogurt, but no flavor. Raw yogurt, no flavor, and then a teaspoon of honey and a whole bunch of blueberries and organic whole grain, the way it was designed, granola. Very good. Very healthy. Good for the body. And you don't crave, you don't keep craving. Then, of course, fruit and vegetables in abundance, but clean, not with all that stuff. It's, it's funny, people always say, shame, but it costs more. Yeah, but so does cancer. It costs, and I think we went shopping yesterday for, for some of the food out front there. It's probably was $20 more for organic. So, you have to say, well, you know, I, I, and people, it's funny, the people who say that spend $4 a day at, at Starbucks. Hey, there's $120 a month. I can just, you're right there. You can switch. Oh, no, I don't want to do that. See, motivation is the key, right? Motivation is the key. I actually had somebody tell me, I don't care if I die early, I love a nut burger. So, we're just, motivation, motivation. So, fruit, vegetables, grains. See, I'm a big proponent of grains. I love whole organic pasta or breads that are yeast. There's four ingredients. You don't need 1,400 or 40 ingredients on the back. Just whole grain, the way God designed it. And you'll hear the low glycemic, high glycemic index, right? You ever heard that? Food such as white bread, with everything removed, just white bread, it gets into your body, boom, your blood sugar just shoots up because it's easily broken down. But if that bread is in its whole state, say Ezekiel bread is probably pretty close, or bread you make, and it's got the, the grains, the enzymes, the nutrition, the fiber, the bulk, when your body is, is, is absorbing it, it's low glycemic. It means your blood sugar levels don't spike up because that fat, that subsidence to the, to the bread slows down the absorption. Everything is slow and done right. See, it's all this junk. It's all this junk that's causing diabetes. It's all the junk, I believe, that's causing disease and different things. Now, snacks. I told you what I do for snacks. Raw yogurt with honey, granola, blueberries. I'll have a snack, so I'll eat a lot of nuts, a lot of nuts with raisins. And, and, and, and here's the thing, here's the thing I want to encourage you, because I know many people are going, oh my gosh, that does not sound good. You can actually change your taste buds. You can change what you crave. We see it all the time in the spiritual, right? We, we didn't like the things of God, now we crave the things of God. Once we're reborn, once we're filled with the Spirit, we begin to crave. So once you begin to make these choices, your body starts to change, you're feeling better. I actually, I know it's silly, but I crave broccoli dipped in hummus. Where does that come from? Bell peppers cut up with, with red, green, yellow bell peppers cut up and mixed with rice, with, with cumin, with salt, with, with healthy, where, where does that, the body wants that. Does it want the hamburger? Yeah, I mean, of course it's right there, you know, but it's not this driving force that my body has to have, because it's, it's more set on the good things. Now, question comes up, supplementation and protein drinks. Now, there's a lot of debate on this, just be careful on supplementation. Too much of a good thing can, can be a bad thing. I don't know if we need tons of supplementation unless you know what you're doing, because, for example, the body, here's another pet peeve of mine with juicing, even though I do juice, and I will juice tonight, a little bit maybe, but you're not, you're not maybe supposed to have 14 cucumbers and 28 carrots at one time, right, because the body doesn't know what to do with all that nutrients. It's, we weren't designed to do that, so when it comes to nutrients, Shane, should I take 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C, oregano oil, echinacea, elderberry, clodial silver, and just, you know, just be careful, because the body, some of those things are very good, but in abundance, we can actually do harm, and I do believe in protein drinks. I've got some examples out in the foyer of what I use. It's organic, if it's plant-based, or it's grass-fed organic, if it's whey, if it's casein from dairy, protein, you can get it from either source. Oh gosh, I could just stay here for a while too, but I'll say this. Plant-based protein, people say, you know, protein's protein, but not really. Plant-based protein is missing some of the things that animal protein offers. Vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin, different vitamin, fat-soluble vitamins, certain things, glutamine, you're not going to get from plant-based, so there are things you're missing when you don't have that meat. Let's get to this real quick. Refined sugar is not how God created, so just go ahead and throw that out. Just get rid of it. There are now 56 names for sugar. Corn syrup, it's all, it's all just garbage. If I told you where some of this stuff comes from, I don't want to misspeak here, but I think it's, I think it's corn syrup or something, maybe we can clarify it in the Q&A if one of the guys knows, but it's, or high fructose, it's like a derivative, it's like a leftover from factories, or they're doing something with it, so hey, let's just sell it to food companies. I mean, it's not even for food, and that's what we're consuming. Mercury now is being found in everything from donuts, not just fish, to all this stuff because of all this toxicity. Now I was going to bring on this example, I'm going to give you an example. In 1800, in 1800s, the average person consumed 5 teaspoons of sugar. Any guess what it is now? 56 teaspoons, and I was going to go to the store and buy 56 plastic spoons, and I was going to spill them all right here for you, for an example. 56 teaspoons a day, and they said that's, that's average. Now you can go over that with all these cola drinkers that are having 10-15 teaspoons in one soda. So the reason I'm bringing this up is motivation. You see where the problem is, right? Getting away from how God designed us. Sugar and junk food is the problem. Junk meat and junk dairy is the problem. Junk carbohydrates, all that is the problem. They rob our health rather than invest in our health. Now you add to that alcohol, medication, caffeine, we've created a very unhealthy environment. All those things. Remember medication, they're fixing, and I'm not one person that is against never taking medication ever, ever, but I think the majority of people need to look very carefully at what they're taking because the downside of medication, it's actually called side effects, and you can read all about them on the bottle. So once you take something, it's actually a toxic aspirin. Oh, take an aspirin for your heart, it thins the blood. Well, it's actually a toxic thing that's hard to produce. Your liver has to, here's what your body has to do with, I don't understand this, I don't know what this is, I have to try to get rid of this, and it taxes the body. It's difficult on the body. And I love the people that come up to me, yeah, but my grandma lived to be 93 drinking scotch and smoking cigars. Wonderful. The exception, not the rule. The fact that proves there's a rule, right? There's a rule to taking care of our body. Here's an interesting thing, your body will call, on the phone, not really, I'm just showing you an example, your body will call from your joints and from your bones and other areas of your body when it needs nutrients. See, when your body needs calcium or something, it's going to get it. Where does it get it? Bye bye bones. Oral health is affected, our immune system is affected. Your body will rob from other areas to get what it needs. I mean, it breaks my heart when I go to the schools or when I go to different things. Nothing they are eating, basically, is giving any life to the body. Here's what food does. You eat the apple, right? Those enzymes, those vitamins, those minerals, the living apple. As soon as you take it from the tree, the apple begins to die because it's no longer connected to the source. You take that living food and you consume it and it gives your body that same life, the vitamins, the minerals. You take that avocado, you take that banana, you take the food as God designed it, you take Captain Crunch and pasteurized milk. I don't even know how we get through. There's just nothing substantiated. There's just nothing in there that gives life to the body. Disease and cancer are on the rise because we are deficient in our nutrients and the things that actually fight cancer. Now, here's the thing. We're talking about fighting disease. I'm going to give you a big surprise here. Nobody's divided on this issue. Nobody. No physician I've ever read, no book I've ever seen. Here is what will fight cancer and disease. Are you ready for these? No, it wasn't too encouraging. All right. Straw hat, Mexican food, In-N-Out Burger, Carl's Jr. Oh, wrong list. Leafy green vegetables. Why? Because that green, those enzymes, those vitamins and minerals, they go and they fight the disease. The key for disease and any disease is you are either fighting it or you are fueling it if it's health related. You're either fighting the disease with nutrients or you're fueling it by junk. Leafy greens, berries, bright orange colored fruits and veggies, citrus fruits, squash, sweet potatoes, fresh herbs and spices. Herbs and spices, you'd be amazed at what like cumin does or turmeric. These spices, oregano oil, these spices that will just kill. It's just like acid on disease because God gave them to us. Organic meats, cultured dairy products. Cultured means fermented. Fermentation was practiced thousands of years ago. It's very good for the digestive system to have something that is, I like to have sauerkraut that is organic and fermented. Kabocha, be careful, it's got a high, there's alcohol content and caffeine but that is one drink. Q&A, so this is all for the Q&A. Nuts and seeds, these all fight cancer. Now something that stood out, organic meats. What's he talking about? Well, Dr. Axe, popular guy right now, he said organic meats including beef or chicken liver are recommended on many cancer fighting diets since they are considered some of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. Extremely high in B12. Consuming organic meats is part of a nosetail approach to eating animal proteins. Provides minerals that help cleanse the liver and enhance the ability to remove toxins from the blood and the digestive tract. They're rich in psyllium, zinc, vitamin B. It helps to purify the blood. So that's their take. So we might say, great, I'll go to a place, I'll go get something good at Costco or McDonald's or Sharky's over there, right? No, it's not organic grass fed. But Sharky says all natural. It's not organic grass fed. All natural is a trick. It's a little trick of the trade. All natural. Means we didn't do anything to it, but whoever we bought it from probably did a lot to it. You know, so look these things up. Do your own research. Number seven. Oh, goodness gracious. I'm going to go quick. I'm sorry. I know you're, well, let me just, I have to do number seven. Hit the reset button often. Hit the reset button often. Well, Shane, what is that? Reset means to realign, to bring back, to restore, right? Here's the reset button. It's not going to be popular. Let me turn away this way when I say the word. Fasting. Oh my goodness. Fasting hits the reset button. When you give, when you pray, and when you fast. God said, now it's interesting. We love the spiritual benefits, right? But the physical benefits are amazing. Amazing. I'm just going to read this. Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, a psychiatrist at the University of Moscow, treated schizophrenic patients with water fast only for 25 to 30 days, followed by eating foods in their purest form for 30 days. 70% of his patients remained free from symptoms for the duration of the six year study. And I've got study after study after study. Why? Because we were not designed to be in feasting mode all the time. Your body was designed to consume, store, and go without for a season. It gives your immune system a break. It gives your digestive system a break. Your body begins to heal itself. It says, I need fuel. I'm going to your fat for fuel. And I might grab those diseased cancer cells. That's what I'm going after first for the fuel. Your body begins to consume all these things. So fasting is not starvation. Fasting is actually completely natural. Eating all the time is not. Here's what fasting does, right? You switch from primarily carbohydrates to burning your fat. So fasting is not starvation. It's switching your energy source. And it's cleansing the body. Because what happens, they call it de novo lipogenesis. De novo means created. Genesis means in the beginning. So your body will actually create lipogenesis. Your body will create fat if too much is consumed. De novo is a Latin word. It means to create. So your body creates fat. The thing we want to get rid of, your body creates it when we have too much. So fasting kills all of this. Biblical speaking, people moved a lot more. They fasted. They didn't eat for days. Now we say, oh my gosh, it's so hard. And it's so hard. And don't worry, I've got answers for you. Here's the encouragement. Start slow. Start slow. Miss a meal. Then miss two. It does, your body begins to adjust. For example, I ate yesterday. And I might eat again later today. And I won't go until tomorrow evening. Because when I'm preaching, I like to just empty something. But your body begins to listen. And if it's a clean running system, you don't get the headaches and the severe withdrawals if you're off of these things that cause it. Sugar, caffeine, all these things. You have to get the body in a state that it's ready. So it takes time. A book I want to recommend, God's Chosen Fast. God's Chosen Fast. And from that book, he said this, there are multitudes of disease which have their origin in fullness and they might have their end in fasting. Now as an example, two weeks ago, I told some of you, I mentioned it at the sermon. I went seven days with water only. And you will not die. Right? I actually lost eight pounds, gained about three back. That's it. Maintaining a healthy diet. I didn't splurge. The body was ready. And the funny thing is, I can't wait to do it again. You're like, what? Because after two days or so, three days, your body begins to burn the fat as fuel. And it's something called ghrelin. Ghrelin. It sounds like gorilla. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone that begins to, grumbling, ghrelin, right? Here's a hunger hormone. But that will actually subside and go back to base levels after a few days. And on day six, I felt like I was in heaven. I cleaned the house, cleaned the backyard, went and worked out. No food for six days. Because the body gets into a ketonic state where now the ketones, the fat is being used as fuel. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, that's how we were created. It just, you get on your camel with your cranberries and your walnuts and you might not eat for two more days. It's just, you walk and you, but now we're so inundated with food. So be careful in this area. I've got a whole thing on fasting, but go to our website and put in fasting if you want more information. It definitely helps insulin levels and diabetes. Of course, be careful. Do some research first. Talk to your physician. They won't actually recommend fasting. They'll probably look down on you. So don't tell too many people when you do it. You're like, well, what are you doing that for? You're starving yourself? No, I'm actually healing myself. I'm converting this energy that, the longest recorded fast, a water only. You ready for this? 382 days. He was 450 pounds. He dropped 180 and he went back to 196 and maintained there. He was under doctor supervision. The only thing he took was a supplement, but you think three, let's just say 300 pounds overweight. I can't even do the math. Times 300 times 3,500, 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. So this guy's at, who knows, times 3,500 times 300. He had that much reserves. It's, I know people that have went 40 days. I, Tony, who's going to do the Q and A's went 14 days, water only. Talk to these people. And here's where you got to be careful though. It's not legalism. It's not rules. It's not, you know, this it's, it's enjoyment. I have a hunger for God. That's why I do it because the flesh is all the natural cravings are gone or minimized when you're fasting and you're spiritually in tune with God. You're, you're, you're, you feel so much better, but I don't want to come into this, this legalistic. You have to do it. It's something we should want to do. And actually it's natural. It's quite natural for the body to fast. It's interesting, 24, 36 hours, your carbohydrate storage are depleted. Now your body shifts to ketones and fat for fuel. It's just like that. But the reason we can't do it is because we're so toxic. Headache the first day. So you wean off caffeine. You wean off, right when I go into a fast, usually I'm just fruits, nuts, whole salads, tons of, of, of bear, you know, berries, avocado. And I go into a fast trying to already have the body clean and ready. And I love the benefits to me. And I have these books talk about, there's a book on all the benefits that people, testimonies from fasting. It would take, it would eat, they would have maybe a, a boil or something on their leg or a cancer tumor. It would just consume it. It would consume their facial, their, their, their face. They would look 10 years younger. All these testimonies because the body is repairing itself. When you fast, another thing interesting, your growth hormone levels skyrocket. That prevents aging. Testo, because we age because our testosterone, our growth hormone, all those things begin to die. Fasting increases those. So the strength increase, it's a wonderful thing. It's a missing, it's a missing element. Many people don't want to talk about it because it's hard to talk about what you don't practice. A good book I, I listen to, it's called The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung. The Complete Guide to Fasting took me seven hours on Audible and I did, do my fast to keep me motivated. So you can do things like that. Now, the only reason I'm recommending it is for about 90% of it. 10% of it I don't agree with because they come from a evolutionary background. It's funny, they'll say, well, Mother Earth created this way. I say, no, God did. I mean, look, it's just crystal clear. It's crystal clear. And he, he loves to have, he, he recommends having a big, strong, black cup of coffee first thing in the morning on your fast. Bad idea. Bad idea. The problem is many of these, many physicians are addicted to caffeine. And they don't want to give it up. I go to the local cardiologist, I go sit in the office, a huge big cup of coffee brewing, it says, big words, do not have before your cardio tests. Why is that? Now, not to mention the chemicals and the things, and even decaf. The eighth point, well, I'll leave you with this and then get to 9-10, remove your addictions. If you want to take care of your body, remove the sugar, the nicotine, the alcohol, the medications, and the caffeine. Remove these things. And I wish I had time to go through the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Disorders. It lists caffeine-related disorders such as caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, and caffeine-induced sleep disorder, all causing havoc on our families. Read the book, Caffeine Blues, if you're interested. He breaks down all these testimonies. He even made a statement that I had to highlight here for you. He said, I have counseled, he's a doctor, I have counseled more than 9,000 patients and kept careful records regarding their compliance and level of success. All of my recommendations, including weight loss, dietary changes, exercise, and stress management, no single factor matched the impact of caffeine reduction. So he said, I can recommend a good diet, I can recommend all these things, but nothing made a bigger impact. And if you still like your caffeine, then have a green tea. Organic green tea. I could just stay here for a while, too. You see that guy spraying stuff? They spray it all over coffee beans. All over coffee beans, all over tea. Tea has herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides. You put the teabag right into your water, you drink those chemicals. So it's very important to get organic, not sprayed. Just say, don't touch it. My goodness, folks, don't touch it. How did God put it together? How did God do it? Well, we have to kill all the little insects, right? Because you want to sell 1,000 tons of that, not 90,000 tons, because 10,000 tons might be damaged by insects. See, it's all money driven. All of it's money driven. Revenue, how can we increase our revenue? That's why that happens. Do you know that's why they do it? They'll have to throw away 25% of their produce because of little worms, little insects. So it's all money driven. So remove those addictions. Number nine, feed your motivation. You've got to feed your motivation. Articles, books, sermons. Get this CD. Another book I recommend, Dr. Michael Brown. He wrote an incredible book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Great read. So on this area, feed your motivation. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Keep the motivation coming. And for a parent, what about our children? I just read an article, obesity among young, the youth is skyrocketing. We are setting them up for failure before life even begins. And that's my concern. Here's the thing with motivation. Parents, if there's a problem in our kids in this area, we're to blame. We're to blame. If it's in the pantry, it's in the refrigerator, we put it there. They're consuming it. I'm just shooting you straight. You'd be amazed that when there's grapes and carrots and apples in there, what do the kids grab? My son just got so mad three days ago, there's nothing here to eat. Okay, let me make you a list. Buckwheat organic pancakes. Whole organic cereal. Rice and beans, organic. I can cook it for you. Fruits, veggies, and all the nuts you want. See, I had a list of ten things they could eat. You remember, huh? Ten things they could eat. I don't like it, but you've got to train them. Train them, right? And do they get the McDonald's ice cream now and then? Yes. Father-daughter dance. Yes. See, it doesn't become a... I mean, it's hard to find the balance though. I mean, you're either going to just go hog wild or you're gonna have to put some disciplines in place and be called a little fanatical. Well, that's a little hard. Well, here comes Shane. I can't eat my chocolate bar. I tell him, eat your chocolate bar. I don't care. It's funny. It's hard for me to go, oh, Shane's here. Oh, don't care. Ask my wife. I don't go around judging people at all. I know what I need to do. I know what I need to do. I don't look at what they're eating or consuming. I mean, if it were up to me, that coffee thing next door would not exist. Watching little kids drink caffeine, it breaks my heart. That is hurting them. A Coke for a five-year-old will harm them. Read the research. Read the research. They're little bodies. They're on crack. And the last point, I want to just throw this out there. You have to fall forward. You have to fall forward. Our relationship with God is far more important. And knowing most of you in this room, I know that you already know Him. But if you don't know Him, if you've never repented, you don't know God, this is pales in comparison. This means nothing. You've got to get your life right with God. Fix that disease first. Fix that ailment first. And then you have to fall forward. Here's what I mean by that. The only difference between those who succeed and those who fail is that they keep getting up. They fall forward. I mess up every single week. There's not a week that goes by that I don't, shouldn't have ate that. But then here's what we do. Well, I'll just blow it tonight then. I'll go to Cold Stone. Well, I had Cold Stone last night. Here comes Krispy Kreme. While you're at it, strong black coffee. I'm gonna get back on that black stuff. I need the energy. And then what the heck? Let's stop by wherever. Pollo Loco or Carl's Jr. Now forget it. I'm just a mess. Now I'm three pounds heavier on the scale. I'm just a depressed mess. No, you fall forward. You fall. It's not about perfection. It's about wanting to invest. And actually, here's the funny thing. We take a vacation, right? And we've already told the kids, we know you can get one choice a day. You know, you want an ice cream cone? You want some chocolate? You know, let's just, we're gonna enjoy it. But it doesn't become, because if you're not careful, it becomes an addiction. Have you ever been addicted to chocolate? That's a hard one. The hardest thing I've ever, I still struggle with it, I'm honest, is coffee and caffeine. It's a hard, alcohol is no problem. You get that stuff, it's like, because it doesn't ruin families, right? You're not gonna get a D.U.C. driving under coffee. You know, it's pretty, it's pretty, but it, so these things are hard, so I'm right there with you. But no temptation is too great. As a Christian, no temptation has overtaken you. But what is common to all men, but God is faithful, will provide a way. That's why I love fasting. You come out of fasting, you are empowered, you are strengthened. I could actually kept going if my wife and family didn't come back from visiting Hume Lake. I could have just kept going on that fast, because the body's in submission. See, it takes a few days where you got to beat up that, you know, you got to fight, it's warfare. Where did we tell, where did it change from Christians as warfare to Christians as pansies? Is that word okay? I don't know, I didn't look it up. But we changed from these fighting warriors that fought the flesh to these wimp people that just passive and grace filled and give up and let the flesh dominate in every area of life. I read the words of Paul that we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, that we're to fight the good fight, that we're to not be enslaved to anything. But most of us are enslaved. Your body will change, it takes time. Here's the key, what steps are you going to take today? Here's what I love about right choices. It fuels more right choices. When I go to bed last night saying I have a handful of walnuts and a cut-up watermelon, I get up wanting to continue that pattern. When I go on a long bike ride, do I want to go to In-N-Out Burger? Or do I want to make a protein shake with flax seed oil or flax seed and fiber content, a little bit of organic peanut butter and a banana and feed those nutrients? And see, right choices fuel more right choices. So you just get back, so my advice today, starting today, eat some of those snacks instead of lunch. And it will take time, it will take time. So on that note, I want to pray with you after the Q&A, you can take your life back, you can get back on track in this area.