UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter

Pastor Annette's Blog

"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC

Finding Healthy

2/11/2020

0 Comments

 
February 11, 2020

Beloved:
   
            In an ongoing discussion with my nurse practitioner about post-menopausal health, we’ve talked a lot about diet and nutrition.  Apparently grandmother bodies prefer holding onto weight we once shed more easily. “Protein in the morning,” she emphasized, “every single morning.”
            Based on a separate conversation, I added two cups of crushed oyster shells to my hens’ feed, and egg production doubled within days.  Turns out that, while they are still laying, my girls are not spring chickens either. Their systems also need a dietary boost, calcium in this case.
            So, as much as I prefer toast or cereal with fruit, protein in the morning it is.  I scramble, fry, and boil it, depending on the day. This morning I made egg sliders with ham, cheese, and leftover rolls from the freezer.  The recipe works for both my doctor and the SNAP budget experiment I’ve been doing lately.*
            I recently heard a different doctor say that the healthiest food we can eat either was pulled off a tree, grew in the ground, or had a mother (a description I especially love to use when talking to kids about eating healthy).  The problem is, of course, that the healthiest food is also the most expensive. While poor diet is only one factor in health outcomes, poverty has repeatedly been correlated with poor health outcomes such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes — all of which are directly connected to diet.
            Sadly, wealth is definitely better for your health, a reality that as a society we have chosen for ourselves and our poorer neighbors.  We’ve done so by supporting the subsidy of one crop pretty much to the exclusion of all others. Do you know it? Indiana is famous for it.  40% of everything sold in a supermarket contains it, including plastic packaging, soaps, and detergents.  It’s eaten by most of the meat we eat. It fuels the trucks that drive our groceries to the store.  It’s corn. High fructose corn syrup. Hydrogenated Corn Oil. Polylactic acid. Ethanol. And so many other names.
            I’ve no beef with corn whatsoever, though almost all beef is corn-fed and shot full of antibiotics — to deal with cattle’s digestive intolerance of corn.  I was raised on and love the taste of summer corn as much as the next Hoosier. My beef is with a culture prioritizing corporate profit over human health when we could choose otherwise.  With our dollars and our votes, we could choose to subsidize a biodiverse food industry, an industry of food pulled off a tree, growing in the ground, having a mother.  We could choose healthy people over outrageous profits, not only for ourselves but for all our neighbors too.
            No doubt it’s a challenge, but certainly not undoable.  The very beginning for me has been to eat more thoughtfully, more intentionally.  And also to read. Last week I mentioned and here quoted The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  Another older text that is important to me is The Journal of John Woolman, an 18th-century Quaker who lived deeply conscious of the economics of his faith and how others were affected by his choices.  I am considering it for our Lenten reading group.
            I pray the day is kind to you in every way.  

​~peace & prayers with much love, 
pastor annette


*local organic eggs are sometimes available for free at Mother Hubbard’s cupboard but likely too expensive on a SNAP budget.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC.  It is also posted here. 
     
    Enjoy!  
    Pastor Annette

    Copyright
    Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011

3740 East Third Street   Bloomington, IN 47401         812/339-1404                   Life Groups ~ 9:30 am          Worship ~ 10:45 am
Photo used under Creative Commons from TheReptilarium
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter