Improper Eating a Cause of Disease
411
with impunity. They dwell much on the working of disease, but do
not, as a general rule, arouse the attention to the laws which must be
sacredly and intelligently obeyed in such to prevent disease. Especially
if the physician has not been correct in his dietetic practices, if his
own appetite has not been restricted to a plain, wholesome diet, in
a large measure discarding the use of the flesh of dead animals,—he
loves meat, he has educated and cultivated a taste for unhealthful food.
His ideas are narrow, and he will as soon educate and discipline the
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taste and appetite of his patients to love the things that he loves, as
to give them the sound principles of health reform. He will prescribe
for sick patients flesh-meats, when it is the very worst diet that they
can have; it stimulates, but does not give strength. They do not inquire
into their former habits of eating and drinking, and take special notice
of their erroneous habits which have been for many years laying the
foundation of disease. Conscientious physicians should be prepared
to enlighten those who are ignorant, and should with wisdom make
out their prescriptions, prohibiting those things in their diet which he
knows to be erroneous. He should plainly state the things which he
regards as detrimental to the laws of health, and leave these suffering
ones to work conscientiously to do those things for themselves which
they can do, and thus place themselves in right relation to the laws of
life and health
Diseases of every stripe and type have been brought upon human
beings by the use of tea and coffee and the narcotics, opium and
tobacco. These hurtful indulgences must be given up, not only one,
but all; for all are hurtful, and ruinous to the physical, mental and
moral powers, and should be discontinued from a health standpoint.
The common use of the flesh of dead animals has had a deteriorating
influence upon the morals, as well as the physical constitution. Ill-
health in a variety of forms, if effect could be traced to the cause,
would reveal the sure result of flesh eating.
Manuscript 3, 1897
Physicians who claim to understand the human organism ought not
to encourage their patients to subsist on the flesh of dead animals. They
should point out the increase of disease in the animal kingdom. The
testimony of examiners is that very few animals are free from disease,