Living Well
Eating My Way to Healing
She was plagued by poor health until God healed her through her diet
By Rhonda J. Smith
I n my primary school lunchroom I would stare at the poster that was screaming at me but I could not understand what it was saying. There were pictures of animals and foods representing the various food groups and a caption that read“ You are what you eat.” My 7-year-old mind could only understand the caption to mean“ If I ate a cow, I would be a cow.”“ If I ate cheese, I would be cheese?” I shrugged, tucking away this early lesson in proper eating and only pulling it back out 27 years later, when the fullness of that message would come to me.“ You are what you eat”: You will be unhealthy if you eat unhealthy. You will be healthy if you eat healthy. After suffering for years with chronic constipation, yeast infections, acne, arthritis, abscesses, extra weight, lesions on my gums, poor circulation, inflammation in my chest and a depressed immune system, I came to understand that most of my health issues were directly related to what I ate. I received this revelation not from family members or health care providers but the Lord Himself after crying out to Him after my umpteenth yeast infection. Being raised on and cooking fat-laden soul foods in addition to the Standard American Diet( SAD) of meat and potatoes, fried and processed foods with very little fresh fruits and vegetables, like many African Americans from the South, my parents just didn’ t have the knowledge to help me. I didn’ t have heart issues or“ sugar” so they didn’ t have a clue that my issues were food related. Even the host of primary care physicians and specialists I went to gave me little help. Of the half dozen or so doctors I saw, only two gave me a dietary plan but then told me I could return to my normal way of eating once my symptoms were gone. The others just gave me a prescription to relieve my symptoms. I never got knowledge on how to prevent the issue so I wouldn’ t get any symptoms at all. They simply specialized in pain relief. But God specializes in root relief. He specializes in healing. God said about Jerusalem:“ Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth”( Jeremiah 33:6 KJV). God let them know that He was not just going to bandage their wounds( health) and give them a remedy to heal( cure) them. He was also going to heal( cure) them and then show them how to have a wealth of soundness( peace) in their bodies and His truth as opposed to the falsehood that they had been receiving. He did the same for me:
He gave me His Scripture.
Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane at FreeDigitalPhotos. net
“ Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known”( Jeremiah 33:3). Having poor health most of my life and little relief, I thought I just had to accept poor health as part of my life, but the Holy Spirit in me had me cry to the Lord for deliverance from the pain and sluggishness. Soon after I asked the Lord to help me, I was watching a Christian television program I rarely watched and they were discussing Bible cures for various ailments, including yeast infections.
He gave me His servants. Dr. Don Colbert, a Christian medical doctor who incorporates natural healing methods in his prac-
10 The Well Magazine / Spring 2013