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Extremes in Diet
225
testimony in favor of right principles. These persons have a wide
influence for good.
There is real common sense in dietetic reform. The subject
should be studied broadly and deeply, and no one should criticize
others because their practice is not, in all things, in harmony with
his own. It is impossible to make an unvarying rule to regulate
everyone’s habits, and no one should think himself a criterion for
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all. Not all can eat the same things. Foods that are palatable and
wholesome to one person may be distasteful, and even harmful, to
another. Some cannot use milk, while others thrive on it. Some
persons cannot digest peas and beans; others find them wholesome.
For some the coarser grain preparations are good food, while others
cannot use them.
Those who live in new countries or in poverty-stricken districts,
where fruits and nuts are scarce, should not be urged to exclude
milk and eggs from their dietary. It is true that persons in full flesh
and in whom the animal passions are strong need to avoid the use
of stimulating foods. Especially in families of children who are
given to sensual habits, eggs should not be used. But in the case of
persons whose blood-making organs are feeble,—especially if other
foods to supply the needed elements cannot be obtained,—milk and
eggs should not be wholly discarded. Great care should be taken,
however, to obtain milk from healthy cows, and eggs from healthy
fowls, that are well fed and well cared for; and the eggs should be
so cooked as to be most easily digested.
The diet reform should be progressive. As disease in animals
increases, the use of milk and eggs will become more and more
unsafe. An effort should be made to supply their
“There is nothing better for a man, than that he
should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul
enjoy good in his labour.”
Ecclesiastes 2:24
.
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place with other things that are healthful and inexpensive. The
people everywhere should be taught how to cook without milk and
eggs, so far as possible, and yet have their food wholesome and
palatable.