Wherever the truth is proclaimed, instruction
should be given in the preparation of healthful foods. God desires
that in every place the people shall be taught to use wisely
the products that can be easily obtained. Skillful teachers should
show the people how to utilize to the very best advantage the
products that they can raise or secure in their section of the
country. Thus the poor, as well as those in better circumstances,
can learn to live healthfully.
From the beginning of the health reform
work, we have found it necessary to educate, educate, educate.
God desires us to continue this work of educating the people.
We are not to neglect it because of the effect we may fear it
will have on the sales of the health foods prepared in our factories.
That is not the most important matter. Our work is to show the
people how they can obtain and prepare the most wholesome food,
how they can co-operate with God in restoring His moral image
in themselves.
Our workers should exercise their ingenuity
in the preparation of healthful foods. None are to pry into Dr.
Kellogg's secrets, but all should understand that the Lord is
teaching many minds in many places to make healthful foods. There
are many products which, if properly prepared and combined, can
be made into foods that will be a blessing to those who cannot
afford to purchase the more expensive, specially prepared health
foods. He who in the building of the tabernacle gave skill and
understanding in all manner of cunning work, will give skill
and understanding to His people in the combining of natural food products, thus showing them how to
secure a healthful diet.
Knowledge in regard to the preparation
of healthful foods is God's property and has been communicated
to man in order that he may communicate it to his fellow men.
In saying this I do not refer to the special preparations that
it has taken Dr. Kellogg and others long study and much expense
to perfect. I refer especially to the simple preparations that
all can make for themselves, instruction in regard to which should
be given freely to those who desire to live healthfully, and
especially to the poor.
It is the Lord's design that in every place
men and women shall be encouraged to develop their talents by
preparing healthful foods from the natural products of their
own section of the country. If they look to God, exercising their
skill and ingenuity under the guidance of His Spirit, they will
learn how to prepare natural products into healthful foods. Thus
they will be able to teach the poor how to provide themselves
with foods that will take the place of flesh meat. Those thus
helped can in turn instruct others. Such a work will yet be done
with consecrated zeal and energy. If it had been done before,
there would today be many more people in the truth and many more
who could give instruction. Let us learn what our duty is, and
then do it. We are not to be dependent and helpless, waiting
for others to do the work that God has committed to us.
In the use of foods we should exercise
good, sound common sense. When we find that a certain food does
not agree with us, we need not write letters of inquiry to learn
the cause of the disturbance. Change the diet; use less of some
foods; try other preparations. Soon we shall know the effect
that certain combinations have on us.
As intelligent human beings let us individually study the principles
and use our experience and judgment in deciding what foods are
best for us.
The foods used should be suited to the
occupation in which we are engaged and the climate in which we
live. Some foods that are suitable in one country will not do
in another.
There are some who would be benefited more
by abstinence from food for a day or two every week than by any
amount of treatment or medical advice. To fast one day a week
would be of incalculable benefit to them.
I have been instructed that the nut foods
are often used unwisely, that too large a proportion of nuts
is used, that some nuts are not as wholesome as others. Almonds
are preferable to peanuts; but peanuts, in limited quantities,
may be used in connection with grains to make nourishing and
digestible food.
Olives may be so prepared as to be eaten
with good results at every meal. The advantages sought by the
use of butter may be obtained by the eating of properly prepared
olives. The oil in the olives relieves constipation; and for
consumptives, and for those who have inflamed, irritated stomachs,
it is better than any drug. As a food it is better than any oil
coming secondhand from animals.
It would be well for us to do less cooking
and to eat more fruit in its natural state. Let us teach the
people to eat freely of the fresh grapes, apples, peaches, pears,
berries, and all other kinds of fruit that can be obtained. Let
these be prepared for winter use by canning, using glass, as
far as possible, instead of tin.
Concerning flesh meat, we should educate
the people to let it alone. Its use is contrary to the best development
of the physical, mental, and moral powers. And we should bear
a clear testimony against the use of tea and coffee. It is also well to discard rich desserts.
Milk, eggs, and butter should not be classed with flesh meat.
In some cases the use of eggs is beneficial. The time has not
come to say that the use of milk and eggs should be wholly discarded.
There are poor families whose diet consists largely of bread
and milk. They have little fruit and cannot afford to purchase
the nut foods. In teaching health reform, as in all other gospel
work, we are to meet the people where they are. Until we can
teach them how to prepare health reform foods that are palatable,
nourishing, and yet inexpensive, we are not at liberty to present
the most advanced propositions regarding health reform diet.
Let the diet reform be progressive. Let
the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk
or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there
will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because
disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase
of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the
iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan
under the diseases that curse our earth.
God will give His people ability and tact
to prepare wholesome food without these things. Let our people
discard all unwholesome recipes. Let them learn how to live healthfully,
teaching to others what they have learned. Let them impart this
knowledge as they would Bible instruction. Let them teach the
people to preserve the health and increase the strength by avoiding
the large amount of cooking that has filled the world with chronic
invalids. By precept and example make it plain that the food
which God gave Adam in his sinless state is the best for man's
use as he seeks to regain that sinless state.
Those who teach the principles of health
reform should be intelligent in regard to disease and its causes,
understanding that every action of the human agent should be
in perfect harmony with the laws of life. The light God has given
on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the
world. Men and women should be informed in regard to the human
habitation, fitted up by our Creator as His dwelling place, and
over which He desires us to be faithful stewards. "For ye
are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people." 2 Corinthians 6:16.
Hold up the principles of health reform,
and let the Lord lead the honest in heart. Present the principles
of temperance in their most attractive form. Circulate the books
that give instruction in regard to healthful living.
The people are in sad need of the light
shining from the pages of our health books and journals. God
desires to use these books and journals as mediums through which
flashes of light shall arrest the attention of the people and
cause them to heed the warning of the message of the third angel.
Our health journals are instrumentalities in the field to do
a special work in disseminating the light that the inhabitants
of the world must have in this day of God's preparation. They
wield an untold influence in the interests of health and temperance
and social purity reform, and will accomplish great good in presenting
these subjects in a proper manner and in their true light to
the people.
The Lord has been sending us line upon
line, and if we reject these principles we are not rejecting
the messenger who teaches them, but the One who has given us
the principles.
Reform, continual reform, must be kept
before the people, and by our example we must enforce our teaching.
True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand. It is impossible
to work for the salvation of men and women without presenting
to them the need of breaking away from sinful gratifications,
which destroy the health, debase the soul, and prevent divine
truth from impressing the mind. Men and women must be taught
to take a careful view of every habit and every practice, and
at once put away those things that cause an unhealthy condition
of the body and thus cast a dark shadow over the mind. God desires
His light bearers ever to keep a high standard before them. By
precept and example they must hold their perfect standard high
above Satan's false standard, which, if followed, will lead to
misery, degradation, disease, and death for both body and soul.
Let those who have obtained a knowledge of how to eat and drink
and dress so as to preserve health impart this knowledge to others.
Let the poor have the gospel of health preached unto them from
a practical point of view, that they may know how to care properly
for the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.