10
Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
become a scholar and will learn. Is not the health of your family of
sufficient value to inspire you with ambition to learn how to cook, and
how to eat?
That which we eat can not be converted into good blood unless
it is of proper quality, simple and nutritious. The stomach can never
convert sour bread into sweet. Food poorly prepared is not nutritious,
and can not make good blood. These things which fret and derange
the stomach will have a benumbing influence upon the finer feelings
[10]
of the heart. Many who adopt the health reform complain that it does
not agree with them; but, after sitting at their tables, I come to the
decision that it is not the health reform that is at fault, but the poorly
prepared food. Health reformers, above all others, should be careful
to shun extremes. The body must have sufficient nourishment. We
can not subsist upon air merely; neither can we retain health unless
we have nourishing food. Food should be prepared in good order, so
that it is palatable. Mothers should be practical physiologists, that
they may teach their children to know themselves, and to possess
moral courage to carry out correct principles in defiance of the health-
and-life-destroying fashions. To needlessly transgress the laws of our
being, is a violation of the law of God.
Poor cookery is slowly wearing away the life energies of thousands.
It is dangerous to health and life to eat at some tables the heavy, sour
bread, and the other food prepared in keeping with it.
Review and Herald, May 8, 1883
Hot biscuit raised with soda or baking powder should never appear
upon our tables. Such compounds are unfit to enter the stomach. Hot
raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion. Graham gems, which
are both wholesome and palatable, may be made from the unbolted
flour, mixed with pure cold water and milk. But it is difficult to teach
our people simplicity. When we recommend graham gems, our friends
say, “Oh, yes, we know how to make them.” We are much disappointed
when they appear raised with baking powder or with sour milk and
soda. These give no evidence of reform. The unbolted flour, mixed
with pure soft water and milk, makes the best gems we have ever
tasted. If the water is hard, use more sweet milk, or add an egg to the