Article September 14, 1992 Issue

The best kind of nutriment

Ultimately, the most important kind of sustenance has to do with God's unchanging love and law.

Dorcas W. Strong

For many people today, food shopping and meal planning are no longer the routine matters they used to be. Instead of simply pulling items off the shelves and dropping them into a grocery cart, shoppers often pause to read labels listing ingredients and their percentages. Well-publicized concerns about the adverse effects on one's health of various ingredients are strongly influencing buying and eating habits. Theories and opinions about foods—which ones to avoid and which to choose—are presented to us through the media every day. The bottom line seems to be that through eating the "right" foods we'll be healthier, look better, feel better, and be less likely to develop disease.

Clearly, it's normal for us to have sufficient and appropriate nutriment. But are the vital issues of our health and longevity primarily determined by the kinds of food we eat? Is our well-being really dependent upon the amount of fiber in the breakfast cereal we choose? We don't have to buy into the theory that we are what we eat. Pointing to the true nature of our well-being, Christ Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Intuitively many people feel that there's much more to man than matter. To consider ourselves as merely biochemical beings denies the fundamental truth of man's spiritual nature and substance.

As we come to learn from the Bible, in the light of Christian Science, our real selfhood is derived from God, divine Spirit, who is the animating source of all being. Spirit defines what we really are. Our genuine substance consists of spiritual qualities from God—purity, beauty, intelligence, health, holiness. The way in which each of us expresses, or embodies, these qualities constitutes our God-given individuality.

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