Question:

Should we eat natural health foods in order to preserve our health?

Answer by

HaRav Avigdor Miller Zatzal:

This is a subject which I'm not competent to speak about, I would be happy to give you information.

I am sure that if the foods are free of pesticides and free of additives, I'm sure they are more healthful, because there is no question that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can concoct better things than mankind can; but more than that I can not say.
 

If you have whole wheat bread for instance, we understand that you have all the elements that Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended you to have. Whereas if you mill out certain parts...

Like everybody knows the story of rice. There was a time when white rice was considered the only way of eating it, and they used to mill off the brown covering of the rice kernel. That's when they started suffering from beriberi and they didn't understand the cause. They saw the chickens were thriving; the chickens were fed the husks and were thriving. But the human beings were declining. A Dutch physician discovered that they were giving the best part to the chickens!

 That's why we understand that Hakadosh Baruch Hu put the husks on, not merely to protect the kernel inside. The husks are there to be eaten because they add certain things.

There is no question that human beings have made great errors in matters of foods, but I can not tell you anything because I know nothing about the subject at all.

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