A deep dive into the Word of Wisdom
By: Abigail Anne
“And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.”
Doctrine and Covenants 89:7
For some reason, back in the 1830’s, the Saints needed multiple reminders not to drink alcohol. Luckily, today, there is plenty of research telling us why alcohol is harmful. So why then did God allow it to be made in the first place?
Let’s explore that shall we?
“And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly,”
Alcohol is addictive, it harms our bodies and ruins our relationships with those around us. Drinking is an expensive, destructive habit that has taken countless lives and destroyed many families.
Alcohol destroys the liver. It is common knowledge that alcohol leads to fatty liver disease. However, something that is not as well known is that other “strong drinks” like energy drinks and sodas lead to this same exact disease!
The liver filters out the body’s toxins. Unfortunately we live in a world completely polluted with toxins and our livers are utterly exhausted trying to keep up. When the liver is being bombarded with heavy toxins on a daily basis we are left with a liver that can no longer do its job properly. This leads to toxins flowing throughout the bloodstream causing more disease than ever before.
Besides alcohol, one of the toxins that causes the most harm to the body is called fructose. Although this sugar naturally occurs in fruits, it is easily overconsumed in extreme excess through corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. Corn syrups are found in high amounts in almost every energy drink and soda. This fructose gets built up in the liver causing fatty liver disease, leading to inflammation throughout the rest of the body.
When uncontrolled, like alcohol, excessive energy drink consumption actually leads to complete liver failure.
How much is too much? Well, medical reports have shown patients needing liver replacements purely from drinking multiple energy drinks a day just over the course of a few weeks or months.
“but for the washing of your bodies”
If alcohol is so bad to consume then why would the Lord allow it to be made?
The answer? Because it is very good for the washing of the body.
Alcohol is a cleaning agent. It destroys bacteria from wounds and can be life saving. It is used for sanitation purposes in medical practices all around the world.
Because alcohol has a sanitizing effect on the outside of the body, one can expect it to have a similar effect on the inside of the body. When alcohol enters the body it is like dropping an atomic bomb on the body’s microbiome.
What is the microbiome? It is the diverse colony of approximately 40 trillion bacteria that live inside of a person. Each individual has their own unique microbiome.
Your microbiome determines your health in so many ways. Your microbiome is the reason for your sugar cravings, your mental health, your immune system, your brain health, your skin health and the health of every organ in your body. If you have a healthy microbiome, you will have a healthy body. If you have a healthy body, you are more capable of having a healthy spirit because you have a safe, strong place for the spirit to reside.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Since alcohol destroys the beneficial micro organisms in our bodies, what do sodas and energy drinks do?
They encourage the repopulation of bad sugar-craving microbes. The more sugar craving microbes that grow, the more sugar a person will want.
The good microbes break down vitamins and nutrients in the body. When the body can not properly break down these nutrients, because the microbiome is disrupted, you end up having nutrient and vitamin deficiencies that lead to countless chronic and mental illnesses.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I need “X” pill because my body doesn’t produce enough “Y ” naturally”? That is a direct result of a dysfunctional microbiome. Other indications of a harmed microbiome are conditions such as high cortisol (high stress and anxiety), leaky gut, bowel issues, mental health issues, skin irritations such as acne and eczema, allergies, food intolerances, weight gain and so much more.
So, now we see that through the Lord’s wisdom, unless we want a whole plethora of problems, it is best that we avoid consuming these “strong drinks” and leave them solely for the purpose of cleaning wounds on the outside of the body or cleaning rust off of metal..