By Dr. George Matzko

In a previous article (Wellsprings, January-March 2004) I discussed the cause of sickness and aging and God’s purpose in illness from a Biblical perspective. In this article I would like to deal with the main points of contention between alternative medicine and traditional western scientific medicine. I come to this discussion, not as a medical practitioner, but as a member of the scientific community, thankful for God’s gift to mankind of western scientific medicine and the diversity of foods we have to enjoy from all over the world.

There are a number of myths about health that are in circulation in many fundamental churches, including the idea that people are sicker today than they have been in the past due to our modern diet of processed foods. However, the truth is that those of us who live in the West are living longer and healthier than ever in human history. It is true that diseases of old age and overeating, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease have increased, but deaths from infectious diseases have decreased dramatically. However, adjusting for our increased life span, deaths from all types of cancer except those related to lifestyle (lung, skin, genital) have decreased year by year.

As far as diet is concerned, our Lord placed the emphasis where it belongs in Matt. 15:16-20, “And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

Today we see an unhealthy overemphasis on diet to the extent that some would say, “You are what you eat.” Read the rest of this entry »