What Shall We Eat?

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 21, 1904

What Shall We Eat?

Instinct Alone not a Safe Guide in the Selection of Food

“Eat ye that which is good,” says our infallible Guide. By instinct alone, man is not capable of determining between good and evil. Even the beasts of the field have the pre-eminence over man in this respect. A beast would never try to quench its thirst at a pail of beer, or satisfy its hunger by eating tobacco leaves, pickles, mustard, or pepper. Yet it is not uncommon to hear man say, “This is good whisky. This is good beer. This is good tobacco,” etc., thus calling evil good.

The children of Israel despised the pure food given them in the wilderness,—the very bread from heaven, prepared by angel hands, and said, “There is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” “Our souls loatheth this vile bread.” They longed for the leeks, onions, and flesh-pots of Egypt. They lusted after evil things, choosing the evil instead of the good. These things are written for our admonition; for as surely as we are controlled merely by the taste, by instinct, we shall follow their example, and call the good food the Creator has prepared for us evil, and the evil he tries to withhold, we shall pronounce good. Human nature has undergone no change. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

We need an unerring guide. Such a guide we find in the Word of God. But we can not follow the example of those who have lived before us. Doing so accounts for polygamy and many other errors. The Jews came to Christ, asking, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” To this he replied, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” At the beginning God made man and woman, and said, “They twain shall be one flesh. . . . What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” To understand the marriage relation, we must go to the creation before sin entered the world.

In order to understand what to eat, we are also referred to the beginning. When God made the plants, he provided for them in the soil and air the elements needed for their sustenance. They still adhere to the divine plan. The lily, although surrounded with filth, sends its roots beneath it, gathering to itself the elements it needs to make up its snow-white purity.

When God made man, he placed him in a garden, surrounded with trees bearing all manner of fruits, then said to him, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” He was to select his food from the simple products of the earth. These were the foods created for man, to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth; for it is sanctified—set apart by the Word of God and prayer. In the absence of these foods, or where there exists a scarcity, or where there is a lack of knowledge as to their use, man is justified in appropriating the coarser foods, the herbs of the field,—foods that were designed for animals whose digestive tracts enable them to digest them.

Man is even justified, in the absence of both fruits and herbs, to slay and eat. After the flood when all vegetation was destroyed, God said to man, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” This may be considered an emergency diet to be used only in the absence of purer and better food, or until the earth should again produce her bounties. Good sense should lead man to discard the harmful, and choose the good,—the herbs of the field if nothing better can be obtained. But when fruits, grains, and nuts can be obtained, these should be selected in preference to all else, because they are the foods created for man at the beginning; therefore the food best adapted for his needs. That which is good may not at first taste seem good to a perverted appetite. This is wholly a matter of educating the taste, but it is possible to undergo a complete change, so that we shall hate the things we once pronounced good, and love the things we once pronounced evil,—in other words, shall pronounce good what God's Word pronounces good, and pronounce evil what he pronounces evil. “Fix upon that course of life which is best, and custom will render it the most delightful.” The tobacco devotee can not understand why that which seems such a comfort to him should be despised by me. He thinks I am practising great self-denial by abstaining from its use. He does not know that it would be an act of self-denial on my part to use tobacco.

So the man sitting by my side, seeing me eat the simple products of the earth, may think I am making a great sacrifice, but not so. I am able to detect flavors in these products that he with his palate calloused with irritants, as pepper, mustard, tobacco, etc., can not possibly detect.

All have gone astray. We have wandered every one to his own way. The forsaking of our ways, or habits, is hard, but the sacrifices which we are called upon to make are merely so many steps toward the path of life, peace, true happiness, and health. Had we never forsaken God's ways, sacrifices would never be necessary.

These sacrifices and self-denials are not created by God. But the satisfaction and joy once experienced by adopting the good, makes it easier ever after to forsake that which is evil.—Australasian Good Health.