Sweet news for some

You may have heard the saying "What a man believes depends
on why he needs to believe it". There would appear to be truth in this
statement, even in the lighter issues of life such as health and fitness.

Whilst going through my father's Bible recently I
discovered an article which caused me to chuckle. For those readers who knew my
father and his love for sweets, taken from the Daily Telegraph, 20 September
1996, "Scientists link chocolate with a healthy heart -–

Chocoholics can let out their waistbands and heave a sign of
relief -– eating chocolate may be protecting them from heart disease...

...a piece of chocolate contains almost as much phenol, an
aromatic chemical compound, as a glass of red wine...

...phenol prevents the oxidisation of low density lipoprotein
(LDL), a harmful blood fat.

Oxidised LDL is involved in the process in which arteries
become furred up causing heart attacks and angina. Phenol many also be the
ingredient in red wine which gives its apparent powers to protect against heart
disease...

Cadbury has been saying for a long time that there was
nothing wrong with chocolate, according to a spokesman. "Chocolate has many
other ingredients that are good for you, like calcium." he says..." End
Quote

Hmmm - now I understand. My father indulged in chocolate for
its health benefits.

Even more exciting is the latest news from consumer heaven,
the USA. The new research shows that a particular gene can be manipulated
enabling 'the subject' to eat fatty foods and not put on any weight or even
risk diabetes. How good! Another wondrous Western world value creation -– a
convenient quick fix to enable us to live our lives without any requirement for
discipline.

"SD1 (a gene -– Ed's note) produces an enzyme known as
SCD which allows a body to process fatty acid. In the mice that lacked SCD, the
excess fatty substances appeared to be eaten by the metabolism. The therapy did
not come without undesirable side affects: a higher occurrence of skin and
vision problems afflicted the mice as they aged." The Dominion Post, 14
August, 2002

Now that is special news! And the only trade off for sporting
a new rake-ish look, regardless of poor eating habits would appear to be
blindness and acne in our senior years.

Apparently there are around five hormones which operate in
balance to control our appetites. Some make us feel hungry, others make us feel
full -– still others tell the brain when food has left the stomach and needs to
be processed further from the small intestine. Internal management of fat and
blood glucose are controlled by these natural hormones. New studies are
underway, this time with human subjects, as scientists practise manipulating the
hormone PYY3-36 (which instructs the brain to suppress the appetite). This
sounds a little better -– at least with this treatment, excessive amounts of
bad food are not being consumed and the hormones tricked into lying to the
persons brain. A miracle pill which you swallow prior to meals, which sends a
signal to your brain that you've eaten plenty even before you have commenced
your dinner -– brilliant!

The medical world (and many Western worlders) are awaiting
the results of further trials on voluntary human guinea pigs, before we get the
chance to 'go ballistic at the dinner table' with no consequences.

This is very good news for those of us who wake up every
morning confessing Scriptures like "Bodily exercise profiteth little..."
1 Timothy 4:8, before offering up very sincere prayers (the begging variety)
requesting better or even divine health, before setting out into another day of
'snacking and munching'. Perhaps wisdom would have us consider the simple
truth, the fact of sowing and reaping -– cause and effect. Now I would be the
first to acknowledge that for some people, there is an imbalance within their
bodies hormonal system leading to abnormal weight complications, meaning
research into these areas may in fact provide some very important assistance.
Interestingly however, obesity appears to occur more often in countries within
the Western world than in the poorer countries -– where thyroid problems
probably do exist but do not seem to have the same outcome. You see the average
'overweight person' does not just wake up one day larger than life -– it's
a process which happens over time, one day producing a result. Whilst some of
our more charismatic Western churches provide the benefits of prayer healing
lines and laying on of hands, how many of us could actually 'assist the
healing process' by having the faith to go for a walk, or the faith and
discipline to cut down on foods which obviously cause health concerns?

Oh - I'm sorry, I forgot that we are all too busy to
consider such unimportant promptings. That being the case, the 'wonder-pill
trials' will soon be completed and we can commence cheating our bodies into
working against their blueprint design very soon.