So I follow a number of natural living, health, and nutrition blogs these days. Most of the blogs I read follow Michael Pollan’s advice to “eat real food, not too much, mostly plants”, and I’ve found a lot of helpful resources as I’ve transitioned further and further away from the Standard American Diet. I have been learning so much about health and nutrition in general and it’s been absolutely fascinating. (I drink whole milk! I have wheat berries and I think I might try sprouting them! So much to do!)
Anyway. Being a natural living hippie health nut is all well and good (and a lot of fun) BUT it carries a risk. And that is the risk of arrogantly believing that your superior lifestyle choices are going to save you. One blog I follow posted this question on facebook:
(Go visit Butter Believer! Have faith in real food!)
There were a ton of responses to her questions, most of which made me silently rage. They included “all the chemicals and toxins in the products they use and food they eat” (love the dismissive use of “they”), “SOY!!!!!!!!!”, “food that is not nourishing & birth control”, “a lot of hormonal issues due to eating habits probably is a huge culprit” and “wheat and low-fat diets”.
Well isn’t that helpful! I broke my never-get-into-internet-arguments-with-strangers rule to add this to this discussion:
This kind of attitude is all over the place. When will people learn that try as we might, we can’t control everything? Yes, I take a great interest in my health and well-being in the hopes that I will be able to avoid chronic disease in future years and to live a full, vibrant, and long life. But it would be foolish in the extreme for me to assume that my good choices are going to somehow exempt me from danger. They may protect me, but save me? No. I am trying to do everything “right”, to be sure. But ultimately cancer doesn’t care if I drink organic milk or use a paraben-free body lotion. It might be harder for cancer to find me, but not impossible.
It’s so easy to fall into that trap, though. So easy to start assuming that if you do a, b and c you’ll be saved from x, y and z. And it’s just not that simple. May I never lose sight of that. May I never forget who’s really in control. My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart (Psalm 7:10).
February 8, 2013 at 10:10 am
Amen. Don’t you think that 1 in 7 couples have always been infertile? There were a lot of barren women examples in the Bible. I mean, didn’t some of them have super old husbands when they finally conceived? There’s a lot more to it than our diets:)
February 8, 2013 at 5:57 pm
Right? That’s actually the first thing I thought of. There have always been couples who have had a hard time conceiving — even back before processed foods and toxic chemicals existed.
February 8, 2013 at 10:10 am
I probably just opened myself up to a lot of comments. Be nice, people.
February 8, 2013 at 5:57 pm
Don’t worry Martha — my few, gentle readers are just that: few and gentle.
February 8, 2013 at 5:33 pm
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you for that and the reminder.
February 8, 2013 at 5:57 pm
February 8, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Well said! We can never know what God will grant or allow in our lives. We can do our very best to live healthy lives, but we don’t control the future. That is for Him alone.
And as for infertility, I completely agree. The Bible talks clearly about God “opening” and “closing” the wombs of more than one woman. There, again, it is God’s sovereignty that rules.
February 8, 2013 at 11:23 pm
Totally. I mean, not only is all that true, but it just bothers me so much when people think life is so simplistic. “Well, *I* do things *right* so that’s why *I* conceived on the first try and had the perfect pregnancy and the perfect drug-free home waterbirth and that’s why *my* baby is so advanced.” The implication is that the rest of us are just getting it all wrong. Maybe if we tried harder, we’d get it right. You know? Ugh. Rage. (Not to mention, of course, that the last thing women going through infertility need to hear is a long list of all the things they’re doing wrong and all the ways in which other people figured it out first.)