168
Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
We find in every such instance a good reason why they can not live
out the health reform. They do not live it out, and have never followed
it strictly, therefore they can not be benefited by it. Some fall into
the error that because they discard meat, they have no need to supply
its place with the best fruits and vegetables, prepared in their most
natural state, free from grease and spices. If they would only skillfully
arrange the bounties with which the Creator has surrounded them,
parents and children with a clear conscience unitedly engaging in the
work, they would enjoy simple food, and would then be able to speak
understandingly of health reform. Those who have not been converted
to health reform, and have never fully adopted it, are not judges of its
benefits. Those who digress occasionally to gratify the taste in eating
a fattened turkey or other flesh-meats, pervert their appetites, and are
not the ones to judge of the benefits of the system of health reform.
They are controlled by taste, not by principle.
Manuscript 50, 1904
I was instructed that the use of flesh-meat has a tendency to animal-
ize the nature, and to rob men and women of the love and sympathy
which they should feel for every one. We are built up from that which
we eat, and those whose diet is largely composed of animal food are
brought into a condition where they allow the lower passions to assume
control of the high powers of the being. I accepted the light on health
reform as it came to me. It has been a great blessing to me. I have
better health today, notwithstanding I am seventy-six years old, than
I had in my younger days. I thank God for the principles of health
reform, and if there are any here today who have backslidden in this
respect, I say to them that God calls upon them to be converted, and
to take their position in accordance with the light He has given. In
denying perverted appetite, you will place yourself where God can
co-operate with you.
We do not mark out any precise line to be followed in diet. There
are many kinds of wholesome food. But we do say that flesh-meat
is not the right food for God’s people. It animalizes human beings.
In a country such as this, where there are fruits, grains, and nuts
in abundance, how can one think that he must eat the flesh of dead
animals?