Moringa: Try This Tree of Life Instead of Darwin’s

What has Darwin done for you lately? Probably very little. Here’s a tree of life that can benefit your body and feed the world.

“My first impression was that it’s too good to be true,” said Carrie Waterman, a natural product chemist from UC Davis. She set out to study the “drumstick tree,” Moringa oleifera, to see if the reality matched the hype of the so-called “miracle tree” (see “This tree of life Is for Real,” 9 March 2010, and “Miracle Tree Could Feed and Fuel Third World,” 11 April 2017). Waterman was not mentioned in those two articles, so let’s see what she found, according to Phys.org:

Every part of the plant is edible—leaves, pods, seeds, flowers, even its root. The feathery leaves alone pack a powerful protein punch – nearly 30 percent by dry weight. Legumes don’t even have that much protein, nor all the essential amino acids.

The leaves are high in vitamins A and C, calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium and potassium. They contain phytochemicals and antioxidants that have been shown in some research studies to reduce chronic inflammation. The plant even has the potential to simultaneously treat both malnutrition and obesity.

Waterman considers moringa among the top 10 superfoods that could greatly improve world health. The seeds have a somewhat bitter taste, but in powdered form, moringa leaves can be added to soups, curries and stews.

The plant is distantly related to cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale and cabbage, and shares the same nutritious compounds. Its leaves, when tossed on salads or on meat, taste a bit peppery like arugula. Young pods are reminiscent of Chinese long beans, with a hint of spice. Seeds can be eaten or boiled to make salad oil. The fragrant flowers are often used to make tea.

The tree has been used for centuries to treat everything from “typhoid to toothache,” the article says. It can even delay diabetes. Native to India, moringa grows in many environments in Asia and Africa where it could provide nutrition for billions of people. Some farmers in California are starting to grow it. Even goats fed on moringa become healthier. And as we reported earlier, moringa can purify water, make cooking oil, light lamps, fertilize the soil, and provide numerous other benefits… all from one plant.

Powerpoint slide by David Coppedge

Scientists at UC Davis want to sequence the moringa genome to understand how it does so many things, and maybe find ways to make it more productive. The tree bears flowers and leaves year round. This would allow local poor farmers to grow something they can sell themselves, without the middleman, “from farm to fork.” Waterman is part of a campaign to promote moringa from an “orphan crop” to a marketable resource that can benefit native farmers to bring them both health and wealth. All this comes right out of dirt with some water and sunshine.

Exercise: Obtain some moringa leaves, seeds or plants and create recipes. This could be a family project that could turn into a home business. Think of the advertising you could do about all the health benefits. You might want to even grow some of the trees on your property, showing how our Creator gave us free riches we can enjoy and share. Learn how to make powder or flour with parts of the plant, so that you can make breads, soups, tea, and other useful food products. Remember how George Washington Carver invented 300 products with peanuts, and prepared a complete meal with entree, drinks and dessert? Moringa is there, waiting to be utilized by the next Carver for the good of everyone. 

Commentary: Darwin stole a Biblical phrase with his phony “tree of life” that does no life any good. Since 1859, his disciples have been obsessed with trying to piece every organism into an unworkable diagram of universal common ancestry, when God tells us that He made living things to reproduce after their kind. Universal common ancestry doesn’t work. Every week, some evolutionist is finding flaws and has to rearrange the branches.

Meanwhile, children in poor countries needlessly starve when resources around them, like moringa, could help, if scientists would just focus on helping their neighbors. Isn’t it just like God to use lowly things for the greatest projects? The article says,

There’s nothing super-looking about moringa. It’s skinny and sparse in foliage. Its fragile branches sprout puny white flowers and droop with long twisted pods knobby with seeds. But if plants were superheroes, then moringa would be Iron Man.

Before the Fall brought thorns and toxins into the creation, God had given every green plant for food in the garden of Eden described in Genesis. In the center of the garden was the Tree of Life. We don’t know what it was exactly, but it must have been a unique one-of-a-kind tree for that original creation, because when Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden after their disobedience, they lost access to it.

We are told in Revelation that the tree of life appears in the eternal heaven, bearing 12 kinds of fruit for the “healing of the nations.” Super-plants that we cannot yet study may be part of God’s heavenly plan, with amazing abilities to heal temporary injuries or mishaps. If so, it would mean that heaven can be an adventurous place for people who enjoy taking risks, but without the downside (yes, guys, there could be sports in heaven). In the Chronicles of Narnia, readers will remember, Aslan gave Lucy a cordial able to heal any injury or sickness. Why couldn’t the Creator of all life do this? Genesis 3:22 states that eating of the Tree of Life would allow one to live forever. The powers of Moringa oleifera offer a glimpse of the possible.

“Tree of life” is also used metaphorically in the Bible for something that brings joy, health or blessing:

• She [wisdom] is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed. (Proverbs 3:18)
• The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30)
• Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
• A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4)

If you want to enjoy the heavenly tree of life some day, you must come to Christ in repentance and faith. Revelation 2:7 says, “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” And who is the one who conquers, or “overcomes”? John tells us in his epistle I John that the term refers to those who have been “born again” (John 3), meaning made new by trusting in Christ.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  (I John 5:1-5).

Come to Christ now (read the map for directions). Access to the true, real, everlasting tree of life will be yours in the new heavens and new earth, by permission of the Creator Himself.