E is for Environment!
Hi friends, and welcome to the 5th part of our Wholeness series! Today we will be discussing the first E, which stands for environment!
Okay, so today we are focusing on the topic of environment and how it affects your health, but what exactly goes included within the umbrella term “environment?” If you look up the definition of environment on google, the first thing that you find is “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.” This includes the nature and territory around you, as well as the food you eat and even the people that you engage with. We will go into these one by one and see how exactly each one affects different aspects of your health. Let’s start with nature.
We briefly mentioned a few benefits of living in nature in our video on oxygen and water and saw how just existing in nature alone can benefit your health in several ways. The better oxygen quality and negative ions provided through oceans, forests, and running water can aid not only your cardiovascular, respiratory and cognitive health, but even pose anticancer effects! So we know that nature can help your health, but can your environment also damage your health? The answer is yes.
City life, or generally living in an area with a lot of pollution, can cause horrible effects in the long term, and even short term for some people. An article on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (linked below) shows us how detrimental these effects can be. We see that air pollution can cause different forms of cancer, including breast and lung cancer, as well as leukemia and is also associated with increasing chances of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and even dementia, amongst a variety of other problems. We don’t realize it, but what we breathe can really affect our health in more ways than one.
The other aspect we will be looking at is the toxins found in our food. There are thousands of chemicals found in the food we eat every day. These chemicals can range from chemical food colorings such as red 40 made from petroleum, as well as pesticides added to veggies and fruits, as well as the pesticides on food given to animals for feed, which are later killed for meat. And, if you live around farms that do not apply organic farming methods, then most assuredly there will be high levels of toxins from these pesticides in the air around where you live.
The Food Packaging Forum database with over 4,000 FCC’s, or Food Contact Chemicals (out of over 12,000 that are known to be used), but there are also thousands of other chemicals that are NIAS and FCM’s, which stand for Non-Intentional Added Substances and Food Contact Materials.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Several chemicals that can be found in foods have been associated with adverse health outcomes including developmental, reproductive, and neurological outcomes. In particular, organophosphate pesticides can interfere with the proper function of the nervous system when exposure is sufficiently high.” Organophosphates are found heavily in wheat, flour and cooking oil. This is very concerning and is another good reason as to why it is best to grow your own fruits and veggies and get your food as raw and organic as possible! 🍎
The last form of toxicity that we will be talking about are the people you engage with. No scientific research or study needs to be done to prove the effects of toxic people, even though you can find information about this online. These people can cause low-self esteem, depression and anxiety to others. Unfortunately, toxic people can not only harm your mental health, but may also introduce harmful habits that can damage your physical health as well. Being pressured into drugs or other forms of addictions can scar your mind and body for life, and we know that this isn’t the life that God would want us to have.
1 Corinthians 3:16-18 says “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? …..for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself.”
So now with all this in mind, we can do our best to surround ourselves with a positive environment. Granted, it may not always be easy to just move out of the city, change the way we eat, and let go of relationships that may be causing us harm, but we can trust that God will help us find a way to implement these principles in our lives. Maybe this means visiting parks more often, beginning to make small changes in how we eat, and in the types of people we surround ourselves with. God bless you friends! 🌻
- Victoria Flores, Medical Missionary & Health Lecturer