Nutrition and the Minister

Are You Up on Your RDA's

Alice G. Marsh, Sc.D., R.D., is professor of home economics at Andrews University.

JUST NOW I feel sorry for ministers. My question is "How can you be expert in all you are expected to know?" I will not try to list all the people you are, all the "hats" you wear, all the "chairs" you fill. But this I do know, when there is a personal nutrition problem in the community or church the pastor is often among the first to be confronted with it.

Sixteen experts depicted on the cover of the February 4, 1977, issue of Christianity Today illustrated the "Impossible Dream" of the many professionals the seminary graduate is supposed to be, and, even then, the expertise depicted did not include "nutrition education."

Of course, the minister's operation in the area of nutrition may be oblique, with the basic nutritional cause lying far below in underbrush of jangled nerves, marital clash, parent-teen problems, or an out-and-out emergency trip to the hospital with ambulance sirens screaming and the pastor not far be hind.

Ministers, like teachers, must be among the most adaptable people. For them a track has not been laid there is no locomotive with exact instruction for the operation to carry through a day's work. Anything can happen, and it usu ally does.

It is important that you be prepared to give counsel to your members who come to you with nutrition questions; five lines of reference will be most helpful:

1. Acquaintance with the Recommended Daily Dietary Allowances of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council.

2. Recognition that most "quackery" in this area revolves around cures promised that are not and cannot be given presently by ethical medicine and dietetics.

3. An understanding that nutrition represents a balance in the biochemistry of the body that does not allow overemphasis on any nutrient or group of nutrients.

4. A firm realization that nutrients are best provided by food.

5. Knowledge of a guide in meal planning that within close limits will assure good nutrition to normal people of all ages above infancy.

Recommended Dietary Allowances

First, the recommended dietary allowances are based on a consortium of decision by experts. The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council is charged with setting the Recommended Dietary Allowances, hereafter referred to as the RDA. This group studies all sound research and views all angles of the nutritional picture. Undernutrition, overnutrition, nutrient interdependence, and more are considered as the amounts of the various nutrients for different ages of the two sexes are assigned in grams, milligrams, micrograms, or international units, according to appropriate measure for nutritional use. This committee continuously reviews and revises amounts and additions of nutrients as new re search methods enlarge their view.

How are these unfamiliar RDA's useful to a minister who wants to evaluate a bottle of something said to be "essential to good health"?

Ministers are "reference people" with impressive personal libraries. Would it not be well to keep at least one up-to-date reputable nutrition text on hand? This should include the latest revision of the RDA. Choice of such text could be made from the latest editions of: Bogert, Briggs, .and Galloway: Nutrition and Physical Fitness (Saunders, tenth ed., 1977).

Deutsch; Realities of Nutrition (Bull Publishing Company, 1976).

Stare and McWilliams: Living Nutrition (John Wiley and Sons, 1973).

SDA DA: About Nutrition (Southern Publishing Association, 1974).

It would also be desirable to have a good food-composition reference text such as: USDA Handbook No. 456: Nutritive Value of American Foods in Common Units (Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Government Printing Office). The text for the latest dietary-allowance revision (1973) is: Recommended Dietary Allowances (Washington, B.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1974).

Is "More" Better?

The commonly held supposition "If a little is good, more is better" is a dangerous theory in the whole gamut of nutrition. "Megavitamin therapy" and the popular "orthomolecular psychiatry" involve dangerous uses of vitamins and minerals that are not endorsed or recommended by ethical medical, nutritional, and psychiatric societies, including the American Psychiatric Association.

To pursue further our second line of reference, the wonderful discoveries in the 1930's of the chemical structures of most vitamins revealed that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) prevented and cured scurvy, that niacin was needed to prevent and cure pellagra, that thiamin prevented and cured beriberi. The formulas for vitamins A and D were among the fat-soluble vitamins that were understood more clearly—the vitamins that were essential to eye and bone health, respectively. Since then the metabolic pathways of the vitamins have been mapped, and so much more is known about their role in metabolism. It is no wonder that we all have wished for a vitamin, a mineral, or some nutrient combination that would prevent or even cure such diseases as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, the many metabsorptive conditions, and the errors of metabolism.

Wishful thinking has often blended with the dollar sign to cause the com mercially-minded to sell nutritional supplements under false pretenses of protection or cure. To a large degree much of this merchandising has become illegal. Even so, the sale of unneeded supplements or even a harmful level of supplements has reached an ever-in creasing high, sometimes robbing children and old people of the money needed to buy good food.

Environmental, medical, and nutritional avenues for the protection from, and even cure of, many conditions for which no cure is now known are being researched vigorously. In the meantime "protection" and "cures" based on false hopes only present dangers of wasted time and misspent money to those who accept these devious routes.

The third point of reference brings us back to balance. No pills or potions can give balanced nutrition. Something will be high, something will be low, some thing will surely be missing.

Which brings us to the fourth point—nutrients can be provided successfully only by food. God provided food before He made His crowning creation. As wise as we can become regarding the body's need for nutrients and as knowledgeable as we are regarding the metabolism of nutrients, with the ability of the cells of the body to manufacture thousands of enzymes and co-enzymes each moment to utilize effectively the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, still man can devise no source of nutrition better than natural food.

And fifth, what is a natural food? Nearly everyone is informed that complete nutrition is provided from four large comprehensive food groups, which include every good food and can automatically exclude every poor food: (a) every edible fruit and vegetable; (b) all the grains; (c) legumes, nuts, seeds, gluten foods and their combinations, eggs; (d) milk for special nutrients and convenience, from animal or enriched vegetable sources.

No good natural food is excluded from these groups. No refined food need be included. Where refined food is used it should be used very sparingly. For the average adult the servings, which may vary in size, that should be used as a basis for menu planning are four each of (a) and (b) and two each of (c) and (d). In group (a) choices should be made that will assure enough vitamin C (a serving of citrus fruit, tomatoes, fresh greens, berries, or muskmelon) and sufficient vitamin A (indirectly from a very green or a yellow-orange vegetable).

Within this simple plan we are given scores and scores of fruits and vegetables from which to choose. We are given a wide variety of grains and many good sources of food that provide the variety of amino acids to make up the many protein substances the body requires. The diet that includes these foods will lack no nutrients.

Supplements, if needed, for some particular condition or personal reason, should be wisely chosen in sensible, moderate amounts, from moderately priced sources. The body cannot tell the difference between ascorbic acid from the laboratory, from rose hips, from alfalfa, or watercress concentrates. But it is wise to get this vitamin from an orange, a half grapefruit, or a tomato, because the food, rather than the pill, has so much more to offer besides the vitamin C it provides so abundantly.

Nicely prepared vegetables, beautiful fruits, whole grains (finely ground, if necessary), nuts, legumes with a little milk and very few eggs—what a variety! How simple food selection and preparation can be! Good food comes from the garden, the orchard, the grocery, the dairy. It can be frozen, canned, and dried for preservation to be used when fresh food is not always available. In areas blessed with abundance man does not have to subsist on a narrow diet, but can choose an excellent diet from a surprisingly simple plan.

Sooner or later the minister will be faced with problems in nutritional matters. He has both a resource dietitian in his union conference and resources for his personal use that are correct and usable. He should never allow himself to be driven or pressured by those who, though sincere, could harm his flock in this area.

The minister must be so many experts—the nutrition arbiter is but one more.


Ministry reserves the right to approve, disapprove, and delete comments at our discretion and will not be able to respond to inquiries about these comments. Please ensure that your words are respectful, courteous, and relevant.

comments powered by Disqus

Alice G. Marsh, Sc.D., R.D., is professor of home economics at Andrews University.

December 1977

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

Why Not Use the Net Too?

Kindness is the dessert that tops off all other evangelistic methods.

The Shaming of the True

The example of one who stands true to principle.

We Dare Not Disappoint Them!

When I read the letters and listen to the personal appeals of church members, a great burden rests on my heart.

What Is the Biblical View of the Laity?

With such potential in the rank-and-file membership of our churches, why have we not employed them more fully?

Speak With Care

We must guard against saying anything that might be interpreted as casting contempt on, or discriminating against, others' culture, worship, or past and present history.

Fidelity-a Commandment

But sometimes it seems that it is even in short supply within the church.

Are the Natural and the Supernatural the Same?

It is essential to the well-being of the universe that natural processes operate in regular ways.

Church Growth Through the Family-Life Center

Specific instructions on how to organize a family-lifecenter in your church.

Evangelism and Finishing the Work

This article is a condensation of the North American Division report presented at the 1977 Annual Council by Elder Neal C. Wilson.

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up
Advertisement - RevivalandReformation 300x250

Recent issues

See All