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What to Chew and What to Eschew

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 31.

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What to Chew and What to Eschew

By Daniel H. Kress

D. H. KRESS, M. D.
EVERYTHING we eat should be thoroughly chewed. Upon proper mastication depends proper digestion and nutrition. There are certain foods, however, that mastication does not improve; but they are an injury to the body.
Two things are essential in building healthy body tissues,— one is good building material, and the other is proper preparation of the material so that it can be utilized. When Solomon erected in Jerusalem the temple which commanded the admiration of the entire world, he exercised great care in the selection of the material with which to construct it. Ordinary building material he passed by, selecting only the best.
We are all engaged in temple-building, but few of us exercise the wisdom of Solomon. Our bodies are temples. As a rule men are content to use the material most convenient in building the body temple, regardless of quality. Taste, not reason and good sense, is considered. I have heard men say, “I can eat anything;” and those who say this, usually do. They seem to ignore the fact that they are composed of what they eat, and that food is building material. It is as impossible to build healthy and enduring bones, muscles, nerves, and brain out of inferior food as it is to build a substantial house out of inferior timber.
The impression prevails that inferior food undergoes some miraculous transformation after it enters the alimentary canal, and is there converted into superior building material. This is a mistake. As the carpenter can merely shape and prepare the material that is furnished him, so the digestive organs merely dissolve and prepare the material furnished them.
Two buildings may appear equally good from without, to a superficial observer; but before purchasing, inquiry is usually made in regard to the class of material employed in their construction. Two men may appear equally healthy to the passer-by; but to know of a certainty whether appearances can be relied upon, it is necessary to inquire as to the material employed in their body-building. The drinker of beer, with his florid face, has the appearance of health; but he is not well. It is recognized that his chances for recovery from a surgical operation or from pneumonia or other germ diseases are not good: he has been employing the wrong kind of building material. Beer is a product of fermentation, or decay. No man can subsist upon such material and be well.
Solomon purposed to build a dwelling-place for God. But “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Heaven is his throne. He dwells “in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit.” To such the apostle says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
There are two kinds of temple-builders. By nature we are all the children of wrath. The prince of the power of the air holds possession, and he directs in the selection of building material. It was he who led man at the beginning to put forth his hand and partake of that which God had wisely withheld from him. It was he who later led man to partake of alcohol, tea, coffee, tobacco, pepper, mustard, and other inferior and unsuitable building material; and as a result the human temples are decaying. The marked degeneracy of the race has its explanation here. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.”
When requested to take his seat at Babylon’s table, laden with “a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of thewine which he drank,” Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” He requested that instead he might have “pulse to eat, and water to drink.” Daniel, like Solomon, was a wise builder. He chose the very best material, the material that was originally given to man for body-building purposes, —fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts.
Solomon’s temple lost its significance, and was defiled. When Christ began his ministry, he entered the temple, and said, “Take these things hence.” It was still his Father’s house, though in the possession of unlawful traffickers. These he cast out. This typifies the work he does in every human temple, no matter how defiled, which he enters. The cleansing begins the moment he enters. He will say, Take hence the tobacco, whisky, tea, coffee, and other things which defile and injure brain, and nerve, and muscle.
The one who permits Christ to reign within, will exercise the same care as did Solomon in the selection of building material. The ordinary body-building material employed will not answer the purpose. Nothing but the cleanest, the purest, and the best will be good enough.
No inferior body-building material is approved by the Master. God said to his ancient people: “The swine . . . is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.” In these words is stated that which science recognizes, and which must appeal to every thinking mind. The flesh of an animal that subsists upon filth can not be clean. The oyster, the scavenger of the sea, lying in the ocean bottom, with open shells, filled with ooze and slime and filth, does not furnish suitable material out of which to build enduring body-temples. Concerning such animals the instruction was given: “They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh.” Yet the oyster is regarded as a delicacy, and not its flesh merely, but the entire creature, is eaten.
Even the cleanest animals are not suitable as food for one who desires to build up a healthy body and a sound brain. Animal tissues are always laden with organic impurities, which are constantly forming, and which have to be constantly eliminated through the kidneys, the skin, and the lungs of the animal while living. It is impossible to eat meat without getting a certain proportion of these impurities. Beef extracts are chiefly composed of them.
Takoma Park, D. C.