Relation of Diet to Health and Morals
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Pork, although one of the most common articles of diet, is one
of the most injurious. God did not prohibit the Hebrews from eating
swine’s flesh merely to show his authority, but because it is not a
proper article of food for man. God never created the swine to be eaten
under any circumstances. It is impossible for the flesh of any living
creature to be healthful when filth is its natural element, and when it
feeds upon every detestable thing.
It is not the chief end of man to gratify his appetite. There are
physical wants to be supplied; but because of this is it necessary that
man shall be controlled by appetite? Will the people who are seeking
to become holy, pure, refined, that they may be introduced into the
society of heavenly angels, continue to take the life of God’s creatures,
and enjoy their flesh as a luxury? From what the Lord has shown me,
this order of things will be changed, and God’s peculiar people will
exercise temperance in all things.
There is a class who seem to think that whatever is eaten is lost,
that anything tossed into the stomach to fill it, will do as well as food
prepared with intelligence and care. But it is important that we relish
the food we eat. If we cannot, and have to eat mechanically, we fail
to receive the proper nourishment. Our bodies are constructed from
what we eat; and in order to make tissues of good quality, we must
have the right kind of food, and it must be prepared with such skill as
will best adapt it to the wants of the system. It is a religious duty for
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those who cook, to learn how to prepare healthful food in a variety of
ways, so that it may be both palatable and healthful. Poor cookery is
wearing away the life energies of thousands. More souls are lost from
this cause than many realize. It deranges the system and produces
disease. In the condition thus induced, heavenly things cannot be
readily discerned.
Some do not feel that it is a religious duty to prepare food properly;
hence they do not try to learn how. They let the bread sour before
baking, and the saleratus added to remedy the cook’s carelessness,
makes it totally unfit for the human stomach. It requires thought and
care to make good bread. But there is more religion in a good loaf of
bread than many think. Food can be prepared simply and healthfully,
but it requires skill to make it both palatable and nourishing. In order
to learn how to cook, women should study, and then patiently reduce
what they learn to practice. People are suffering because they will