Changing Health Trends, Unchanging Truth

Almost everyone around the world with access to some form of media – print, electronic, is aware by now that the World Health Organisation has declared processed meats — sausages, bacon, ham and so on carcinogenic and harmful to health, if ingested in certain quantity. In their report released on October 26, 2015, and based on 800 studies conducted by 22 experts in 10 different countries, over a period of the past 20 years, they found that the potential hazard these processed meats pose to health, rank on the same level as smoking, alcohol and asbestos.

Needless to say, this is a bombshell for those who love these convenient and tasty foods, and may even be the death knell of the ‘full English breakfast’ in its present form. Someone wisely cautioned that this thought is what is ‘trending’ now. He is correct. It may not be so tomorrow, or a few years hence. Trends change. A faint glimmer of light for meat lovers is that the WHO recommends a daily 50g intake of processed meats safe. But goodness knows when that thought may change. After all, WHO maintains that their findings are based on ‘limited evidence’.

What is an individual to do? Embracing vegetarianism or veganism is not necessarily the answer, as another current trending thought condemns, in equally strong terms, pre-processed meatless foods such as noodles. Even high milk and dairy product intake has a direct link to high mortality and fractures, according to a study led by Professor Karl Michaelsson of Uppsala University, Sweden, published in the October 28, 2014 issue of the British Medical Journal.

Certainly, manufacturers of foods and drugs must not, for the sake of selfish and pecuniary profit, knowingly flood markets with harmful ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–. Such a practice deserves the highest condemnation. But beyond that, how can an individual think correctly, rather than be swayed dizzyingly to and fro like a pendulum, by ever changing human thought trends?

Truth never changes. The word Truth, capitalised, is one of the synonyms Mary Baker Eddy uses for God in her book Science and Health with key to the Scriptures.  Trends that are materially based are, to borrow Eddy’s idea, changing, mutable, mortal and therefore insubstantial, while spiritual evidence bears ‘Truth’s signet’. The relevance of basing thought on unchanging Truth becomes obvious when it is found removing fear that may come from thinking about how many ‘full English breakfasts’ or meatless noodles have been consumed.

It removes the penalty that material human laws would affix to such historical information, while promoting moderation in the indulgence of culinary pleasures. It highlights ways in which to proceed with the information and news that well meaning bodies such as WHO and Food and Drug Administration responsibly and painstakingly make public. It can even have a positive effect on the conglomerate that would want to make profit at all cost; influencing them to adhere to best practices. 

Thought, rooted and grounded in constant, unchanging Truth, governs human thought, makes mankind better physically and morally. It guides in taking right decisions. It also heals.

m_asolanke@hotmail.com