Milk and Honey

If you read any health food books, blogs, or studies you will sooner or later find Milk and Honey are very controversial foods. -Are they safe to eat raw or should they be pasteurized, should they be consumed by humans at all, do they cause inflammation etc.
In the bible the "land of milk and honey" is used to discribe a Promised Land, a land of prosperity, safety and plenty. Does that mean that the beasts had many offspring and the land was easy to cultivate? Or did it mean that an abundance of rich and sweet nourishing foods were immediately available? Or both? At this point in my journey I believe both are true.
I believe milk and honey in their raw forms are God's dessert meant for man and beast to enjoy to provide delight and comfort. As a "dessert" I believe these are meant to be enjoyed with gracious temperance.
An abundance of foods of all kinds, readily, and often easily obtained at as-disconnected-to-the-source a place as a grocery store is. I find it is easy to loose perspective and gratitude for the abundance we enjoy with little to no effort of our own. We do not see the efforts of the animal or bee whose labor produced such delights, nor the labourer whom collected our bounty. Our appreciation and reverence for their sacrifices is therefore limited and we gorge ourselves unconcernedly until we are fat with ignorance and disrespect.
Illness becomes our punishment for neglect and gluttony. I hope we can shake the chains of disconnect and complacency, experiencing health as we connect with the sources of our daily nourishment, and educate ourselves with the truth of what we should or shouldn't be feeding ourselves.
May we all feel gratitude, this Thanksgiving season, for the seemingly small things we take for granted day to day. May we give thanks to our Creator for the abundant life we live, and for the sacrifices made by unseen 'hands' to achieve it.