Healthy Living

It’s about stewardship and effectiveness. Good health is a gift from a loving Creator and He expects us to manage it wisely. We worship Yahweh the Creator, not ourselves, the created, and part of that is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice for His service. Our family has found that natural methods to health management are more effective in the long run, so our resources here reflect that view.

We can’t serve Him most effectively when we are sick and tired all the time. We just can’t. When we are sick and tired all the time because of our own poor choices or ignorance, we lessen the effectiveness of our witness as well. We have found that it behooves us to make sure that we aren’t acting in ignorance, to do our homework, then praise Yahweh for how we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our family’s collective health has improved drastically since beginning our journey into learning about good health. Here’s to your health!

~Books~

Mommy Diagnostics and The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy ~ Hands-down, the number one books I recommend for families who want to learn to take more control of their own health are written by Shonda Parker. Shonda is a Momma of seven, a licensed herbalist, and most importantly, a strong Believer. I reference Mommy Diagnostics weekly in caring for my family. It teaches everything you need to know from diagnosing illnesses to stocking your own natural medicine cabinet to how to know when to seek other opinions.

Prescription For Herbal Healing ~ An easy to use reference to tons of common disorders, their causes, and their herbal remedies. One of the most heavily footnoted, most well-referenced books I have ever come across.

Maker’s Diet ~ Jordan’s story, and what he found through trial, error and near death to get him from his deathbed in his early twenties to fully restored health. A foundational book in learning to live healthier. If you have ever asked the question, “How come back in the old days, folks used to eat butter, eggs, red meat, etc. etc….and they lived so much longer and healthier than us?” then this is the book for you. The whole Maker’s Diet *movement* has gotten pretty trendy and product-driven, but the main, original book is still right on track.

What The Bible Says About Healthy Living ~ I agree with him with all but one point. A great book that gives glory to the Creator by taking us back to His plans for our food. Yahweh made us, Yahweh made food, and Yahweh knows how the two should relate.

~Cookbooks~

Nourishing Traditions ~ THE cookbook for healthy living…but WAY more than just a cookbook. It is almost 700 pages chocked-full of a healthy living and eating education. I use it every day. My disclaimer is that I disagree with the eating of raw meats (there are a few recipes for this), and things that Yahweh did not call “food”, but this is a small portion of an otherwise very well done resource. The link is for the publisher, but I know you can find it cheaper…I have bought several for gifts at $14 each, new.
More-With-Less ~ Frugal and healthy Mennonite recipes from worldwide, including many missionary recipes. The first person I ever heard of who had six children gave me this book when I had three. It got us through many lean years, and is still a favorite now.

Whole Foods For The Whole Family ~ Frugal and healthy, too. No packaged ingredients, no white flour/sugar, no margarine, etc….it is all from scratch. This was the first cookbook I ever had that made me feel like I was really cooking from scratch. I was so proud! The whole wheat recipes won’t come out great without home-ground flour, though, in my opinion. The store stuff makes the recipes too hard.

Joy of Cooking ~ Don’t bother with the new ones, but if you can get your hands on a pre-1960’s version of this, it is a treasure! Great explanations of how to use leftovers and how to think outside of the box with simple ideas that seem fancy and newfangled.

The Fanny Farmer Cookbook ~ Again, don’t bother with anything newer than a 1960’s version. Great simple, easy and tasty homemade recipes. My grandmother won’t give up her copy of this yet, despite my begging.

~Websites~

Weston A Price Foundation ~ The information on this site is foundational to understanding good health. Dr. Price was a dentist who traveled the world studying “primitive” people groups who had not yet succumbed to modern diets and the accompanying poor health that is a result. His research is the backbone of the information contained here.

Dr. Joseph Mercola ~ great articles containing the latest research on healthy living. The information is not from the standpoint of a biblical worldview, but the purely scientific parts are very helpful. His free newsletter is great to keep you thinking about healthy living, although it is also full of ads for the products he sells. Overlooking the ads, it is a wealth of information!

APM Formulators ~ A blog about family medicine from a Biblical worldview. An educational site encouraging Moms and Dads taking charge of their family’s health. The couple who own the blog have a teaching spirit which leads to it being a very empowering and encouraging site.

Regaining Health Naturally ~ This family-run site has billions of articles teaching about herbs as medicine and food as medicine. Very educational!

Carla Lynne ~ She is a Naturopathic Doctor and a Master Herbalist. She is also a homeschooling Momma of six, so don’t get me in trouble by pestering her with a lot of health questions, but…just go to her site and study some of her past posts, especially in the categories “Herbs” and “Natural Health”.

TN Farmgirl’s Medicinal Herb Course ~ Cheri is an herbalist who created a wonderful introductory herb course. I have studied her course, and learned how to make my own oil infusions and herbal salves so far just from her course. She offers free 30-day email mentorship support for the course where you can email her all your questions as you go through it. Her blog is also a great resource for detailed information about specific herbs, as she posts on different ones periodically. Be sure to check out her categories called “Herbs” and “Herbal Remedies”.

Here’s a post I did about Battling Illness Naturally and another on Making Your Own Herbal Tinctures.

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