A Testimony for the Truth
At a meeting of the Louisville (Kentucky) Clinical Society, held May 13, 1902, the question of diet was under discussion, when Dr. W. H. Wathen, president of the Kentucky School of Medicine of Louisville, made the following remarks as reported in the American Practitioner and News:— Theory is all right as far as it goes, but practical observation is of far more value. I assume that I have had opportunity of observing this question more than all of you combined, having recently spent three weeks among a class of people who use no meat at any time, and it has positively demonstrated to me that meat is unnecessary—that the healthiest people in the world never eat meat; that those who have the most beautiful complexions, who are the most enduring in their work, who are the most amiable in their disposition, who are the least addicted to the use of whisky, wines, opiates, sexual excesses, etc., are those people who do not eat meat. It has been demonstrated that persons who have been addicted to the excesses I have mentioned, while upon a meat diet, have entirely abandoned them while living upon an exclusively vegetable diet, but returned to the excesses when a mixed diet was again resumed. No well-trained Seventh-day Adventist eats meat, and you will not find healthier people in the world than these people, nor people more free from excesses of all kinds. I had occasion to observe, at Battle Creek, Mich., for three weeks, the nurses, the doctors, the medical students, and I have never seen brighter medical students in my life, nor have I ever seen such healthy-looking people as they are, and not one particle of meat do they eat. I lived among them for three weeks without any meat. I did not want or feel the need of meat, and I gained while there one and one-half pounds per day. Vegetarians are the most enduring people in the world; the laborers on the coast of Spain unloading vessels work longer hours and carry heavier weights than meat eaters, and they never eat any meat. The question of vegetarianism is a large one. You must prepare these things properly. Take, for instance, some of the cereals. We cook oatmeal between thirty and sixty minutes, and think it is ready to be served, whereas at Battle Creek they cook it at 360° F from three to six hours; and when prepared in this way, it is easily digested and nourishing. Many of the Battle Creek products are already predigested so that they are readily assimilated. Protose, made of the gluten of wheat and peanuts, is a substitute for meat. It is easily digested, easy of assimilation, and nutritious; and when properly prepared, you can eat enormous quantities without ill effects. One of the most admirable dinners I ever ate was at Dr. Kellogg’s, where no meat was served, the cooking being done with vegetable and nut oils instead of lards and greases. Such testimony as this given before a meeting of physicians by one who stands at the head of a leading medical institution is worthy of note. It shows that right principles concerning diet and health are finding a recognition among a class of thinkers who formerly gave little attention to them. Every one of us who have had the privilege of knowing the principles of hygienic reform for years ought, by walking in the light, to become a living testimony to the truthfulness of Dr. Wathen’s remarks. So may it be.