Blessed Nourishment

Wheat and Barley

In the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, our family always went to the local bakery to purchase fresh white bread. I remember that it had a tougher, heartier texture than the pasty white breads sold in stores such as Wonder Bread. The wonderful smell of that local bakery was mesmerizing. It seemed that the giant bread saw was always running as dozens of fresh loaves were being cut into slices.

The first of the seven Promised Land fruits listed in Deuteronomy is wheat, which the Bible calls a treasure. The Hebrew word for wheat is chitah. It is an ancient crop and a sign of God’s blessing and abundance. Most of the wheat crop is grown in the Negev area, which is known as the breadbasket of Israel. Both Wheat and Barley are grains that bring strength and nourishment. We should see these grains as blessings and healthful.

10He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. 11The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy. 12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!

13For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you. 14He makes peace in your borders, And fills you with the finest wheat. – Psalm 147:10-14 (NKJV)

The word for mercy above comes from the Hebrew word chesed that can also be translated unfailing love. In Jewish teaching, chesed is the godly attribute that corresponds to wheat. To practice chesed is to provide acts of kindness to others. Wheat is associated with the harvest festival Shavuot because wheat ripens into a glorious golden color at Shavuot.

Wheat is truly a sign of God’s unfailing Love and provision for us. It is a treasure.

12Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the Lord- For wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all. – Jeremiah 31:12 (NKJV)

8But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have treasures of wheat, barley, oil, and honey in the field.” So he desisted and did not kill them among their brethren. – Jeremiah 41:8 (NKJV)

Ezekiel sustained himself on multigrain bread for over a year. He did this to illustrate God’s coming judgment to both Israel and Judah. This diet of course was to show the scarcity that was coming. On the other hand, this bread proved to provide everything Ezekiel needed to be strong and full of vigor.

9“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. – Ezekiel 4:9 (NKJV)

Grains mentioned in the Bible such as wheat, barley, millet, spelt provide an abundance of nutrients. God created these grains and others to provide us with a nutritious diet. Jesus refers to Himself as the Bread of Life. Such is the emphasis the Bible puts upon eating quality grains.

Conversely, modern man in his infinite wisdom, has stripped all the wholesomeness and goodness from our breads through the refining process. God packed these grains with a richness to be treasured, yet we have stripped them, bleached them, “enriched them”, preserved them with chemicals, packaged them, and marketed them. In fact, a basic principle is to believe that God created everything good. He blessed it. The wholesomeness of our food is found when we eat it as a whole food, as God intended. Many of our diseases today find their basis in deficiencies created by refining our foods.

Jensen attacks the refining process of wheat attributing it to one cause of heart disease:

The processing and refining of many of our foods today effectively destroys biochemical elements when they are altered from their natural state. Man has changed his food through milling, polishing, processing, bleaching, preserving, canning, seasoning, flavoring and coloring. In the refining and preserving of wheat, for example, the vital life elements are destroyed. The starchy part of the wheat remains, void of the mineral and vitamin balance needed for proper heart action, bowel regularity and other body functions.… [M]uch of the flour we eat today is devitalized because the refining process removes this outside hull and valuable wheat germ. We are eating a “heartless” flour and have been doing so for years) We have been building up heart conditions through the habit of using devitalized flour, and when we finally get our heart trouble we rush to the store to buy vitamin E made from wheat germ. Why didn’t we eat the whole thing in the first place?

Whole grains provide a fuller spectrum of required essential nutrients than refined flour. Grains are made up of three parts: the germ, the endosperm, and the bran. The germ contains vitamins, oils and proteins and, as Jensen mentioned, it is an important source of vitamin E. The endosperm is made up of starch granules with protein walls. The bran is composed of several layers containing minerals, fiber, protein and some vitamins.

Wheat has been cultivated for at least 10,000 years and is the most common grain used in the world. In fact, wheat production has doubled in the last 100 years. A quarter of whole wheat’s make up is protein. It is very rich in other nutrients which can support vigorous health.

Wheat Allergy

The most common cause of many illnesses is the body’s inability to absorb nutrients. The source of these nutrients has become hostile to the body making them a Metabolic Antagonist to the homeostasis of the body. An allergy is a Metabolic Antagonist. The reason or cause of the metabolic antagonism is a nutritional deficiency. If you are deficient in Zinc your body will be sensitive to yeast. Yet, nutritional yeast is a wonderful source of B-Complex vitamins. People who are sensitive to yeast need to eat foods and herbs that are high in Zinc such as Nuts and Seeds, Meats, Pau D’Arco, Red Clover and Comfrey.

Wheat Allergy is created by deficiencies in Magnesium, the amino acid Histidine, and Vitamin F. Vitamin F is linoleic acid found in polyunsaturated fatty acids such as Safflower oil, Castor Bean Oil, Sunflower Oil, and Peanut Oil. Black Walnut and Kelp are also helpful in correcting wheat allergy, as they are naturally rich in Magnesium.

Swimmer’s Ear is often experienced after a day at the beach. As a boy, after a fun day of frolicking in the waves of the California beaches or playing Marco Polo in a neighbor’s pool, we frequently ate hot dogs or hamburgers with chips and all the trimmings. Usually that night I developed an unexplainable ache in my right ear. My father would say that I had swimmer’s ear and show me various contorting movements to shake out the water that was obviously trapped in my ear. These head shaking movements seldom brought relief, but they sure gave my family a laugh as they watched me hop around on one foot trying to shake the water out of my ear.