Health Is Our Most Valuable Possession    by Jack Kettler The human body is a wondrous creation of God. God designed our bodies to protect itself, to heal itself, to regulate and balance all internal functions and to daily generate billions of new cells to replace old. Given the proper tools, the body always can do a good job. Our responsibility is to see to it that the body gets those essential tools like proper nutrition. Our bodies are a complex cellular factory. The new cells need the right raw material to be formed properly. If cells are not formed properly they will not be able to function correctly! In recent years, our immune systems have become compromised. In the last 25 years, the measure of T-cells or natural killer cells in our bodies, have taken an alarming drop of 25% or more. This has opened the way for an increase in immune system disorders such as herpes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, AIDS, diabetes, cancer, hepatitis C and even different types of heart disease. Most of us are facing life with a reduced capacity to fight infection at the very time infectious bacteria and viruses are evolving into super strains, with increasing immunity to our drugs. It is interesting to note that these diseases may develop resistance to our drugs but they cannot damage us if we have a healthy immune system. Also, scientists have found up to 400 measurable toxins attacking our internal organs none of which were in our bodies until the 1950's and before the beginning of the chemical or drug revolution. We have to find away so they can be removed or we suffer the consequences. A healthy immune system is our best defense against this alarming list of toxins. We need to learn how to survive on a toxic planet. Modern nutritional science has discovered that there are eight saccharides that are needed to form proper cellular glycoproteins on the cell surfaces for immune system function. Unfortunately, only 2 of the 8 essential saccharides are readily available in our current diet. The other 6, which were once plentiful in our food chain, are now lost to modern agriculture. During the past 50 years, our food supply has changed from home gardens with vine ripened fruits and vegetables, to large commercial farms. The soil on these farms is dying if not dead and their are depleted of nutrients and minerals. The soil is sprayed with toxic chemicals to kill weeds and insects. The land is fertilized with nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous which makes plants grow, but lacks the essential trace minerals. Crop rotation is no longer practiced which help the soil to be replenished in vital nutrients. Consider the human body that contains trillions of cells, all needing information in order to know how to perform their function. Unimpaired cell to cell communication is a basic necessity of a healthy body. In today's agricultural industry, fruits and vegetables are picked long before ripening in order to ship long distances to market. The problem is that the essential phytochemicals do not enter the food until just before ripening. Consequently, we are eating food missing as much as 80% of the critical nutrients, which are available only in fruit and vine, ripened produce. Phytochemicals serve as powerful anti oxidants, which help the immune system deal with free radicals. The essential saccharides and as mentioned there are eight, unite with proteins to form glycoforms or glycoproteins that help the body identify a new cell as a kidney cell and to replace an old kidney cell with the new cells. Or there could also be a cancer cell and the marking is critical for the body to recognize it and kill it. In the case of cancer, the glycoforms on the cell surface are abnormal. The phytochemicals and essential saccharides work together helping the body by providing the tools to fight disease and for maintaining optimal health. Cell to cell communication is needed for optimal health. We need to generate new cells and to replace old ones and to repair damaged cells and to call the killer cells into action, which combat existing disease as well as prevent attacks by new diseases. There is nothing more important than new healthy cells. Healthy cells equal health bodies. Vital nutrients that we nourish our bodies with become the micronutrient building blocks for the new cells made by our bodies on a daily basis. If we have poor nutritional intake the body is still going to make new cells. Think about this, the body will make do with what it has to work with. If your body is starving nutritionally by a lack of essential vitamins and minerals what will be the new cells be made of? Will the micronutrient building blocks needed to make a normal cell magically appear in the structure of the new cell if you are not ingesting the required nutrients? Over time, the structure of the cells in your body will become increasingly compromised and no longer be able to function like normal cells. Why? Because they are not normal, they are made missing vital nutrients. Over time poor nutritional intake can lead to a situation where a disease state can take hold. This is not rocket science! For example, poor women have many more problems with pregnancies and new born mortality rates than rich women. Why? Rich women have better sources of nutrition. Nutritional supplements are not drugs. We have to think of them differently. If we approach nutrition like drugs we will be looking for an overnight quick fix. Nourishing our bodies through proper diet and nutritional supplementation is completely different. It is a life style or way of life. Eating is necessary to live. It has been said "we are what we eat." What are you eating? We need to evaluate if what we are eating is truly nourishment and not simply empty calories devoid of nutritional content. And finally, some people ask when they would be able to stop taking a supplement. This question is a tip off that the individual is approaching a nutritional supplement like a drug. To make a point; what happens if you are deficient in one or more of the essential vitamins and minerals? Beriberi, pellagra, rickets and scurvy are well know nutritional deficiencies diseases. If you had the symptoms of scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) would you take a vitamin C supplement until the symptoms disappeared and then stop or make sure you are continuing to get enough vitamin C through your diet or a supplement for the rest of your life? The answer should be obvious. Nutrition is essential! You will not always feel (drug paradigm thinking) something from the supplementation of a nutrient for it to be supplying critically needed raw material for your body's metabolism processes. Don't short change yourself! Take charge of your health, live a healthy life style, nourish yourself with the best foods and find the best supplements on God's green earth to support your body by giving it the tools needed to repair and correct itself! In other words, give your body a fighting chance! Support the immune, endocrine, digestive, and elimination systems of your body and don't let the disease process get the upper hand. Don't starve your cells, nourish them! Give your body a fighting chance! Our goal should be to improve the Structure and Function of the cells in your body through vital nutrition. When your cell structure is normal, they will function correctly. "Science has shown that the body can truly heal itself. Drugs don't heal nor do dietary supplements. Proper nutrition gives the body the resources to heal itself". - Dr. Roger Williams (Nutrition and Disease 1971)  “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)  “To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28, 29) Mr. Kettler has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book The Religion That Started in a Hat. Available at: www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com