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The Ministry of Health and Healing
because their practice is not, in all things, in harmony with our own.
It is impossible to make an unvarying rule to regulate everyone’s
habits, and we should not use ourselves as a criterion for all. Not all
can eat the same things. Foods that are palatable and wholesome
to one person may be distasteful, 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 daily diet. It is true that robust persons 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.
Reform Should Be Progressive
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 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.
The practice of eating only two meals a day is generally found
to be beneficial to health, yet under some circumstances persons
may require a third meal. But, if taken at all, this should be very
light, and of food most easily digested. “Crackers”—the English
biscuit—or zwieback, plus fruit or a non-caffeinated drink made
from grain, are the foods best suited for the evening meal.
Some continually fear that their food, however simple and health-
ful, may hurt them. To these let me say, Do not think that your food