God’s Pharmacy?

As a research scientist (specializing in biology/genetics) at Answers in Genesis, I have had the privilege of reviewing a wide variety of articles, web pages, and books that are sent to our ministry. Some of these items are great, and some not so great. It has reminded me just how discerning we need to be as Christians. I have had several encounters with people who asked my opinion on certain diets or nutritional plans because they heard them advertised on Christian radio or at their church, so they assumed they must be good. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that much of this nutritional advice is based more on the desire of a person or company to sell their book or product then it is on sound principles of health.

One that has particularly stuck in my mind is the concept of “God’s Pharmacy.” The idea is that God has designed foods to physically resemble the body parts that they are good for. I have seen information on this idea posted on many Christian websites and read comments by people who were very enamored with the idea. Below are a few examples typically associated with this concept:

• Sliced carrots look like the human eye and carrots are good for your eyes.
• Tomatoes have four chambers and are red much like the heart and tomatoes are good for your heart.
• Walnuts look like a brain (right and left hemispheres, wrinkles) and walnuts are good for your brain.
• Kidney beans look like a kidney and kidney beans are good for your kidneys.

Is this really by design or are people reading into it what they want? While we can’t know for sure God’s intention in designing these fruits and vegetables to look the way they do, I think largely this is a case of people seeing what they want. Many of the foods listed are good for multiple parts of the body, yet they don’t look at all like those body parts. For example, both carrots and walnuts contain components that can help prevent heart disease. Is the “God’s Pharmacy” idea really one that will be useful in our apologetic for the existence of God and His creation of the universe? I doubt it. I encourage you to be discerning and instead use God’s Word as the ultimate proof of creation!

Check out an article I wrote on a similar topic entitled, Laminin and the Cross: Is There a Connection?