Time for a Plant-based ‘Booster’ Diet
From the May 2023 Bible Banner
In a day and age of infectious
disease many are looking for a simple way to boost their immune health. Indeed,
many have found this is in a plant-based
diet. In fact, “Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee [for
Responsible Medicine]… [said] about a plant-based diet...‘This is
a booster that is needed at this unprecedented time and that may actually work
to mitigate COVID-19.’” 1
It is interesting to note that the original diet, even after sin, was plant-based (Gen. 1:29, Gen. 3:18). But the Bible also suggests that an animal-product-free diet for the last days may be the way to go. In 1 Cor. 10:6,11 we find the generally unnoticed warning, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted…Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Using the context and prooftexting with the word “lusted,” we find the story in Numbers 11. Verse 4 begins, “And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?” Psalm 106:14, 15 records, that they,“lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Numbers 11:33, 34 finishes the story after God sent an enormous flock of quail around a meter/yard deep. “And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.” The biblical admonition is that animal products, especially in excess, bring disease.
Indeed, science is revealing why God would prescribe a plant-based diet for the time period of the end of the world. The British Medical Journal reported that “Plant-based... diets may help lower the odds of developing moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, suggest the findings of a six-country study, published in the online journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health. They were associated with 73%… lower odds…of moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, compared with those who didn’t have these dietary patterns.”2
So why is the end of the world different from 2,000 years ago? There are at least three differences between the meat and animal products of the past. First, all commercial animals are not only often fed other dead animals, they are also pumped full of pharmaceuticals and hormones. For example, “Of all antibiotics sold in the United States, approximately 80% are sold for use in animal agriculture…”3 If you eat the meat, milk, or eggs, you also eat the drugs, hormones, and vaccines that the animals have been given.
Secondly, disease in animals in rising. A July 14, 2022 article from the UN states that, “Diseases transmitted from animals to people in Africa have jumped 63 per cent in last decade, compared with the previous ten year period…”4 Some of these diseases, including prion diseases like Mad Cow Disease are not necessrily killed even by pasteurization and cooking. Others, like BLV, or Bovine Leukemia Virus are widespread, making picking up a gallon of milk to drink a gamble with your health. The book Moove Over Milk cites a quote from an August 1992 Hoard’s Dairyman, stating, “The incidence of BLV varies from herd to herd, but dairy herds having 80% or more infected adult mammals is not uncommon.”5 Many of these animal diseases can be passed from animals to humans. “Zoonotic diseases are contagious diseases that spread between animals and humans. It is estimated that approximately 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans are diseases of animal origin; approximately 60% of all human pathogens are zoonotic. Humans can contract zoonotic diseases through direct contact with infected animals, and also by consumption of contaminated food or water, inhalation, arthropod vectors (such as flies, ticks, and mosquitoes) and pests.”6 Even raising your own cow from a calf could be hazardous since according the Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine all the way back in 1979, “Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) antibodies were present in 59% of newborn calves tested.”7
The third reason to go plant-based at “the end of the world” is animal products compound toxins more than plants. And toxins in the environment are greatly increasing. For example, a February 22, 2023 article states, “Today the Environmental Working Group published an analysis of peer-reviewed data that for the first time shows the global scope of contamination by the ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS, which may be harming over 330 wildlife species around the world. The analysis, based on more than 100 recent peer-reviewed studies, detected over 120 unique PFAS compounds in these animals, not just the legacy forever chemicals PFOA and PFOS. Polluted animals were found on every continent except Antarctica.
The analysis, based on more than 100 recent peer-reviewed studies, detected over 120 unique PFAS compounds in these animals, not just the legacy forever chemicals PFOA and PFOS. Polluted animals were found on every continent except Antarctica. The absence of PFAS in species in Antarctica is not due to a lack of contamination but instead because of the absence of recent test results in the research we studied…
In the 2000s, studies began documenting the global distribution of these chemicals in wildlife, and since they accumulate in the food chain, wildlife at the top serve as valuable environmental sentinels.”8
Indeed then, eating the animals at the top of the food chain or their eggs or milk is not really a good idea in this day and age. For example, in the bioaccumulation diagram,9 phytoplankton only have a toxity of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) at 0.025 parts per million, but as you can see by the time you get past the big fish that ate the little fish and get to the eggs of the herring gull that ate the big fish, you have over 124 times the concentration of toxins than were found in the phytoplankton.
and get to the eggs of the herring gull that ate the big fish, you have over 124 times the concentration of toxins than were found in the phytoplankton. This means simply eating an egg, milk, or meat could be 124 times as toxic as eating a plant from the same area!
So what kind of effects might this cause in human that eats the egg or bird? Professor Scott Belcher of a North Carolina University stated, “Our testing of alligators and fish in the Cape Fear River of North Carolina found that PFAS exposure harmed immune function. In the alligators, PFAS exposure was linked with slow healing and infection from injury, and PFAS exposure was linked with symptoms of autoimmune-like disease. These alligators are especially sensitive sentinels for the harmful impacts of PFAS on the immune system.” In addition, to “supression of the immune system,” the article mentions “increase of certain cancers” as well as “reproductive, and developmental harm” from these toxins. They conclude, “Our study results are a clear warning for human health and the health of wildlife.”8 So I find it interesting to note that some diligent Bible students who were interested in God’s book of nature as well as health reform published this statement in the Pacific Union Recorder as early as 1901. “There is no safety in eating of the flesh of dead animals, and in a short time the milk of the cows will also be excluded from the diet of God's commandment-keeping people. In a short time it will not be safe to use anything that comes from the animal creation." {Pacific Union Recorder, November 7, 1901 par. 1}
It is my belief that where plant-based foods are freely available, this time has come. Now is the time for those wanting to be healthy to invest in God’s natural, plant-based, immune-boosting nutrition.
2-- https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/plant-based-and-or-fish-diets-may-help-lessen-severity-of-covid-19-infection/ 3--https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638249/#:~:text=Of%20all%20antibiotics%20sold%20in,classes%20important%20to%20human%20medicine 4-- https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1122522 5-- Moove Over Milk, pg. 68,69 6-- https://www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/programs/nyschap/modules-documents/zoonotic-diseases-sheepgoats 7-- Moove Over Milk, pg. 64 8-- https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2023/02/groundbreaking-map-shows-toxic-forever-chemicals-more-330
9—Diagram-- https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/pesticides_grea.html