Shane Idleman addresses the pervasive issue of addiction, particularly focusing on food addiction and the cravings that can overwhelm individuals. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the metabolic impact of our dietary choices and encourages a lifestyle change rather than temporary dieting. Shane highlights the need for motivation, accountability, and a commitment to healthier eating habits, while also discussing the role of spiritual health in overcoming addiction. He advocates for consuming whole, God-given foods and avoiding processed options that contribute to health issues. Ultimately, Shane calls for a holistic approach to health that includes physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

With all things, I have to say this, here's a big disclaimer, most of you know what it is right? Make sure to check with your physician, doctor, you got it, before encountering any type of weight loss program or health program. I think we just say that to say that, but it is good to do, I think, to maybe get some motivation as well. A lot of what I'm going to cover as well, I covered in July, some of you were here in July, so a lot of the information is some brand new truth out there. What we have is a doing problem. We know what to do, most of us, we just don't do it, correct? Should we eat an apple or a Snickers bar? I think we all know. Should we watch three hours of TV or go walk? See, we all know. Should we eat Captain Crunch or a good God-given salad? See, you guys know. We know what to do, but it's that motivation, so I'm hoping I can help with that motivation. But a couple things, 40 to 80 million Americans, from when we just checked, 40 to 80 million Americans suffer from compulsive overeating. 40 to 80 million Americans, and I'm going to try to make sure this doesn't ruin too much of me or help take the tone away here in my voice, but I'm going to try to just get through this as well as I can. So bear with me, they diagnosed me with bronchitis Wednesday and he recommended antibiotics and I said, well, just let me give it a day, and I started to get a little bit better, so I haven't done that yet. I'm not against that, but I think it needs to be a last resort, not a first. So 40 to 80 million Americans suffer from compulsive overeating, and a national priority just came out recently. I shared this with some of you. Doctors are now prescribing, are you ready for this? You got your pen and paper? Doctors are now prescribing fruits and vegetables. Poor diet is among the greatest health and social challenge, I don't think this is going to work, challenge of our time. Did you catch that? Poor diet is among the greatest health and social challenge of our time. Medicare and Medicaid now consume 25% of the national budget. What that means is our national budget that is extremely high, 25% of that goes to fund Medicare and Medicaid. Now is that getting better? It's only going to increase. The reason America is sick is because of what we consume, how we take care of our bodies, or a lack of how we take care of our bodies. So throwing more money at it isn't going to work, even universal health care isn't going to work, it's going to tax the system. You've got to get back to taking care of, why not rewarding people for taking care of this gift that God has given them. And we also talked about in July the power of food, the power of food and we are finding out that disease is more metabolic than genetic. Disease is more metabolic than genetic, did you know that? Now you might wonder what I'm talking about and it's this, what I mean by disease is more metabolic than genetic. A lot of times they thought that disease was in your genes, you were raised a certain way, or your parents had this, or that means you're going to have it. But they're finding that disease is metabolic, meaning what we consume, our metabolism, what we metabolize. So by taking in foods that are not good and not getting enough vitamins and nutrients and enzymes and phytochemicals and all the things that God has given us, it really messes up our DNA. It sends this signal and it decreases this signal and people are becoming sick, not necessarily because of their genes, but because of metabolic reasons. We're creating a lot of that and you can do a lot of your own research on this. I taught before on microbiomes, which are the bacteria, the gut bacteria in our intestines and different things that play a huge role in how we feel mentally, how we feel physically. They begin, they're the culture of the gut, the gut culture. That's where probiotics, that's why they became very popular. Probiotics means giving life for life. Antibiotics means against life, destroying life. And that's basically what an antibiotic would do. For example, if I decide to take that antibiotic, it would wipe out all type of bacteria in the body. And I asked the doctor, what about if this is viral? And they said, well, it's not going to work. So you're kind of gambling just at that as well. It's more for bacterial infections. So an antibiotic wipes out everything, including what is good. So when your body begins to, you know, start to get healthy again, your immune system is very taxed. It's very shot. And the tendency of getting sick again happens very easily because you've killed all the good soldiers as well as the bad soldiers. But we're not against that. I think there's a time and a place for it. For example, if I was progressing and it was turning into pneumonia, which is fluid in the lungs, there's a, you know, you gotta, you gotta make that decision to, to beef it up a little bit. But the medical approach is often drugs. So that's why we have to start looking at how God designed us. Because if you go to a doctor, they're going to prescribe drugs. That's exactly what happened in my case on Wednesday here. We're going to give you this high dosage of these two different antibiotics. That's his protocol, not let's drink a lot of fluid. Let's have you fast because food actually fuels a disease as well. Hippocrates and a lot of the ancient, you can take this back thousands of years of ancient medicine where they would say to starve the body when a person is sick, to not feed it. And that's a really good thing. So, but the medical profession, often they don't know that. So they'll recommend statin drugs, or they'll recommend this type of drug, or they recommend this type of drug. And those really don't fix the problem. For example, if I have high cholesterol, taking a statin drug to tell my liver to stop producing cholesterol is probably not the best way to go about that. That's not how we were designed to do. How we were designed is to lose the weight, to eat the right proper food, and exercise, and to move, and the body begins to heal itself. And they're finding all diseases, most of them, depression, disease, any type of disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, most of them are deficiency related. So there's some types of deficiency that takes place in our body by what we consume. And it was just sad the other day, I was walking through Costco and I saw a three-pack of Captain Crunch. Like that is the last thing, that's the last thing these kids need. You turn it over, the first ingredient, GMO, genetically modified corn, not good. The next ingredient, terrible type of sugar, refined sugar. Those are the two types of ingredients. Then it goes on to list the preservative, and the chemicals, and the things, and it's just, the food does not, your Captain Crunch is going to stay on your shelf for about 10 years unless it gets thrown in the trash. It will not go bad. And what you have to remember in all of this is formulating a diet plan, an exercise plan, is we are to eat life-giving food. You eat the carrot for the beta carotene, the phytochemicals, your body needs those. So that life of the plant is given to you, that life is given to our body. But taking a dead hamburger, or Captain Crunch, or a chip, or white bread that's in processed and enriched, and all the everything good is removed from it, doesn't really give anything back to the body. It takes from the body. And that's why we're seeing the disease to the degree we are seeing. I've shared this before too, I've watched videos of America back in the 50s, 60s, and there was hardly anyone that was overweight. It just, there wasn't that many people at all, especially in the 40s, 30s. I mean, it just happened that now we've become more sedentary, so we've got to work harder. And it's, I've shared this before, it's a struggle for me as someone who was struggling with my weight early on, and still can. It's a monster ready to just take you over again. If you struggle with something once, it's going to come and knock on the door again as often as it can. But we see that there's a moving problem, and there's a feeding problem that is leading to the big problems of health-related illness. And again, the big news today is the microbiomes, it's a massive community of microorganisms. And here's what we have to remember, food either encourages healthy bacteria, or it fights against it. Let me say that again, food either encourages health, or it fights against it. And food additives now, chemicals, artificial sweeteners, they all kill the important gut bacteria. That's the point I was getting to, this good God-given gut bacteria. That's why you hear probiotics, like from sauerkraut, fermented food, a lot of the good things that add into our body. We'll see the harmful foods begin to, and the chemicals, and artificial sweeteners, and all those things begin to kill the good gut bacteria. So we're wondering why sickness is on the rise, and why everyone seems to be sick these days. It's because of our diet, actually. And you've heard the word out there, free radicals. This is when something in our body is dangerous, from food primarily, but there's oxidative stress and different things. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. Free radicals are things that are going around in your body, and healthy food goes like Pac-Man, and begins to eat and consume those free radicals, and gets rid of a lot of those cancer-causing agents. Another reason to eat good God-giving foods. And that's really what this is about, living food versus dead food. And so when you formulate a weight loss plan, or a healthy diet, you have to remember that you have to have a lot of healthy food, life-giving food. But what does a typical American diet have? The complete opposite. I mean, we'll go grab a bag of Cheetos and Gatorade. We think we're good. Or stop at the store, let me run and get some pretzels. Or, you know, you name it. Most food that we eat is food that is not going to give any nourishment back to the body. And Nancy Appleton had a great article. She lists 76 ways that sugar harm us. And I believe it was called, Counting the Many Ways Sugar Harms Your Health. You can find that online. Among some of the most significant ways are that sugar feeds cancer cells. And the reason is, they're finding that it feeds primarily off glucose. Glucose feeds the cancer cells. It's a very quick energy for cancer cells. And that's why they're recommending often fasting for cancer. They've seen their studies, many studies, where tumors have shrunk. Cancer has been desecrated when people went on long-term fast because it starves the fuel source that is feeding that cancer. Again, in many cases, it's not a cure-all. Actually, fasting is not a cure-all. Fasting doesn't cure anything. What it does is it allows the body to begin to repair and rebuild itself the way it was designed to do. Most of us have cancer cells. I don't know if you knew that. I didn't want to give you the bad news this morning. Most of us, if not all of us, have those types of cells. But what happens? The body goes in and consumes it. Autophagy takes place. Autophagy means self-consuming. Your cells know what cells are bad, what cells are good, and it will begin to annihilate and eliminate those cells unless the battle begins to be put in the enemy's side. How? By processed foods, by no living food, by no exercise, by our environment, by toxic stress, by everything's just hard on the body. You begin to put your body in a toxic state, and we begin to that battle. She also connected it to feeding cancer cells, but also with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder, and stomach. We're saying, why is sugar such a big deal? Well, it's a big deal because I think it was 150 years ago, the average person had about six teaspoons of sugar. Now, I think we're averaging 50, 60 of those per day, per person. So you take also what is refined sugar. It's sugar that's been stripped. In other words, if you take a sugar cane and you sit and you eat it, you're not going to get all that sugar. You're going to have to eat quite a bit of sugar cane. You're getting the fiber, the phytochemicals, the plant, the life of the food. It's a little bit of sugar, but you start to really just take all the good stuff out and just sugar in high concentrates. It almost reminds me of a drug. That's what they do with drugs. They get it to such a high concentrate level. So now we're consuming sugar in our bread. Did you know that? Teaspoon of sugar in a slice of bread. Go figure. Do you really need to do that? Sugar and your ketchup. Really, guys? Because these places know what's highly addictive. And the food industry, I could spend an hour on that. A lot of it's about marketing and they have scientists on staff make great money figuring out what is highly addictive and then making sure their product is highly addictive. Do you ever crave certain things? No, not craving broccoli, not craving bell peppers, not craving a big salad, but you're craving the things that are highly processed because they have been designed that way to be addictive. And that's the whole point of some of this program. So let me talk about in part one here, nine keys to a successful program and why I don't call it dieting. I just believe in health overall because diets don't work. Do you know why they don't work? Most people gain them back. They fall off. Diets don't work. Here's the brief reason. I actually wrote a book. My first book was What Works When Diets Don't. And you can get copies of that as well online at the church website, wcfav.org, under books. You can download that one free as well. But dieting prepares us for a short-term experience. And a short-term experience can't solve a long-term problem. My problem with food is going to be a life-long struggle. God might deliver some people. Praise God for that. Amen. You know, I never have to struggle with food again. Well, that's wonderful, but that's not the majority of us. It's a lifelong struggle. So going on this diet, trying this drink, doing this little program for a season isn't going to work because it's a short-term experience. This is a lifestyle change. So that's number one. It's a lifestyle commitment. And this is why many don't succeed. They're not in it for the long haul. And I've told people that and they're like, oh, that's so depressing. To me, it's not. It's about living a more abundant, full life, feeling better, having more energy for my kids, being a better example, being a better pastor. It's the abundant life. I think being addicted to something, being grumpy, gaining weight, always being sick, that doesn't sound very appealing to me. But the flesh will tell us, you know, I want these things. That doesn't sound too exciting to the flesh. It never is. So kind of get that in your mind. It's a lifestyle commitment, being healthy. If you do have the advantage, I mean, if you do have the privilege of doing that, not everyone is healthy or they can't for reasons that they cannot control. But that's number one. Make it a lifestyle commitment today. Now, does that mean perfection? Of course not. Now, unless you're, I mean, I don't know if you heard Michael Brown talk, but he mentioned that he doesn't cheat on his diet. I'm like, wow, that's pretty impressive. And somebody asked him, do you cheat on your diet? And he said, do you cheat on your spouse? Because he puts it up there with, you know, making commitment. There's some truth to that as far as, you know, if you're the type of person, when you slip off that diet or when you give in, if you keep slipping, you might be a good idea to have a no compromise rule for a season. Because if we keep going back to old habits and keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result, that's the definition of insanity. It really is doing the same thing, but expecting different results. So there has to come a point where it becomes a lifestyle commitment. And then number two, this is big. Don't expect immediate results. Don't expect immediate results. Amen. You know what the number one commercial has been? I don't know if it's still out there. Lose 30 pounds in 30 days. The only way, the only way that's going to happen is if you decide to go on a water fast for 30 days. You know, that's about the average is a pound a day. You'll lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Don't buy this belt. Take this pill. You know, I saw something, you only have to exercise seven minutes a day. See, it's a marketing ploy designed to keep us out of shape and to keep us dependent upon them. So you have to set realistic goals. You don't expect immediate results. Sometimes it takes longer than you had hoped for. Does anyone have, have you ever hit a plateau? I'm going to explain that in a little bit too, but a plateau in your program means your body has adapted to what you're doing. It's very, you're, you're, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Do you know that your body is not thinking like you're thinking your body is thinking survival. So when you begin to lower your calories over a consistent amount of time, your body lowers its metabolism. And that's why calorie restriction diets don't work long-term. That's one thing I've taken out of my book from 20 years ago, because that's what we taught. We there, there's some, there's, there's points where it's really about not eating less. It's about letting eating less often, but I also believe you do have to monitor caloric intake. In this sense, if you eat too much, you will gain weight. There's no way around that. So you have to eat the right types of foods. You have to stay highly active. For example, in my, and when I've went really healthy before, I noticed I was not losing weight. I was gaining weight and I was eating healthy. But my idea of healthy was about two cups of peanuts a day, a peanut like cashews and walnut. Yeah. Anybody have any idea what two cups of peanuts, how many calories are in there? I don't know. I haven't looked, but probably 1200 or so is least what I was eating. So see, it was good, but Shane, you have to worry about calories. You see good food. Well, that was going to get me gaining my weight back. If I just keep eating all these peanuts and all these nuts. So we have to be strategic on that. So my point was this, there's something called adaptation. Your body adapts to what you're doing. Uh, do you ever work out and get amazing results? And then those results aren't so amazing anymore because your body's adapted to what you're doing. So to give you just upfront view of what my thoughts are on, on diet. And I think you need to change things around sometime, just like we are created being seasonal. Uh, if we only eat the same way, do the same thing, your body will be used to that and it'll begin to adapt it. That's why intermittent fasting is real popular right now is because it shocks your body. It doesn't know, okay, my feasting today or my fasting today. And so you're kind of, you're, you're, for me, I'll, you know, maybe I'll go on a walk for an hour for a while and then I'll, I'll change it up to a jogging up some Hills and I'll change up my diet a little bit and add some meat in. And, and you're just, you're, you're, you're changing things around. So your body doesn't adapt to what you're doing. And if it does adapt to what you're doing, you can simply break it by breaking a plateau by, uh, for example, if you're consistently walking and walking, walking or treadmill, treadmill, and you're, you've plateaued, then you'll want to either increase the time, uh, increase, do more or increase the intensity, maybe put it on a slope. And so it's harder workout. And now your body has to adjust to what, what, what it just got used to. Uh, so a good trainer will know that they'll know that your body has to, has to be, um, not constant planning on the same thing. So again, I want to just reemphasize number two, don't expect immediate results. That would be nice, but don't expect that. Number three, plea preplanned is prepared. Do you know the most re the, the, the reason most people fall off of the weight loss wagon and health wagon is because they're not prepared, right? Does that birthday party ever knock you off course? And then that vacation, and then that trip here and that full day here. And it just, you just, you're not, you're not preplanned. So when you are preplanned, you're prepared. You prepare for those types of things. Um, for example, we just went about a week ago to my daughter's, uh, gymnastics in, in Friday or Friday a week ago. Yeah. From yesterday was, uh, her gymnastics meet. And we were told the whole team was going to go to cheesecake factory. And all day at the meet there's vendors, hot dogs, chip, you know? So I just came prepared with what? An igloo. You come prepared. Okay. Apples, oranges, some nuts, make some sandwiches. Our Morgan's mom brought sandwiches, tuna. And we just, we had, we're prepared for that because if not, that can really set you back. Can it not? If I don't bring anything and I walk into an all half day venue and there's hot dogs and now I'm hungry. And the only thing I have is another hot dog. And then they had sell Coke. And, um, then at night there's cheesecake factory. And then they wake up in the morning. There's a continental breakfast. Boy, look at those captain crunch things and all those pastries and, and see, you're not forget it. I'll just cave in. So if you're you're not planning for these dates, for example, when I go to the airport, if I'm, if I'm gone all day, if I'm flying, I'll take some protein powder and a little container that the airport will allow. And you have nuts or you'll fast for 10 hours, 12 hours, because you have to constantly fighting against the pull of society to bring you back into this unhealthy lifestyle. It doesn't mean you don't have a treat now and then, but yet, but it's what's when we're not prepared. It's what really knocks us off course, the barbecue here, the potluck there, the birthday, the anniversary, the dinner, the get together. I'm too busy. I'm in a hurry at work. See how it all adds up throughout the course of the week. We're not prepared. So pre-planned means you'll be prepared. Uh, one thing we like to do when possible is have meals prepared and you don't have a lot of, you don't have to have a lot prepared, but we'll have, let's say cooked some cooked chicken or, um, a lot of beans and in the refrigerator with already cut the salad already cut up. I've showed you pictures before, cut up of cabbage and celery. And all you do is just pour everything together into a big bowl. So it's ready to go because I don't know about you, but I don't want to take 30 minutes to make a salad all the time. Right? Chick-fil-A sounds a little better. Just stop. But I did this once. I did a couple of times. Actually I've timed it. Okay. By the time I would drive somewhere, stay in line, order something, get back home and eat. I could have made something very healthy. See, it's not, it's often not time. It's how we prioritize our time and what we want. I have, I would love that crispy chicken sandwich with French fries and a chocolate shake. Right? Come on. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. We, you know, but that's what the flesh wants. And if we're not controlling it, it's controlling us. So I have backup plans. You know, like I mentioned, taking a healthy protein powder. Number four is huge. We know this, but sometimes it's hard. Number four, out of sight, out of mind. I won't have something in my house that I'm going to struggle with. Anybody love dark chocolate dipped in peanut butter? I don't have a lot of that in my house. What's your, what's your, what's your, uh, what's your Delilah? Is it sitting in your pantry and sitting in your refrigerator? It's in, and we go back to it, back to the, back to the ice cream, back to this and out of sight, out of mind. It's really that simple. Uh, if you're, if it's not home, if it's not your home, it's not going to affect you, especially when you're raising kids, uh, whatever's in the refrigerator, they're going to grab if, if they're so excited there's ice cream, if there's junk, that's what they're going to grab. But if they can't go drive little Johnny's gonna have to eat what's in there. And after a little bit of complaining, when they get hungry enough, they'll grab an apple. They'll grab some cut up carrots and, and, or celery and dip it in some healthy peanut butter. There's, there's, there's ways around that. And then number five, expect a fight, expect a fight. This will not be easy. Amen. Most of you who are here, if not all of you know, this is not easy. Uh, so when we see, when you give people the right information, they tend to succeed. It's when the diet industry, and that's why I wrote about this 20 years ago, they don't give us the right information. Just take this pill, hurry up and do this. Order the special machine. It's as easy as one, two, three. No, it's not. It's as easy as hell. It's hard. And so you, you prepare people like you prepare a soldier going to war. This is what's to you're going to expect. This is how you, if you want victory, this is how you're going to have to plan ahead. Expect that there's a fight, expect that it's going to be difficult, expect it's going to be challenging. And then number six, what I talked about earlier, we need to rest the body, rest the body. So think about this from birth till death. For most people, there is no rest of the digestive track. It's just eating and consuming except when they sleep. And even when they sleep, they get up for a little snack. You know, you get up at midnight and go, where's those chocolate Hershey's I just had. And we get up in the morning, grab our coffee, grab, and it's just constantly, there's no rest for our body. And that's one beautiful thing about fasting and fasting doesn't kill you over consumption does. That's the biggie. People say fasting, you're going to kill yourself. No, fasting is just, just churning your fuel source over from carbohydrates, primarily the food you're eating to your fat storage as fuel. And that doesn't kill you. That's how God designed us, but over consumption does. Can you see why people are getting sick a lot and why we are sick nation? It's because we over consume and over consume, especially the wrong foods. Did you know, if you eat a lot of the right foods, your hunger is not nearly what it is now. You don't crave the sugars and the caffeines and the processed foods when you're eating good, God-given food. When I've eaten a huge salad with tons of nutrients, I don't wake up necessarily two hours later, starving for chocolate because I fed my body what it needs. And if you do starve, you're starving for chocolate. I have some examples I can give you. There's some wonderful plant-based proteins out there that if you mix, even with, sorry, even with water, even with water, if you mix this protein powder with just with water, it tastes pretty good. And that takes helps take away that edge. So in the same way, we have to stop traffic to fix a road. You have to stop this sometimes to fix the body and allow the body to fix itself. I'm not going to go into a lot of that because you've heard me talk about fasting. You can find our fasting forum on YouTube. I've got the book on fasting. It goes back to even before Jesus's time on letting your body heal itself through fasting. And what happens in a nutshell is your body is spending a lot of the energy digesting food. Did you know that? It takes 50% of your body's energy to assimilate food, digest food, pull out the nutrients of food, get it through all the, get it through the stomach and the colon. And oh, it's all this work. And then here comes some more food. Here comes some more food. And there's just constantly digesting and processing and getting rid of food all the time. But the body, a lot of the body's energy needs to be for healing as well. And getting rid of cancerous tissues, getting rid of dead cells. And the body can't clean when it's well, when it's in a constant state of toxicity. So that's one great point behind fasting is what it begins to cleanse the body of. Disease is often a problem of toxicity created by what we consume, ingest or breathe. And fasting is the detox solution. Dr. J. H. Tilden said, after 55 years of sojourning in the wilderness of medical therapeutics, I am forced to declare that fasting is the only reliable, specific, therapeutic, eliminate known to man. A doctor said that many doctors have came on board recently, and this is why many are chronically sick. They're always medicating, but never healing. And that's one thing about the pharmacy industry. I mean, most of you know this, they call it big pharma, right? Big pharmacy industry. It's their number one goal is not your health. They have stockholders, they have shares, it's profit loss. They got to sell these pills and doctors push and push and push, push and push and push these products. They're taught often to prescribe products or to pills that don't really help the human body heal. They only cover up, they only mask. Statin drugs will tell the liver to stop producing cholesterol. Antibiotics will wipe out everything, good and bad. You can take other, say this, take this for depression. We'll read of the side effects. It causes worse depression than I had in the first place. And we're a sick society looking to drugs to be the solution. And something interesting, I wrote this down, I think I talked about before, there's something at the end of your DNA, it looks like a little tail. You can look this up. The word is telomere and they're studying telomeres. And if it's long, it seems to, it produce health and longevity, life. But as that begins to shorten up, our human lifespan begins to decrease as well. A lot of it's hooked to the telomeres. And through fasting, you can actually increase the length of the telomeres. There's studies done on this. You can look it through at Harvard. You can Google all this if you want to look up for yourself and how fasting, taking care of the body extends life in real time. And number seven, I talked about this earlier, so I won't spend too much time here, but variation is the key. Variation is the key. What I mean by that is when you start on a new diet, again, a new program, a new way of eating, you feel good, right? You see results. But has anybody had those results stop pretty recently? Or it's you start on a good program and you're like, I don't look like the rock yet. Or the women say, I don't look like this person yet. What happened? Well, number one, that's a lifestyle. I mean, they got their food measure down. They've got their two hour workouts dialed in. They've got incredible genetics as well. But what happens for many people is your body adapts to what you're doing. So variation is the key. Don't do the same workout time, day in and day out. Give it a little variety, the same type of diet. You know, people are plant-based or vegan or paleo or keto. Ketogenic diets, for example, are real popular right now, but it's hard to live in a ketogenic state. I don't want to get into a lot of the reasons why, but there's not a lot of the fiber and nutrients from certain types of diets. It's okay for a season, but sometimes you need to switch those things around. And I believe we are designed for seasonal changes like spring, fall, summer, winter. God designed us, especially you can't just go buy certain types of foods. We were designed to eat, for example, in the summer, harvest time, the abundance of root bearing foods, yams and potatoes and different things. But then in the winter, they'd have to live off primarily meat or the jerky that they would make or nuts or things that maybe they dry fruit, frozen or dehydrated fruits and different things. So a lot of that is seasonal. We have to remember that that's how we were created. And number eight, spiritual health must be the priority. Amen. Spiritual health must be your priority. Society says, be yourself, embrace your longings, feed your desires. But some strongholds hang on piece by piece. That's why spiritual health is vitally important. So I know people will be listening later. This is at a church, but not everyone listening believes in God, but I believe that's the primary foundational point where we need to start. Our relationship with God needs to be healthy and vibrant and real and lasting. And that's the point that many people aren't building on. Listen, you can have a perfect body, but be miserable. That doesn't guarantee joy and satisfaction any more than a perfect mattress guarantees sleep. Many people have great mattresses, $3,000 mattress, but they're not sleeping. Now, it's probably because a lot of caffeine intake, but I won't get convict you right now on that. But you can't buy happiness. Spiritual health must be the priority. Do you truly have a relationship with God? So here's where I want to kind of let you look at the spiritually for a minute. Ask God for direction. Lord, I need direction in my life. I need direction here. I need help. Help. Anybody ever said that? It's okay to tell God help. God, I need help. If you do not help me, I will not succeed. I need your help. And that actually is, I believe, linked with repentance. What is repentance? Repentance is, it's very healthy to repent from harmful, destructive lifestyle changes that we've made and repent to those and get back on track. But then when you ask God for help, whatever he's convicting you of, you've got to fulfill. If you know there's certain ways to stop eating or you know there's a certain way to start taking better care of your body and God's been convicting you that we can't just pray to God only without action. There has to be action. And then fuel the completion of your program by praying, by reading, by worshiping, and by listening to sermons online. What you put in is what you're getting out. And so with all the commercials on YouTube, commercials on TV, all the bad food, we wonder why we're drawn to it. Again, again, out of sight, out of mind. And I have a prayer list, so I would recommend that. Have a prayer list available. Remember, it's a battle and you keep going back to that prayer list and keep going back to that prayer list and keep going back to that prayer list, maybe while you're fasting. So it has to be spiritual health, has to be a priority. That has to be the foundation which everything else is built. And then number nine, I want to encourage you at this point, remember to fell forward. I didn't say fall, but you could. Fell forward. Fall forward, fell forward. If you fell, fell forward. If you fall, fall forward. You don't, you get back up on track. You don't keep beating yourself up because what happens? Most, a person blows it, right? Oh, I shouldn't have did that. Okay, well, stop. Don't keep blowing it. Well, no, now, now it's my excuse to have a terrible lunch. Now I can have a terrible dinner. Now I can get some ice cream. See, we use it to go fall back into the same patterns again. And God says, when you fell, look to me, acknowledge me, repent, and get back on track, fall forward. So what we're going to do now, I'm going to go into part two, but we're, anybody need a quick break? Let's take a quick bathroom break. And then we'll be right back here in five minutes. And then I'll go into part two of this. Here's what part two is about. You ready for this one? Self-control in an addicted world. So now we're going to talk briefly about addiction because that's causing a lot of the issues that we're struggling with. At the heart of addiction, there is a fuel source. Is there not? That's what's there's, there's a fuel source. There's something that's, that's causing me to want this addiction. And I'm going to, I'm going to start with three scriptures for you. First Corinthians 9.27. Paul said, I discipline my body like an athlete, training it what to do. And another translation says, I discipline and bring it into subjection. No sloppy living for me. I'm staying alert and in top condition. So we see that there is some responsibility back on our shoulders to discipline ourselves. And I believe that discipline affects more than we think. We don't just, we can't just go, okay, Lord, take this away or Lord help me in this area without exercising some discipline, without making a difference in our own lives. Proverbs 23.2, put a knife to your throat. If you're given to gluttony, wow, don't stuff yourself, bridle your appetite. And Elliot Ellicott, he's one of the commentators. He said, use the strongest methods to keep thine appetite in check. And Proverbs 23, do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat. For drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags. Gluttony meant to gulp down their God is their belly. And that's really what gluttony is. It's gulping down. That's why I like those drinks. Big gulp, right? There's something to that. Big gulp, 4,200 or 42 ounces of pure sugar. So that's what gluttony is. It's gulping down. It's taking in too much. So self-discipline is the dam and the flesh is the water behind it. So we have to remind ourselves often because the world won't tell you this, that self-discipline is vitally important. Taking care of our body and saying no to certain things. Number one, take control and take full responsibility. This is where it must begin. Take control and take full responsibility with an addiction. We have to take responsibility because there's a lot of blame shifting. Do you ever start to blame others? Alcoholics are good at this. Did you know that that's why it's called a disease? Alcoholism is called a disease. And I like what Greg Laurie said in one of his sermons. If it's a disease, it's the only disease without germs or virus. If it's a disease, it's the only disease that is self-inflicted. If it's a disease, it's the only disease contracted by the act of the will. If it's a disease, it's the only disease that is bottled and sold over the counter for a profit. And it goes on to say with the clip of yours here. But the bottom line is we have to take responsibility and not blame shift. And please don't misunderstand. I'm well aware that it's not easy, but true freedom is found in taking responsibility, removing excuses and asking God for help. That's really where it'll be found. So once that takes place, take control, take responsibility. Then we have to listen to the right voice. The world says the heart is good, but scripture teaches that the heart is deceitful. The world says you just need to unlock your inner strength. Scripture says willpower is not enough. You have to trust in God. And the world says, don't lay a guilt trip on me. But scripture says conviction is good. Did you know that conviction is good, but the world says don't lay a guilt trip on me. Have you ever heard that? Don't make me feel guilty. Don't make me feel bad. Don't. And it's really, it's a good conviction is a gift from God. And then number three, I borrowed this from Skip Heising. He's a pastor. He said, you must use overwhelming force. You must use overwhelming force and starve the fuel source by removing the influence. When temptation comes, change the environment. That will often mean exchanging friends with those who pull you down with ones who pull you up. In other words, use overwhelming. Overwhelming force means you're going to have to fight this head on. You're going to have to put the odds in your favor. You can't play patty cake with the devil. You've got to use an overwhelming force and overwhelming power. So that's why we encourage people to turn to prayer and worship in the word rather than Facebook, YouTube, and television. You cannot fill your mind with junk and expect to overcome the addiction. So that would be a question you could ask yourself this afternoon is what do I need to remove from my life? Where do I need to take a stronger stance? Friendships, choices that might be made. Where can I take that stronger stance? And then number four, avoid compromise. Number four, avoid compromise. Is there an area in our life that we are compromising in? Those areas have to be removed. And do you know what those are? Right? We all know something in my life has caused me a compromise. I have to remove those areas from my life. Because when we plan on making a wrong choice, we usually do. Compromise is often the first step right back into bondage. So you see this pattern going. Take control, take full responsibility, listen to the right voice, use overwhelming force, and avoid compromise. You have the power of the made-up mind. And we take our, we take compromise, we actually overcome compromise by taking our thoughts captive. We take our thoughts captive, the Bible talks about, and not allow those thoughts to control us. And then number five, continue fighting regardless of immediate results. Continue fighting regardless of immediate results. You have to stay hungry. So no matter what's coming against you, you have to continue fighting regardless of what results you are seeking. Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for they shall be filled. So in a nutshell, when it comes to this addiction, fighting addiction, their self-control is so important. Disciplining our body, and then taking control, and taking full responsibility, and then listening to the right voice, and using overwhelming force, avoiding compromise, and continue fighting as you're moving forward. That's part of this thing. So what I'm going to do, I can't keep speaking much, I'm very congested, my voice is already hurting my throat, but I want to open it up for Q&A. And Jake, maybe you can let Karen know too that we're going to do lunch sooner, and not late as we thought. It's probably going to be sooner. So I want to open up for Q&A. So Mark, did you want to go first? And what we want to do is, or Kylie, you can let Karen know, whatever's easier. Mark, you can do the question you had. I think it was a good one. If you do it in the microphone, then people can pick it up. And this one was on different diets, right? Glucose, ketogenic diet. Let's see if it works though. Should already be on. Okay, there we go. Yeah, so I understand that God created fruit, he created fructose. And from what I've researched, fructose and glucose work different in the body. The body reacts different, uses it differently with how it's processed through the liver and that kind of thing. But like the main thing that I hear from like, obviously like keto and Atkins type people about no sugar at all, but them and then the paleo and some of the other diet preachers talk about, they're like preaching that fructose is like the worst, the worst one, because the liver doesn't, it just goes right through and it goes, turns right to fat. And I, I can't believe that. I'm thinking that fructose in moderation is obviously, I mean, your, your body needs it. It's going to use it the right way because, you know, God created it. So how, I was wondering if you could explain how fructose and glucose is used different in the body and kind of put to rest that fructose is the devil sugar. Okay. If I, in case you didn't catch out, he's talking about the different diets that are out there. Like the ketogenic diet is you know, no fruit, no fruit, fruits, bad fruits, fruits, not good for you. So he's asking, you know, what is the truth about that? Well, here's, let me just break this down for you. He mentioned glucose and glucose fruit will be turned into glucose. Carbohydrates are turned into glucose. Bread is turned into glucose. Glucose is your, is your primary source of energy for the body. You'll hear glycogen glucose. One becomes the other that we don't want to get too technical with this, but your, your body has stored glucose in your liver and in your muscles, your body stores this energy. So when food is eaten whether it's fruit or carbohydrates, different things, it's, it's converted to glucose for energy. So the ketogenic diet and why they say fruit is bad is they're avoiding all those mainly simple types of carbohydrates. You can have carbohydrates like vegetables because they're complex carbs and you don't get a lot of carbohydrates. What, what they're doing though is having you mainly eat just fat protein primarily, and it puts your body in a ketogenic state. That's where they get the word keto, keto diet. So if you're not eating carbohydrates, your body's going to begin to burn your fat, your ketone bodies as fuel because it has to get the, the, the, the, the, the fuel from somewhere. So the question about fruit is, and here's my personal thought. Most people to answer his question, this boy, this could take 20 minutes. No, fruit's not bad. Of course, fruit is good for you. God designed the blueberries, the strawberries, the blackberries, fruit is good for us. However, we're not moving very much as a society. We're not, we're just sitting at a computer. And when I think about this, Jesus's disciples are on a 12 hour, I'm sorry, a 12 hour, I'm sorry, 12 mile hike. I knew this bronchitis was getting to me, a 12 mile hike. Here's some, here's a ton of blackberries. It's not going to hurt them at all. They're going to eat blackberries and blueberries and tons of fructose and they feel better. They got the energy to keep going. But if a person begins to take in a lot of fruit and they're not moving, uh, this fructose is probably not for them a good choice because, or at least in moderation would be fine, but because it's also going to signal insulin to be released. And as we all know, most of you might know insulin is a hormone that causes the body to store fat. So a person who is sedentary and a person who needs to lose a lot of weight would not want to have a lot of fruit in their diet. They would not want to have a lot of pasta or bread or rice or anything that's going to cause the body to begin to store more fat. They're, they're going to, if a person, if a person was wanting to lose weight and, uh, let's say in a situation like Mark is in, um, in, in, you know, searching what diets are best. I would look to the keto type of genetic ketogenic diet as a, as a temporary solution. You know, I'm going to minimize my carbohydrate intake. I'm, I'm, I'm still gonna have some blueberries, but I might not have a pound of blueberries and also with strawberries. And also, so I'm still going to eat a little bit of fruit personally, but I'm going to have maybe some chicken breast, some avocado, some nuts, some salad, and, uh, and, and gravitate away from carbohydrates for a season. But if let's say when I go on a two hour workout, I eat a lot of carbohydrates. I would ketogenic people would lose their mind. You want, you eat a whole bowl of pasta and Oh, you bet I do because see, I'm burning it. I'm utilizing that food. So you have to be strategic as well. Uh, it depends what your lifestyle is. If you're going to, if you're going to go on a long hike and you're going to start to act, act, be actively exercising a lot more than I say, a little bit of fruit is okay. Uh, here's what also the ketogenic diets miss, uh, is they don't have a lot of fiber content and you get a lot of good fiber from beans. Beans are like this to the ketogenic diet. Don't touch beans. You should, you should Google the amazing benefits of beans, uh, the fiber content, the phytochemicals, the, the nutrient density of those foods and see you're limiting all of those. And you're just, you're just, um, you're, you're just eating only, you know, uh, protein and fat. And that's not really good on the digestive track as well. So, and all of this, I look at how God created us. God created us to eat fruit. However, if you're not moving and you have a weight issue and you want to lose some weight, then you do have to be much more selective on those types of foods. Just, just I'll just throw out to everyone out there. If I were you, I would avoid pancakes and waffles and cookies and chips and white processed flour, any types of breads and rice and all that stuff's just not good for you. Trigger triggers your insulin to be released. And why, why, what's a big deal with say white rice versus Brown rice. If I have Brown rice, I have some Brown rice with some avocados mixed in it because that, that fat slows down the absorption rate of the sugar being broken down. That's why they call it high glycemic index or the low glycemic index. If you just take like a white piece of bread, your, your blood sugar spike is releasing a lot of insulin to compensate for that. But if they would have left the way bread was designed by God, hello, with all the, the bulk and the buckwheat and the, the fiber and the flour the right way and, and all the nutrient density of the bread, it really slows down the absorption rate of that food. And bread can be a good thing. A little bit of pasta can be a good thing. I'll eat a lot of bread, a lot of pasta, and I'll still lose weight. If I'm training hard, if I'm involved in intermittent fasting, if I'm active, if I'm on the go, but again, it depends where you're at, what your goals are. I don't think there's anything wrong with the ketogenic diet for a season, but I think it's a dangerous spot to live as far as health is concerned. I don't see a lot of health benefits to it. And of course I'll get the emails. Oh, you're don't, you know, just have a huge salad. Okay. But you're going to live off salad for the rest of your life and you're just going to avoid beans and you're going to avoid fruit and you're going to, you know, that's, you got to be careful with that. So I would, I would, um, I hope that answers your question. Uh, cause fructose does turn to glucose when it's converted to fuel, but so does any type of carbohydrate. Um, so fructose, no, is not a bad type of, of sweetener. Actually honey's a good sweetener. Sugar's, see, here's the thing. Sugar's not bad in moderation. We were, we were supposed to eat honey. God made honey for a reason. You're, you're traveling on the road. You've walked for six miles. There's some honey. You're going to eat some honey. You're going to feel really good. That's how it was designed. It wasn't designed to be put in our bread and in our ketchup and in our mayonnaise and in our chips and everything we eat. So we're eating a hundred times more sugar than we should also out of its natural state and into a refined process state where it's lost all the nutrient density of the, of the honey. Uh, say like Manuka honey, Google Manuka honey and the benefits of it. Very good benefits of it. So hope that answers. It was kind of broad question. You had one too. Do you think that without accountability for overcoming your cravings or unhealthy habits, um, a person can succeed? You know, can we just look to God alone or does it help to have accountability? Um, and if so, like how, what would that look like? Okay. Accountability when it comes to addiction or weight loss or what, that's the topic we're on. Here's the thing about accountability. I've learned over the years, uh, 20 years now in ministry, uh, and pastoring, of course. And there's been a big push towards accountability, right? Um, you know, lust issues, different things and accountabilities I think is a good thing. But here's the problem when people make it the answer like, okay, if I could just get accountability, I could lick this problem. Um, not necessarily because there's ways around that. It's off first. It's a hard issue before it's anything else. It's a hard issue. And then you can have accountability to help with your endeavors. For example, in this area of weight loss, if you go to someone and say, Hey, listen, um, will you keep me accountable? Tell the person I can't keep you accountable. Only God can do that. But I will help you. I will pray for you and I will ask how you're doing. So I think there's, it's bringing it to the light. I think it's a good idea to expose it and say, I have a problem with, um, this type of food. I have a, I have a problem with food. I eat too much. I have an addiction to this and you bring it to the light. You share it with someone, they pray with you and they can help walk you through it. You know, when you're going to see them, they're going to ask you the hard questions. Uh, so I think it can be an important part of the process for sure. But is it the answer? You know, I wouldn't tell anybody, you just need accountability. That will fix a problem. I think it's just one, one fork in the spool of that will there, you know, it's one, it's one way that works really well for people. And I would advise it. If you need help in an area, go to someone, your spouse, maybe, or someone else, have them pray with you and bring it to the light and share that addiction or that struggle with them. So yes, I would add in accountability, uh, for sure, for sure. And the reedy had a question too. Oh, you go up to the microphone if you can. I don't care. I can't see what you're doing. Okay. Let's start with the first one. Luckily there are yes or no answer. Okay. Yes or no. Okay. Yes or no. Stevia. Yes. Because it's, it's a natural sweetener. Okay. Thank you. Bread. I recently started using Ezekiel. Yes or no. I would, if you're going to have Ezekiel, if you're going to use bread, I would use Ezekiel. Uh, the reason is it's sprouted grains. Oh boy, we could talk about this for a little while to see their Ezekiel bread. And if you make homemade bread, um, and you're not on a keto diet and different things, but you, you know, again, I, I'll have, I'll have 500 grams of carbohydrate in a day sometimes, which is 2000 calories. Just in carbohydrates. If I did a very hard workout, but usually I'll keep about a hundred to 200 grams of carbohydrates. Um, because when you're intermittent fasting or when you're fasting, it's part of your lifestyle. You don't worry as much about carbohydrates either. Um, so Ezekiel bread, if you're having bread is good. You're, you're, the problem you're gonna have is the taste. Um, and it's because it's nutrient dense and that's why it's good for you. So yes on Ezekiel bread. Okay. Number three, sometimes it's hard to eat fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi. What about Bragg vinegar? What about what? What's that? Bragg vinegar. Oh, Brad, Brad, Bing vinegar, fermented vinegar. Yeah. If you can, if you can mix it with some water. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Good. Uh, the last one is ethnic eating what you were brought up with. Let's say people from Japan come here, they aren't eating what they were raised on and they come here and they eat all the wrong foods. Should you continue with your ethnic eating? I'm German. Should I be eating? Oh, sauerkraut and sausage and a pint of beer. No, I don't like beer. If you're German, so you get a big sausage tonight and a pint of ale beer. No, no, I wasn't raised like that. But yeah, according to eating, eating based on your ethnicity while they're finding, I mean the China study and a different groups that they found here's, I'll, I'll sum it up for you. They found whether they study plant-based groups in Africa or in Alaska meat-based, as long as the people, uh, um, what's his name? He was a dentist. Uh, he did a lot of study in this area. His name will come to me. I mean, he died, I think a hundred years ago. Um, oh, well, uh, if they found, if as long as you're eating the food and it's raw, organic, healthy state, it hasn't been altered, then you're, you're, you're good. In other words, the, the, the, the meat lovers have, uh, have, um, uh, they have a case where there's people in or Australia on the barren in the desert or in Alaska where all they eat is mainly primarily meat or dairy from their goats and their cows. And there are no cavities or Weston price. There we go. And he was a dentist to think of that. Um, no cavities, very healthy, live at a long age. And then you have plant-based people, same thing. It's as long as you're eating that food in a whole organic state where it's healthy and it hasn't been altered or tainted. Um, any, most of those different types of diets are fine. But I think, yes, if you want to go back to your, your, I mean, ethnic, if you knew, you know, what you ate when you were younger, Japanese rice or sushi, or, you know, uh, Australian, um, and the Outback and mainly grilled, uh, uh, grilled chicken and different things, or my case, uh, Scandinavian European, you know, so as long as the food is healthy and God given there's, I think there's a lot of, of, of, uh, of diversity there. Thank you. Okay. Next one. So, um, cleansing good, bad seven days, one day pills, no pills. Cleansing. Yeah. Cleansing is really good. Uh, most fasting experts. Uh, like if you've, you can find Daniel, uh, Daniel, Dr. Daniel Pompa on YouTube. Uh, he actually maybe might want to come out in California. We do something next year. Um, or, um, uh, I can't remember his name. He has a, he has a fasting center in Costa Rica. There's another fasting center up in Northern California. Most will recommend the best, the best way for fat for cleansing is by fasting, water, fasting, clean water, allowing the body to eliminate itself. So a lot of the herbs and remedies that we buy, uh, they would state that it's best just to let the body clean itself because even those to some degree are a toxic to the body, not necessarily in a bad way. Uh, but for example, we like, we hear of tumeric and all these things. What they usually do is they sent off when you take tumeric or flavonoids or different things, they send off a response to the body to increase its immune system because it's a, it's an element there, uh, that the body's not familiar with that they're finding in red wine and these things cause the body to send out signals to abuse, uh, boost, boost the immune system. Um, so the best way for cleansing, yes, but it's actually a water fast and let the body cleanse itself from water fasting. Okay. Fire away, Raquel. I just have one quick question. Um, I heard, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but like, if, if like I make a quick run, let's say like the Albertsons is the closest to me. And sometimes they have, they do have a section for organic items, but sometimes they don't have everything that I need. Like an example would be like, um, avocado. So I heard that if you, you can, uh, that if you buy organic, it's always best. Like if you buy like strawberries or something that's not hard shelled, I would say hard shelled, for example, like avocado has a hard shell or like the bananas. Like if sometimes for some reason the regular bananas look better than the organic bananas. And so is that true that it doesn't matter if you buy like organic bananas versus regular bananas or something? Okay. What her question was, uh, buying organic food or not organic food. Does it really matter? Um, I should probably give you a brief background on what organic, how that came about was, um, many years ago. I mean, if your grandparents remember farmers, uh, they didn't, they didn't spray, uh, food. It was collected and it was eaten. But over the years, I think they outlawed one of them at DT, DTT or something like that. DTT at DDD. That was it. That's been outlawed since the fifties, but then Roundup, uh, and came out with glyphosate. Glyphosate is in Roundup. It's it, they linked it to many types of cancer. So the food that we consume is sprayed with. So you can see these guys dressed in yellow with the face masks and big, and they're spraying all the grapes of pesticides and herbicides and fungicides. So what's it about, right? You want 90% of their crop to survive. So they spray all these, the, all the things we consume. And now there's something that they've created called a GMO, genetically modified organism. And my friend works for, um, Monsanto, a guy, so I won't say too much, but on joy, on, on, um, on, uh, splicing gene splicing. So they'll begin to take the DNA of a wheat and, and they'll begin to genetically modify it and modify it with something. So it can be sprayed with Roundup and not killed. So now they can spray the plant directly in the plant is not killed because it's been genetically modified to resist the Roundup glyphosate. That's why it's called Roundup ready. This produce is Roundup ready. So then we eat the corn that has been genetically modified and our body it's, it's, it, they think it wreaks havoc on the body, on the DNA system and different things. So that's what, when it says certified organic, isn't necessarily always healthy. Sometimes they will spray something on it. It can be a natural, um, for example, if I had a, if I had a garden outside, I would put some essential oils and water like essential oils, like peppermint or different things and spray. It's just natural things. Um, but organic should mean that the, the, the products are not sprayed with chemicals. That's, that's the thought behind it. And it's usually pretty good. Um, but they call the, uh, the main ones that you shouldn't eat the dirty dozen is what she's referring to. So like strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, any type of food you're just going to eat. I think at the last count, there were seven different pesticides they use on blueberries. Why so many? I don't know. So if you take a blueberry from Vons, the blueberries and you eat those blueberries, the glyphosate, the Roundup, what was ever on those is going right into your body. Even if you, you can wash them a little bit. Uh, but then you've got the tap water, you know, it's not necessarily that clean. So, I mean, I could really freak you out about your bread, your, your bedsheets, your pillows, your carpet, your, yeah. So don't worry. I'm not going there. I stopped getting too worried about a long time ago and said, Laura, when it's my time, it's my time. I'm not going to worry about the glue in my carpet and the formaldehyde in my granite countertop and the, and the chlorine in the shower. And yeah, I mean, you'll just lose your mind. Um, because God is God is, but I think we should make a difference with the things we can make a difference with. So I would choose, I tried and I do that. I choose foods that go directly into the stomach, uh, organic as much as possible, the blueberries and strawberries and different things, but like a banana, uh, correct. If you eat non-organic banana, it's not spray necessarily into the inside. I mean, as you peel it, you'll get to the inside, but some of those things can be genetically modified foods. So is that banana really, was it made naturally or is it genetically modified? Um, and same thing with an avocados, uh, was a genetically modified. So I try to get organic on those when I can, but I'm like most people, you know, it's, it's a tight budget. I've got so many kids. We eat a lot of bananas, a lot of fruit. Um, so I will sometimes not get organic bananas, but recently I've been seeing the price isn't much different. 39 cents versus 29 cents a pound. I mean, you know, it's not like double. Um, so, um, yes, I would choose fruits. That's the easy way to remember. If you just eat the fruit directly, you definitely want to have organic, but on the avocados, bananas, things like that, you can definitely not go organic and organic and you'll still be, you'll still be okay for sure. The key is more plant food. We're just not eating enough of it as well. If you have, if you buy too many bananas, cut them up, put them in the freezer and use them for a smoothie later. They add a lot of sweetener. My, how I sweetened my, my smoothie is with bananas and like figs, cold figs in a refrigerator. You take the seed out or dates and you blend all that in a blender and it's, it tastes, it tastes really good. Uh, at least to me, you're used to it. Next question, Brett, you had one. What is your thoughts on, uh, dairy and cheat the dairy milk, cheese, and then also, uh, unclean animal products like, uh, pigs and shellfish. Pigs and shellfish. Wow. That's going to be a long pigs and shellfish and dairy. Well, here's the thing. What I have to do is I read all the studies. I read all the diets. I watched Arnold Schwarzenegger's new documentary on, he switched to plant-based now, and they've got a lot of good research and on libido to a sex drive and different things. And it's, it's all documents. A lot of good research. I've read the same papers. And I would, I gravitate towards that. I think we need to eat plant-based living food. I'm not a big fan of meat and dairy. However, when people ask from a biblical perspective, that's where I get, that's where I can't draw that line in the sand, uh, because the Bible is clear that their dairy was allowed. It was, it was sought after, uh, meat was allowed, lamb, uh, chicken, uh, the meat from the oxen, the meat from the sacrifice was allowed even after the flood. God said, now I give you even, even allow you to eat meat. Uh, but I think with the same, in the same way that we are allowed to smoke cigarettes, we have to use wisdom. Uh, we do know that, uh, meat in excess and dairy in excess are, is not good for the body. It's toxic for the body. This is all just facts. It's all out there. You, you it's, it's wherever you, you want to get your information from. Um, but if you go a clean meat, clean dairy, um, those would be my thoughts. So I actually don't eat a lot of dairy. Uh, if I do, it'll try to be clean. Uh, like for example, I love raw goat milk, believe it or not what I can get it. Ice cold, raw goat milk, very high in calories, but very high in nutrient. It's one of the highest nutrient dense foods that we have in regard to dairy. So by the time you pasteurize milk, um, it's called pasteurized even organic milk. Uh, most of the good bacteria, the good products in it are gone. They've been with you're basically drinking sugar, water, lactose and milk is sugar. So you're drinking sugar water basically with milk. So my thoughts are meat and dairy personal thoughts are, uh, be careful. Uh, it also depends on your personal situation. You know what, how I'm going to eat with meat and dairy might be different than a person who's struggling with a disease or with cancer or someone who's overweight. Um, so that's why a lot of these things, you know, you're just going, look at ketogenic diet did wonders for this person. Yeah, but they haven't went to the bathroom in four days. You know, it's, that's not healthy. Bowel movements are very healthy. You're eating, you should be having a bowel movement. So, you know, these, these things aren't, I know one guy that was on a ketogenic diet. He looked like a bodybuilder, but his cholesterol was 400 and it may be no bowel movement to everyone's every three or four days. That's not healthy. I don't care. It's not worth it. That's just not healthy. So it depends on what the situation is. So my thought is a little bit of meat and a little bit of dairy is okay as long as it's clean, clean meat and clean dairy. Uh, but if you go to a fast food place, the chicken tacos are not going to be good. Uh, the, the dairy, the cheese is not going to be good for you, especially a lot of, uh, let's say what I'm dealing with now, I wouldn't want dairy, uh, in with, in regard to mucus and, uh, the, in my work, my, um, being, um, uh, stuffy like this, uh, those kinds of things you want to definitely avoid. And then Brett, uh, shellfish and pigs. Well, the Bible says the shellfish and pigs were not good. And people say, ah, see, look, uh, the Bible was wrong. No, the Bible was very right. Those are very, um, those are dirty foods. Shellfish clean up the, the junk in the ocean floor. They, they eat. It's like the septic tanks of the ocean. So lobster, shellfish, those things are very dirty foods, shrimp, just nasty because they're eating the toxins of the earth. That's why God said, don't eat them. I didn't give them for you to eat. That part of creation is to help clean the ocean, the floors and different things. Same with the pigs. Um, pigs are, um, one of the most dirtiest, uh, animals on the planet. And there's a lot of research on why pork is not good. Uh, I remember hearing a lady, Maryland, Glasgow, something like that at central Christian 25 years ago, missionary who actually ate it a little bit raw in Africa. And they, she, she saw the worms moving in her skin. She had worms for many years. Um, and you will parasite either easily transferred. Uh, God knew what he was doing. It's just a dirty food. So I would avoid pigs and shellfish. Absolutely. It's not part of a good, clean diet. Yvette, fire away. I don't know what questions coming on this one. No, this was an easy one. Although maybe interesting. Um, what is your take on plant-based replacements? So like a lot of the diet products, you know, the plant-based sausage and dairy products. I mean, I'm finding that they're really getting close to, you know, replacing that texture and the flavor and, you know, they seem like healthier options and I like them, but I just, I'm not really sure how healthy those products are. And I know, you know, there's pea protein and all that, but I don't know if you've ever done any research on that or you have any thoughts on that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Um, that's, uh, it's actually a good question. Um, replacement foods, you know, you, you eat this, uh, the big one now that's, that's popular is the beyond, beyond meat. And if you look at the ingredients, I'm not real impressed. Uh, I don't think a lot of the ingredients, Karen, what's the main one. That's not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all GMO genetically modified. So here's my thoughts on replacement. Um, it's always good to eat the original when, when possible to eat the original, original, uh, salad or original types of plant-based. And there's a big, um, misnomer out there that you need tons of protein. There's a lot of studies shown that you don't need a lot of protein. Uh, I, my protein content is really not as high as most people would think. Um, one scoop of plant-based protein, you have 20 grams of protein right there. That's enough for most individuals for a meal for sure. So I'm careful on the replacements because a lot of the ingredients in there are not good. Um, but if it just said, for example, instead of a hamburger, have this black bean patty, you know, black bean, organic black beans, uh, organic turmeric, organic, it's, and it's five or six healthy ingredients. You know, that would be, that would be much different. But if you look at the ingredients, there's like 25 ingredients and it's, it's a, uh, sodium bisodate, this and that. And so to me, it looks like, like what you sense, it's not really that healthy. Uh, they're, they're kind of, they're just kind of getting on that health bandwagon. Uh, there's, did you know there's organic Doritos now? Or my kids always tag, give me good organic, just because they say organic doesn't mean it's not good. Now they're better choice. If you're about five ingredients on there that are still not that great for you, a lot of the refined oils that are used. So in the replacements, um, if they're using refined cottonseed oil, refined soybean oil, refined sunflower oil, safflower oil, the refined oil is when oil is heated and solvents are added to it. And then more solvents are added to it to remove the bad smell that happens from, from refining the oils. And they're just not healthy on the body. It's best to just have coconut oil, avocado oil, uh, straight from the source. Um, so I hope that helps, but I would look at, I'd have to see the ingredients of the replacement. Uh, but like your replacement protein powders are good depending on, you know, what's in those. Um, but I would, I'd rather just make yourself a homemade, uh, uh, uh, plant-based patty, uh, plant-based salad, and not worry about the replacements too much because many of those companies, and when I researched it too, are not in it for us, they're in it for, for, you know, Hey, let's put organic on this title. Let's put all natural on this, on this, let's put it. And, and really the ingredients are not that healthy for you. So watch out for replacements. Okay, go ahead. So I wanted you to maybe touch on some of the things as far as the prep subject goes, um, in regards to fasting and what the physical expectations might be for somebody getting ready to fast, uh, the stages of it. Okay. And what happens potentially to the body so that, you know, it doesn't, uh, become uncomfortable and then discouraging. Okay, perfect. Well, stages of fasting. Um, and for those who don't have the book, make sure to get a book that I wrote, feasting and fasting, feasting and fasting, what works, what doesn't, why that you can download it for free if you're listening here on our website. Um, and that's, that's the reason I wrote the book is for this very question, because it's so hard to give a, a one quick answer for a whole group of people because has a person who wants to fast, have they been preparing their body for the fast? Uh, because the reason fasting is so difficult is most people are withdrawing from chemicals, from caffeine, from sugar. So if I told the majority of you, Hey, tomorrow, just start having water only for three days. See how you feel. Ooh, it's not going to work good. Is it donuts, cookies, crackers, my coffee, my latte, this, this amount of sugar, this amount of, of, of salt and processed foods. And, and so your body's kind of withdrawing. Uh, so this fasting is very difficult because it's what it is. It's withdraws from drugs. So you have to get the body in a clean state first, I believe. And now if God calls you to fast, that's something different. This is throw this out advice out the window. If God calls you to fast, he'll sustain you. He'll see you through. I've known people who've had a terrible diet and they fasted for three days and they said, man, I didn't feel too bad. I'm like, you didn't feel too bad. I can't believe that you gave up all that. You didn't feel too bad. Um, so stages of fasting first, you have to get the body to a point where, you know, okay, I'm ready to fast. I'm off of coffee. Um, cause a lot of people keep a coffee habit into fasting. But to me, that doesn't make sense because it's, there's 200 chemicals in a cup of coffee, you're detoxing, you're trying to get off of drugs, not stay addicted to them. Um, so you want to, uh, you know, get off of certain things and then now that your body's ready, maybe not a lot of meat or dairy, you've been eating a lot of just, um, plant-based and maybe not a lot of meals, maybe a lunch and a small dinner. And it's been hard. Then you're ready to go into fasting. Um, and what your body's going to do the first day or so is it's going to burn your stored energy, your stored glycogen in your liver and in your muscle. So you might not feel too bad. Day one, you'll have food cravings and you just, you know, kind of tell those to stop it. Uh, but then as you get into day two, now your body's depleted of carbohydrates. Day two to day three, you begin to start to burn ketones. Your body, your body actually now begins to burn your fat as fuel. That's all. Did you know that's why we have extra? That's why protect the organ, stay a little warm, but also it's fuel. So when I, when I was, I was, I was, you look back on old videos, I was about 30 pounds heavier, 40 pounds heavier, actually now 40 pounds heavier. I was bigger, right? Big guy. That was, I had a lot of stored energy. It was not good stuff necessarily. So as your body begins to burn this fat, what else is stored in fat toxins? And that's why you're not going to feel good because now you in your blood system, you've got these toxins being released, being cleansed, you're being cleansed. Your body's cleaning itself. And I go day three, day four, you just feel like you have a headache, you're tired, but your body's cleaning itself. And that's why they recommend don't have anything during a fast because as soon as you do, you, you say, okay, I had some fruit. Okay. Now your body goes back to that fructose and that glucose for fuel. Now it's kicking out of autophagy. Now the healing of the body's kicked back into in reverse because now it's got some fuel. Um, so day three, you're into fat storage. Day four, you're in a ketosis, you're burning fat. Day five, you're burning fat dates and you start to actually feel better. I remember when I did my very first one, whoa, it was tough. I, my wife actually took the kids for a week. They went to camp. They went to kid's camp up at Hume Lake. And I said, this is my opportunity. And boy, did the devil come out because you're like, Oh, you just can't eat. And you're so hungry. So I had like the second night, a little bit of protein powder. Third night I had maybe a couple of nuts. I'm like, okay, I'm going to get through this. I don't care. And so finally by day six, I woke up, I cleaned the whole house, cleaned the backyard and went on a jog six days after having nothing but, but water, except those are a few little things I mentioned because see now the body's running more efficiently. My clear thinking, I felt better. I've never felt bad. I've just incredible energy. And then the next day though, bam, you know, cause my body was in an old injury start to come out of a backstart hurt a lot worse my shoulders because your body is retracing the old injuries and beginning to heal. So a good fast, if you really want to heal yourself, but you have to go at least 10 days, in my opinion, you know, you'll start to see benefits at five or six, but to get to deep healing the Costa Rica, I think it's called Tanglewood in Costa Rica. The guy's not a Christian and he's, he's got some good advice, but some things, you know, they talk about evolution. I'm like, you, how stupid are we? It creator, there's a creator. They have a 21 day or 30 day where you go there for 21 days or 30 days. And all you do is fast on water and for multiple sclerosis, for cancer, for arthritis. And the body begins to heal itself of all the, of many of these things. But that's the stages of fasting. So it depends how long a person wants to go. What are their goals? If a person's just wanting to really lose weight, get closer to God, spiritually cleanse the body that I would, I would shoot for long something long-term, but also have maybe a medical supervision, have your, your doctor kind of keep an eye on you. But that's, that's the stages of it. Anybody have any questions on fasting on that? You could go back there as well. Sherry, what was yours? So my question is when, when you're following a, you know, a normal healthy diet and you're on a good exercise program as well, and you're not fasting there's, there's advocates out there who, you know, lead big health, you know, plans or challenges or whatever it is. And many times they'll say, Hey, eat healthy six days a week, and then reserve one day, maybe on the weekend as a cheat day or a treat day, whatever you want to call it. And ultimately that's not going to hurt you, but what is your opinion on that? That's a good question. Well, what she's promoting and what, you know, I've promoted before, and there's nothing wrong with it technically is they call it a cheat day. And I've helped a lot of people throughout the years and recommended this. And some I have written, it depends what the cheat day is, what you're cheating on. I mean, it, maybe you, you act differently or God's made you differently, but if I'm going good, I like to keep going good. I don't need a cheat day because it's going to drop. It's going to, what was that about? Now I want to go back to the pizza. And then, but if it's like on, you know, I'm doing good accounts Sunday, I'm going to have some meat and dairy with my family might get some dark chocolate and you know, I'm not get off my diet. That's fine. You know, I don't really have a problem with that either. But for me to plan on a day where I cheated did not work good because I cheated and I cheated some more and it's kind of had the cheating mentality and become a cheater. But that's why they do it. There's a day at the end of your reward. There's a, there's a reward at the end of your week, but I don't have a problem with that either. I think it's up to the individual. What is it? What is the cheat day involved? But it's also good for adaptation reasons to break, you know, you could break the cycle. So if you're eating a certain way, maybe you're doing no meat, no meat, no meat, but on Sundays I'm going to have some meat. I'm going to have some dairy. I think that's good. We didn't talk a lot about this as well, but you're, you're, but meat advocates sometimes it can increase growth hormone, it can increase testosterone if it's done now and then, uh, and versus, you know, all the time or avoiding it all the time. It's, it's your body begins to adapt. So you want to change things around. So if you want to have a cheat day and it works for you, um, that's okay. You know, um, my cheat day would probably be different than yours, but if it's going to knock you off course, then just keep, keep, keep going the direction you're going. Cause sometimes those not having cheat dates help us keep the course too. Cause we're doing so good. You know, we don't want to fall backwards. Question one more back here. Anyone have one on fasting, fasting, nutrition diets? I will say this before Brett asks a question. You're going to hear opposing arguments, aren't you? You've got the meat based side. You got the meat based, it's all meat based. And then you got the plant based don't touch meat. And then you got the ketogenics, but then there's keto plant-based. Did you know that there's ketogenic diets where it's meat and meat and meat and meat and fat and fat. Then there's ketogenic diets where it's no meat, avocado, uh, MCT oils, or, or, or, or I, on this one, I don't know how they get enough calories. That'd be tough. It's only avocados and nuts. That's about it. Avocados and nuts. You can even, uh, and, uh, and lots of it. And, uh, that works best. And this diet works. Paleo works best to go back about how our ancestors ate or this works best. You have to find what works best for you. You really do. I believe that. I don't believe, you know, uh, try a ketogenic diet, see how you feel, but it's hard to live there. It's hard to not get the proper amount of fiber and nutrients. I don't believe from unless you, unless you eat that diet perfectly, if you did a ketogenic diet perfectly, you would have a huge salad with every conceivable vegetable on there that you could eat and you'd sprinkle it with some walnuts and you put some dry cranberries. No, you wouldn't. Cause there's fruit. And you'd make your, you'd make your own home dressing, right? Put some avocados on it. And that's about the extent of it. And if you could do that, I mean, I think you would, you would get a good amount of fiber from the, from the bell peppers and the celery and the carrots and the cabbage and the cucumbers, you know, you could be able to do it, but that's, that's a hard place to live day in and day out. Uh, but you're, trust me, I've tried that. Uh, so I think there has to be a little bit of variety because see, to me, it's not about following some diet and it's about a lifestyle, a lifestyle of health, what's healthy for the body. So now when I went to, let's say San Diego, the example I gave earlier, those hotdogs grossed me out. Those, those things aren't tempting to me anymore. Um, but you have to break those temptations because me and my wife are opposite when she was raised or when she was little and she went to the movies. What did she think? Popcorn, you bet. And a Sprite and lots of butter on that popcorn. When I grew up from when I was 16, 17 into bodybuilding, health and fitness, I didn't touch any of the movie food. I don't want anything to do with movie food. I'll bring some nuts in my pocket right to, but see how we erase it was differently. It sends different triggers. So now she's miserable if we go to the movies and she can't have anything. And I'm miserable if I have to eat some popcorn because you know, I know it's, that stuff is not good from the, from the popcorn to the, where they get the popcorn to the oil, to how it's made, to the type of fat they use. Movie food is not, not good for you whatsoever, but I'm assuming most of you know that. Okay, Brett, fire away. Well, first of all, if I could add some value to your family and maybe Morgan, but, um, what we do is we get the popcorn from Trader Joe's that has olive oil. Yeah, but I'm not supposed to say that while it's being recorded. Cause you're not supposed to bring food into it. No, we, we, we, I, I openly, we openly take it in mean. Oh, you can tell. Oh, you can do that now. We tell them and say, we, you know, we can't eat that cause we're allergic to it. Oh, well there you go. Okay, well, I guess I could lie and say we're allergic, but now I know you're saying that's a good way to do it. You could, you just, I have before I brought in a big water and say, I'm going to, I need to drink a lot of water. Like, oh, okay. I mean, a little 16 year old kids probably not going to tell me no at the front door. Okay. Fire away. All right. So I appreciate the question in regards to a cheat day and in regards to your book that this, that recently wrote help. I'm addicted. Uh, I know that that was a lot about, you know, alcoholism or even, you know, pornography or other addictions that people may have. And I appreciate you also combining that with that someone might be addicted to food and being a glutton. Um, in that case, I, I feel, uh, shy and saying that I haven't read the book, but do you, do you suggest that they have a cheat day if they're dealing with other addictions as well, like pornography or alcoholism? Yeah, yeah, no cheat day. No cheat day. I'm not, that's it. And Brent, you had stage four testicular cancer right now. Lymphoma. Oh, lymphoma. Okay. We were talking about, um, what was that motor that my, that bicycle race, uh, uh, Stan or no, uh, Armstrong. Yeah. And they, they started to link it to where no oxygen was getting to where his seat and what, cause he struggled with testicular. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And then, so Brent was healed of stage four lymphoma and you should ask him about that. I think mainly through diet and prayer and different things. Um, but he made a good point because yeah, cheat day, you know, I mean, I wouldn't put having a piece of chocolate cheating on and pornography in the same ballpark whatsoever. But the principle is, you know, if you're doing good and got, you brought something under control, why go back to that area of bondage? Um, but for me, if I were to be a cheat day, it would be, um, I would have probably some dairy and a little bit of chocolate on that day and, you know, kind of not be so, you know, rigid on that certain day. So it is, it is okay to do. Um, if, you know, if you, uh, don't go crazy and it's not junk food and, and, you know, back to your old habits, you had a question too. And yes, Bray, you could read that book. Anybody can read help, but I'm addicted. What it was for is anybody that struggles with addiction of any sort, because there's principles that apply for addiction. There's a fuel source, there's a trigger. There's a reason we go back to it. There's a dependency. So I hit on that in all different types of addictions. Um, God bless you. I just, um, have a question. Um, you know, our life probably with putting a lot of junk food over for a period of time, do you, um, change, do they change for the health food quickly or you do it step-by-step? And, um, if your children are accustomed to junk food, did you just do it a quick change or well, that's a good one. Um, and she, her, her question is really good. Is it not? Because if I'm a junk food junkie, do I just cut everything out and start going healthy? What about the kids? How's it going to affect the kids? And that's what I meant by a lifestyle, because it will, you'll, your, your desires will start to change. Your habits will start to change. Like when I first thought about fasting, I thought there's no way in the world. I'm not, I'm not a fat. I've taught every three hours, right? My every three hours, we eat every three hours, every three hours, metabolism, keep the metabolic rate going up every three hours, every three hours. And then I started to read about the different things with fasting. Um, and your body will begin to adapt to what you're doing. For example, last time I ate was last night at six. I haven't eaten yet. So I might wait till today at six, 24 hours. It's your body begins to adapt to what you're training it. So my thought is with this, with junk food, let me just give you my, my past with working with people. It's almost like if you tell an alcoholic, well, if you have 12 beers, have 11 tomorrow and then 10, nine, eight, seven, six, it usually doesn't work. Uh, so if he's like, just, well, just cut out the cookies for now, but keep eating all this other stuff, you know, that it's kind of hard because you keep that addiction alive. However, you sometimes you have to wean off of things for coffee, for example, or cookies and you start to wean off and replace bad with good. Um, so it depends what your situation, if you're, I mean, if you're talking junk food for breakfast, junk food for lunch, junk food for dinner, I begin by starting now adding God given food in adding salads and fruits and steam veggies. And you start to add good food. It'll start to push out a lot of the bad food. Um, but my thought is I would make the changes as quick as possible, but what that looks like, you know, is up to you. Um, and if you watch on my YouTube page, I get the name pantry pastor, the pantry pastor, because I would go to people's houses and we throw out everything in their pantry and in the refrigerator. But don't worry. We put good stuff back in. So yeah, you go through the pantry and you realize these, these chips, these tortilla tortilla, tortillas, tortilla. There we go. Not I'm losing my Hispanic touch today. Those are the chips and all these crackers and why these things are bad and not healthy. These canned foods, these sweeteners, the spaghetti, it's why it's not good for you. You begin to throw it out and bring in what's good for you. Same with your refrigerator. Uh, so with the kids, um, you know, you just have to, especially if they're living under your roof, you know, have maybe change over to, to healthy. And then you're also, but we're also teaching our kids health. We're also teaching them as they get older, because what we're leaving them is a, is a mess with healthcare, with illness and injury. They're going to, they predict, I don't remember the childhood obesity rate. What's going to be in 2025, what they're predicting is, but we're, we're, we're going to be the most obese generation coming up that's ever lived because of the kids. And so I think it's okay to teach our kids about health and fitness. So if they're under your roof and you're feeding for them and providing for them, then I would have healthy options. And believe it or not, after you begin to eat, for example, if my kids are hungry and they take a big thing of celery and some healthy peanut butter or in some cut up apples, and in 20 minutes they're done complaining because you've satisfied that hunger. It's fulfilled that desire to eat, uh, in that. So I would make the changes as quick as possible and get right to it. Um, but with some addictions like caffeine, coffee, you know, sugar, it's good to like wean off and just, you know, I got to just start getting rid of these and weaning off of those things until you get to a point where, uh, you can just totally get rid of them and you'll start to crave different things. I mean, your body, your, your palate changes and you start to crave healthy food and not things that are unhealthy. Um, for example, I can tell you as God is my witness, I'll create, I'm, I'm more desiring what, you know, for lunch, what Karen made right now than a Carl's jr or in and out burger. I'm just telling you the truth. I don't, those sound good. Don't get me wrong. Western bacon, double cheeseburger with 1400 calories and barbecue drip and barbecue dressing dripping down the fried onions. You know, it's good, but it's not my, it's the, the, the, um, the, the, uh, clean food, good food. Not only that, you'll feel better. Um, what I've noticed too, is eating good. Like I can eat a big salad and still go play basketball with my son. But you do that with bad food. You're on the couch for an hour. Oh man, what is this? Because we weren't designed to keep putting in all that garbage. Uh, so I would make the changes as quick as possible and yes, have your kids involved in the process as well. Maybe explain why this is so important. Oh, go ahead, Raquel. I just have the last two questions is, um, have you ever heard in, uh, of anybody being healed from hypothyroidism, um, by changing their diets? And the second one is, um, what, what are your thoughts on iodized salt and or kosher salt? Okay. Well, the hypothyroidism is that is an issue with the thyroid. And of course, most people take medication. You got to be careful when you're dealing with, with thyroid issues. Um, but if you, if you just put that in YouTube, hyperthyroidism and fasting, and you'll get some examples that have come up, uh, with the body healing and re and repairing itself in that area for sure. Uh, because again, fasting doesn't do it. Fasting begins to, um, allow your body to use all its energy towards healing and bound. And, and also with the thyroid, they're finding that a lot of it is chemical imbalances, right? So your body begins to balance out chemically, uh, the, um, uh, from, uh, female male hormones, different things begin to balance out better in the, in the thyroid begins to operate and move more efficiently. As far as salt, um, do a little bit of research, but get the, the healthy salt. Um, there's, there's, there's, there's table salt. That's not good for you. And then their health food store would sell the, uh, I don't remember what it's called. What's the best real salt. Yeah. Real salt that comes from actually real salt, real place, you know, from the, from the ocean and different things where they're actually getting what sodium is. Uh, it's not, and to me, it's so salt is not a bad thing in moderation. Uh, it's, it's the process one, the refined one that we've been accustomed to. That one is not good for you. Okay. So I've heard conflicting things about peanut butter or nut butters. And one of the doctors that we've seen over the years says peanut butter is, you know, off limits don't ever eat peanut butter, but then there's organic peanut butter. So, I mean, have you done any research about peanut butter? Because as of right now, I've heard it's really good and it's really bad. Yeah. I don't know if my answer will help much, but I have researched it. And in the fasting book, if you get it online, if there are those who have it online, there's a article you can click actually the link and it'll, it'll pop up on the different peanut butters. Uh, the reason what they're, what here's, here's how the debate goes. I look at it as God created peanuts and if you get them in the right organic healthy state, but there's something called alpha toxin, which is, they talk about, I think on, on forks over knives and different movies where aflatoxin is a mold that is developed in soil that is wet. And they find that peanuts are often associated with aflatoxin. And that's why they tell you to avoid peanuts. Um, now again, it's depending on who you read the studies. My personal opinion is if you can get good organic peanut butter, uh, with, you just look on the ingredients, organic peanuts. Okay. It doesn't need to have like white. Why? When you buy nuts, they have to be soaked in, in, uh, some type of peanut oil and it doesn't make any sense because they want the salt to stick to it. The salt we shouldn't be eating. They want to stick to it, but I'm getting off track here. So my personal opinion is that, uh, based on reading Dr. Mercola on one side and then, uh, Daniel Pompa, Dr. Daniel Pompa on other sides of the debate. And, uh, but if you can choose, choose like almond butter or a Costco sells a organic nut butter. That's a mixture of, I think it's flax seed and chai seed and almond butter. And it's a mixture of all those. It's pretty good. And if you mix it, you know, if you take some honey or jelly and you, you know, you can buy jelly that doesn't have sugar in it. Who would think if I'm buying strawberry jelly, why does it need to have sugar in it? That's what they add sugar. But you can find real strawberry jelly organic. It should say organic strawberries. That's all it needs to say. It's great. And you mix that with some almond butter. So I would steer a little bit of clear from peanut butter away from it just because of the aflatoxin and the different debates out there. But personally, I don't see anything wrong. I eat peanuts. I eat almonds. I cashews. I eat a lot of nuts. I probably eat too much, too many nuts. But get a good organic nut butter is, is really good for you. And look at the ingredients to you. We've got to be wise shoppers, don't we? Because even health food stores don't always have healthy food. One of the ones I used to go to, I haven't went to in a while, stupid me, I thought they use the organic produce that they sell. No, they use regular produce and regular ingredients in what they make. And if you ask why, why do you think? Yeah, much cheaper. So I see why. Now I just, okay, well, it kind of threw me for a loop, your health food store. But anyway, next question. You had one? Did that help answer? Okay, so I'm not scared of organic peanut butter. My kids are healthy. I've eaten it. They used to eat a lot of it, but I, maybe I shouldn't say this. But when it's down a little bit, I mix it with half almond and they don't know it. Now they do. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. So now they're eating. And then, and then I've also mixed goat milk, raw goat milk. Like, Shane, how was that milk? Pretty good. Good. Do you know what you had? See, it's not bad for you. So go ahead. Sorry. How do you feel about milk and like milk alternatives, like almond milk, soy milk, lactose free? Just like, what would you suggest? Well, here's the thing about dairy. And again, you can, you can Google this, the benefits of raw dairy, raw milk, raw organic, or in raw goat milk and different things. It's really good. It's good for you. Raw butter. But you're not going to find it very many places and it's too expensive unless you own your own goat. So our options are out there, aren't they? Milk alternatives. There is something called an almond cow that I purchased recently. And I actually like it. You can, it can make your own almond milk. I just have organic almonds. It spins it like a blender in a big thing of water. And you just pour it into a big container and there's your almond. There's your almond milk last about four or five days. It doesn't taste great. But you know, it works really good, but many people don't want to go that route. It's actually cheaper long-term. It's more expensive upfront because you have to buy the machine. But the milk alternatives you want to just be careful of, you know, soy milk is not good. Rice milk, almond milk. You look at the ingredients in there and almond milk will have seven or six or seven different ingredients, soy, lettuce, emulsifiers such as carrageen and just things that aren't really that healthy. I mean, the court's still out on some of these things, but emulsifiers are thickening agents. So they make the milk thicker because almond milk by itself is kind of watery. So they'll mix it with things. So, you know, I don't have a lot of advice as far as don't or do on this. Just be careful milk alternatives. Would you be better off just buying organic milk? Depends if you're trying to avoid dairy. That might not be a good idea. And I wouldn't want person to eat and drink too much in moderation because it has lactose and lactose is a sugar. So if you're drinking milk, you're drinking sugar. 12, probably 12 grams, I think in a cup or so. Don't quote me on it. I haven't looked in months. So that's my thoughts on the milk and turn on alternatives. Why are you avoiding it? If you just want to avoid dairy, then you can find some organic almond milk. If you'd like organic rice milk, if you'd like, but they're not necessarily always the best option because of the ingredients. Go ahead. Read it real quick. Coconut milk. Not bad. Yeah. If you want to mix it with something or use it, uh, to me it doesn't taste real great, but it's, I mean, it's healthy for you. Yeah. Coconut milk with the Stevie is good. Yes. Lactate. That's a milk without the lactose. Right. Um, you know what? I haven't looked into that in a while, but I avoid any, it's still dairy, I believe. Right. Still milk without lactose in it. Um, and so is it organic? Is it, was it processed where, you know, so that's the kind of things if you're going to, does it, can you tell difference without the lactate lactose intolerant? Kind of. Okay. Okay. Well, if you feel better, that's sometimes a good indication. But again, some people can't just get crazy and change everything. They want to hang on to a little milk. So if that's your choice, you know, the lactate version, I mean, it's fine. I just would avoid and I'd have it in moderation and not too much and try to get organic if possible. Um, anyone else going once? All right, real quick. If you're allergic to milk and eggs, a substitute is just don't have them. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need, you don't need milk or eggs. Um, you'll, you'll still live without them. Uh, so I don't know if there's a substitute. I mean, instead of milk, you could have almond milk or make, you know, or, or, um, instead of eggs, you know, you could have, uh, beans, beans are high in protein. Um, but there's not a substitute, you know, carry over from one to the other that would recommend necessarily. So you heard soy milk was bad for boys. Yeah. Well, they're, they're finding that it increases, uh, um, estrogen in men and men. And there have been cases where high levels of high levels of soy milk and boys have caused gynecomastia that that's, it's, it's underneath their, their, their nipple. It begins to their, their breasts start to form like a woman's breast because of the gynecomastia, uh, estrogen increase also happens when a guy takes steroids too sometimes. Um, so there, and well, they're finding that another, even hair care products and things that are increasing, uh, in puberty and young kids at a young age because of all these chemicals they're using. But yeah, I would avoid, uh, soy milk unless you can get organic soy and it's in moderation, even that's controversial. Um, but I, I, I don't have a problem with, uh, organic soy beans or soy in moderation now and then it's just, it's natural. It's God given. Uh, I mean, you're going to find something wrong with everything if you look hard enough. Um, but yeah, I would avoid the, the, the, a lot of soy and specially, uh, but you, you look at the, the culture who eats the most soy. Yeah. You don't have a lot of, of the same health, American health issues, but those, those aren't sprayed. Uh, they're, they're just, you know, good God given organic soybeans. Any questions over here? Abraham Brandt. You guys have questions? No. And then some don't. Yeah. Yeah. So there are better choices for the milk. Yeah, that's true. Oh, the water debate, huh? Wow. Well, if you ask somebody who owns alkalizing machine, they'll tell you it's good. And I, you know what? I just look at how water was made and try to drink as clean as I, as clean as I can. What she means by alkaline water is they're finding that the pH balance in your gut is either acidic or it's not, and it can cause, you know, disease or it can't. So high alkaline water, uh, is said to be more healthy. Um, and I bought it myself. I bought high alkaline water, but you know, it's going to be real expensive. And I don't know long-term if the research is there. Um, a lot of these things you have to be careful. Are they hypes? Are they fads? But what, how did God created us? So I look at the alkaline, let's say what would, how would God create us? He would create us. We would drink from rainwater, right? For many years. And that's how most of civilization, civilization drank is running streams, rainwater. So when you look at the alkaline levels of those, you'll usually find those five, six, 7%. Uh, so you don't have to go way up to 9%, uh, again, and how we were, how we were created. So I just try to have that be my balance. If not, there's again, I'll worry about the stuffing in my pillow. Is this chemicals? Is there glue in my carpet? Is that down comforter? Is that mattress made out of this falling polycarbons? And what about that? It was that sitting in Tupperware was aluminum over my food. It's like, Oh, you can just go crazy with this stuff. So you want to stay balanced. Don't become too carried away. Let God direct him, you know, but I think eating healthy and taking care of our body is if you, if you could do these, here's a takeaway. Begin to eat God given food. If you're getting it out of a box or a container, sometimes even beans, you want to let them soak overnight and then cook them. They taste so much better and the nutrient dense. Is it a God given food? Eat that. Not the, not the process. The man, you'll get rid of watch. You'll get rid of about 90% of what you're eating. Is it God given? And am I moving a lot more? Am I exercising? Is my body as I'm getting older? Is my body moving like it should be? Am I getting out and, and breathing? And that's another thing we didn't talk about is one of the big illnesses or a lot of the illnesses are tied to oxidative stress, meaning our bodies inside the different chemical reactions taking place, but the benefit of going out and breathing deeply, breathing and exercising, letting the oxygen come in and clean the body. And that's what it was designed to do. And I picture how, look how God created us to go out and walk and be active, breathe hard, exercise, move, and have this body design. That's why the Bible says Moses at 120 years old, his eyes were not dim nor his natural forces abated. He was healthy. So was Caleb. Men and women could, could, could actually be a lot stronger and, and we don't need to be falling apart at 70. We really don't. If we take care of this wonderful gift that God has given us. So if that's it, any last one last question, I'm going to close and we're going to eat lunch. We'll have questions over there. You can ask the vendors questions. Karen. Oh yeah, we got that. We got the raffle and Karen's going to be available too. If you have any, she just got her degree in culinary. I'll let, I'll let you fill, you fill her in on that. So on cooking, nutritional questions, and even with this, sometimes we don't agree on the same thing with meat and dairy. You know, she'll take a different approach and I respect that. She could be right. I don't know. I just know, I just go kind of with the Bible. You know, what I get from the scripture, it's hard for me to say, don't ever eat meat because the Bible says, watch out for those who say don't ever eat meat. And, but I think in moderation, is it clean? Is it, is it, for example, a family nearby used to give us a gallon of goat's milk, organic goat's milk a week. I loved it. It was, it was really good. It's good for you. It's one, it's very, just, just look up raw goat's milk. If you don't believe me, the enzymes, the vitamins, the minerals and nutrients, it's very high up on that level. So I don't, I don't think it's because we're eating meat and dairy. I think it's because we're eating unhealthy, sick, processed foods, including meat and dairy. But we, if once we get back to how God designed it and clean food, we'll be doing much better.