Good Building Material
By John Harvey Kellogg
A lesson of vital importance which civilized men and women are only just beginning to learn, is that food was not, in the divine order, intended to be merely a source of pleasure to the body, a tickle to the palate, or even a satisfaction to the stomach, but that its prime object and essential purpose is to furnish a store of energy necessary to enable the bodily engine to do its work; in other words, to maintain the vital stream which perpetually flows in and out of the body as a river flows between its banks. Probably the majority of people eat what is convenient to the hand or pleasing to the palate. The savage builds his home on the same principle,—of sod, mud, straw, twigs,—whatever material he finds most convenient. When the savage becomes civilized, he builds his hut with greater care. Having ceased to wander about, he requires a more enduring habitat, so he gathers together the best material he can afford,—granite from the mountains, iron from the mines, and hard wood from the forest. He fits these expensive materials together with the greatest care, so that the wind, the rain, and the snow may not wear out and demolish his dwelling place before it has served its purpose; in other words, he so constructs his house that it shall be able to resist the ravages of time and weather for as long a period as possible. The sort of house he builds is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the civilized man as opposed to the savage man. May we not reasonably inquire, Why should not the civilized man exercise the same incessant care in selecting the material out of which to build the living temple which we call the body, as in building the temporary shelter which he calls his house? It may be replied that the civilized man certainly does exercise great solicitude, and spends enormous sums in the procuring of food to supply his table. But the greater part of his solicitude, unfortunately, is exercised from a wrong standpoint. The question with the average man is not, What is good? but rather, What tastes good? What will please the palate? One might just as well build his house out of materials pleasing to the eye, but without reference to its durability, as to build his body out of materials pleasing to his palate without reference to their qualities as body-builders and energy-producers. It is probable that the majority of men and women who dwell in houses of their own, have given far more thought and attention to the question of house building than they have ever given to the infinitely more important question of body building. “A short life, and a merry one,” is a popular modern adage which contains in itself the confession of the recognition of the relation between a merry life, or rather, a life of self-gratification, and brevity of years. If one would live long, he must eat well, he must live high in the true sense; that is, he must live in harmony with high principle, in accordance with the divine order; he must recognize the fact that the stomach is the fountain head of energy to the body, and that an unhealthy stomach may become likewise the fountain head of disease of every kind and in every tissue.