LETTERS: GOD KNEW THE BEST DIET ALL ALONG

To the editor:

According to the Bible, the diet of the Palestinians was largely vegetarian. The people ate bread. Olive oil was widely used, and so were milk and milk products. A large variety of fruits and vegetables, fowl, eggs, hone and wine were included in their diet.

Sounds a lot like the diet experts are telling us to eat today, doesn't it?

Even butter has lost its evil aspect. Two Harvard researchers discovered in 1994 that the trans-fatty acids that are a byproduct of margarine's hydrogenation contribute to heart disease more than the saturated fats found in butter.

Dr. David Reuben, author of "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nutrition," says, "At temperatures of 200 degrees (frying is about 400) unsaturated oils such as safflower, corn oil and cottonseed oil lose their unsaturation and become saturated. So it's better to fry in pure butter or olive oil or even pure lard."

Fruits and vegetables have been proven to contain phytochemicals which are shown to reduce cancer risks and prolong life. But the protective factors are not effective when broken down into singular substances and administered as supplements. It seems the protection is in the whole fruit and not in any single substance. The juice of fruits and vegetables seems to lose some of the protective factors, and cooking, with a few exceptions such as carrots and tomatoes, seems to reduce them as well.

Chicken is promoted as being a wholesome food. Eggs are proving to be not so bad as first thought. Eggs are a source of complete amino acids needed to break down the protein in our diets to a form that is used by our bodies. Furthermore, they are a good source of lecithin, which breaks down cholesterol and keeps it dissolved in the blood so it can be excreted from the body.

While white refined sugar is not good for you and actually takes some vitamins from your body, unrefined sugar (raw cane sugar -- which is unlawful to sell in the United States, honey, molasses and pure maple syrup) contain vitamins and minerals. But even the Bible warns against using a lot of honey.

Researchers have proven that wine contains the same phytochemicals as fruits and in higher concentrations. It turns out a little wine if good for you.

Even nuts, which are full of fats and oils, turn out to contain the good fats and not the bad ones. Two Brazil nuts, the ones that come unshelled, provide all the selenium (an antioxidant) that you need in a day. The fat in walnuts is converted into Omega 3, the same oil that is in the oily fish that we are now told is good for us. According to Health magazine's April 1997 issue, a handful of walnuts has the same amount of Omega 3 as a three-ounce serving of salmon.

Isn't it strange that it has taken science so long to find out that God knew what he was doing? The foods he created for man are much better for us the way he created them: fresh, natural and unchanged by our feeble attempts to improve them.

SANDRA FANN

Jackson