AT TIME OF CONFUSED REPORTS AND THREATS TO HEALTH, BASIC DIET GUIDELINES WITH PRAYER CAN BRING BALANCE

Can it be true? Can we really have more control over our health than we think? Are we solely at the mercy of fate and the medical profession, or do we have a part in it?

Often, we have a big part in it.

Doctors and surgeons and their technology certainly have their place. But so do natural, God-given means.

So does the spirit.

The spirit is behind everything physical and connects us with He Who creates.

When we're right spiritually, we are often right physically as well. They interconnect.

We all age. We're all are susceptible to the tests of life (and viruses, and bacteria).

We all die.

Also, there is redemptive suffering, which, if handled with purity, can clear the way to Heaven.

But a balanced spirit means a balanced mind and often a balanced body, which translates to health.

Moreover, in prayer, the Lord feeds our intuitions, and our intuitions inform us of what the body needs.

One day, we'll probably find out that God has provided a natural remedy for every natural malady.

Unfortunately, many maladies are unnatural: caused by what we have created.

We live in an artificial world that too often bears the "fruit" of cancer.

But we have remedies and weapons and shields and must always pray to eat what our bodies need -- for protection, sustained health, and healing.

Everything natural -- all vegetables and fruits and even meats -- have their place.

The problem comes in when there is gluttony or because we have "artificialized" our food with preservatives, hydrogenated oils, dyes, pesticides, acids, phosphates, high-fructose, and nearly countless other unnatural ingredients. Many of our foods now contain products made from genetically-modified (GMO) soy, corn, and other fruits and vegetables. (We respectfully disagree with those who support genetic modification.)

Haven't you wondered at the tomatoes that look so perfect but cut and taste like cardboard?

Read the ingredients even on seemingly innocent products such as cereal and apple sauce. There's even high-fructose sugar in ketchup! And salt in cereal.

Our kids have been raised on milk and meat that contain hormones (as well as animal anti-biotics).

It's virtually impossible to keep track of -- and avoid -- it all, and also impossible to keep track, it seems, of all the benefits from what God has put before us.

Just do as much as you can to "go natural." Does anyone really think what we have created is superior to what God did?

And remember some basic pointers to good health and healing, perhaps even from challenges such as cancer: Dark green vegetables. Plenty of good water (as pure as possible; if in plastic containers, large, hard ones, like those at the cooler). There seems to be impressive evidence that carrot juice and Co-enzyme Q-10 have real healing effects. So does extra-virgin olive oil.

Stay clear, again, of trans-fats, high-fructose (when possible), refined wheat, and "hydrogenated" products. Besides excess sugar -- nine or more teaspoons of it per serving! -- soda can contain the synthetic chemical brominated vegetable oil (BVO), originally patented as a flame retardant. BVO bio-accumulates in human tissue and breast milk; animal studies report reproductive and behavioral problems. (Bromine can reportedly alter the central nervous and endocrine systems and promotes iodine deficiency, causing skin rashes, acne, loss of appetite, fatigue and cardiac arrhythmias.) Beware milk products with "rBGH."

A general rule: the more man has altered with it, and the more chemical ingredients, the unhealthier it is.

Probably, if one surveys the preponderance of claims, having a low-acid, alkaline-like diet is best for avoiding the kind of "climate" that cancer likes.

One recent claim:  that a man with stage-IV prostate cancer that had metastasized was free of the disease a very short time after going on a diet that included baking soda, molasses, and other items that lowered acid in his body (think of how acidic modern food is!) and increased alkalinity. Some believe that cancer cells become dormant at pH 7.0 and 7.5 (which is alkaline, where so many of our foods are acidic).

It can get very complicated, even confusing.

Everything seems healthy. Then everything seems a threat.

One year it's one thing, the next another.

Bottom line: pray.

Your spirit knows what your body needs.

Some good bets: Squash. Local honey. Beta carotene. For aching joints, glucosamine (available on vitamin racks at grocery and drug stores).

Remember these two words. Garlic. Turmeric.

For insomnia, melatonin: natural and it often works

Get oxygen into your body.

Remember, allergies can be a sign of an immune system that needs to be cleansed and bolstered (or it could be prone to more serious problems).

Every body is different.

Flush out your system.

Get proper sun and exercise.

When you go out and walk in the sun you are pulling vitality from God's Creation.

Turn your "ship" back -- make a u-turn, if necessary -- in the direction He mapped for it.

And don't accept the "evil report."

What's the evil report?

A doctor comes in and says you have a "terminal" disease.

No one knows the hour.

No one knows what God may do.

No one knows what the discipline of a diet, exercise, and prayer can accomplish.

We are sent constant reports [here's another] of miraculous recoveries.

[resources: healing books]

[see also: Ten foods sold in the U.S. but banned abroad and Gold-star rating system works at grocery stores]