Sowing for Physical and Spiritual Health by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 20, 1900

Sowing for Physical and Spiritual Health

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler

Flesh Foods.

The fundamental necessity for eating is to secure strength. Suitable food must contain strength-producing substances in such a condition that the digestive juices can digest them, and thus prepare them for assimilation by the system. At the same time care must be exercised to see that our foods contain no harmful or poisonous substances that shall have a tendency to neutralize their food value.

The impression is fast gaining ground that the great purpose in living is merely to secure a sufficiency of something to eat, and enough clothes to wear. The struggle for bread and raiment is so intense that thousands of men toil from morning till night simply to satisfy these two wants. With this necessity continually before them, it is not strange that this thought becomes firmly fixed in their minds, and the question of securing food and raiment becomes paramount. How frequently this question is raised: If an animal is not to be eaten, for what purpose was it created? Those who ask this question seem to forget that there are scores of animals in the world that no one ever thinks of eating. And yet all these creatures either fulfill some useful function or are sad reminders of the curse that is resting heavily upon the earth. In the selection of food, many regard the gratification of appetite as more essential than the nourishing of mind and body.

Condition of the Food Elements in the Animal.

It may be laid down as a fundamental truth that the whole plant world is engaged in building up food, while the entire animal world is just as busily engaged in tearing it down. Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables are all magazines of energy, which nature has stored up to be utilized by the animal kingdom. In the plant we find two things—living substance and nutrient material. The animal resembles the plant to the extent that it also has living substance; for every fiber is living and nutrient material, which is being used to build up the animal; but, in addition to these two things, the animal contains what the plant does not—a stream of waste products. So when we eat the animal, we not only eat the fuel, but we eat the ashes as well. We not only take the pure stream of nutriment, but along with it we are compelled to take into our systems this polluted stream of sewage.

Under the influence of the sunlight, nature is all the time building up food in the plant world; while under the influence of nerve impulses, whether it be in man or animal, the plant food which has been eaten is all the time being torn down. For the same reason that there is more energy above Niagara Falls than there is below, the highest and purest form of energy and strength is found in the plant world. In an animal these food substances are gradually transformed into a substance that is more or less inferior. God bids us to “eat for strength,” and to “eat that which is good;” and it is certainly a privilege to take our foods fresh from the hand of nature, before they have become contaminated with animal blood.

The Importance of Securing Unadulterated Spiritual Food.

In order to obtain the nourishment contained in meat, it is necessary to take into the system the various poisonous substances that are always found in animal tissue. The Lord undoubtedly intended man to secure his nourishment direct from the hand of nature in an unadulterated and unpolluted state; and so with the nourishment of the soul. The Bible is the source and standard of our spiritual food. This is an age when the world is well-nigh filled with books; some of them are excellent, some good, and others not so good. Nearly all these books contain some truth of Bible origin, but along with it the reader is compelled to strain through his mind a large volume of matter in no way suited to the nourishment of his soul or to the upbuilding of his moral nature. We can say nothing against the truth which these books may contain; but error is so liberally mixed with the truth that such literature loses its value as moral food and spiritual nourishment. And yet it is this very kind of moral food that the world is calling for most loudly at the present time. Religious novels, and other literature with a semireligious background, are being widely circulated just now. The soul that attempts to subsist upon this kind of moral food is sure to become emaciated and diseased, just as the man who attempts to sustain his physical nature by subsisting upon flesh foods, which, although they contain some nutritive elements, are so heavily laden with disease-producing products as to render them unsuitable for food.

The Poisons That Produce Death in the Animal.

Ordinary beef tea, which is simply the concentrated waste material contained in flesh foods, has a certain stimulating property. Many drunkards are just as well satisfied to get a cup of beef tea, as they are to get a glass of whisky. In medical practice the class of patients that were formerly given beef tea are now given strychnine. In the animal the waste products are dissolved by the fluids of the body, thus forming a large share of the poisonous substances contained in the secretion of the kidneys. At death this process ceases, and an accumulation of waste products not yet dissolved is left in the animal’s body. For this reason it is scarcely possible to imagine a more filthy drink than beef tea. Laboratory experiments show that it contains practically the same substances as are found in the secretion of the kidneys. It is a fact that if a piece of meat is placed under a hydrant and a stream of water allowed to run over it for several hours, or for a sufficient length of time to cause the blood and waste matter to be all washed away, it is practically colorless and tasteless; and yet that which has now been left behind is the really nourishing portion. The color, taste, and flavor of meat are largely due to the blood and waste matter it contains.

The greatest argument that can be produced in favor of the use of the flesh of animals for food is that it gratifies the taste; but it is the blood and the poisonous substances which tickle the palate, while the real food substance of meat is almost as tasteless as so much yarn. The scripture which exhorts us to eat that which is good (Isa. 55:2) certainly could not be applied to flesh foods. There are few persons who would have the courage to drink blood from a tumbler, or be willing to eat a piece of nice white bread after it had been dipped in blood, even if the larger part of the blood was allowed to drain away. Yet every piece of meat that is eaten under ordinary circumstances is exactly represented by that piece of bread colored and saturated with blood. We should bear in mind that God commanded Noah not to eat blood hundreds of years before the ceremonial system was instituted, and that this command was reiterated, and was put in the very bosom of the code of instructions given to the Gentile Christians years after the ceremonial system had faded away. Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25. If Christians would take the pains to carry out these instructions, they would eat flesh only when dire necessity compelled it, instead of making it a daily article of food.

Stimulating Properties of Animal Waste Products.

The waste products in meat have a certain stimulating effect similar to those of tea, coffee, and liquor; and those who eat flesh foods experience this stimulating effect long before the meat has had time to digest. Food must first be digested and assimilated before we can derive benefit from the nourishment it contains. The man who lives on flesh secures a temporary exhilaration, and thinks he is strong; while the man who is living upon the products of the earth must wait for his strength until he has had time to digest his food. But the former person is the one who is deceived; for a man is made tired by the waste products that are gradually being formed in his system. If he eats the waste products formed in the animal, when these become absorbed into his blood, the temporary stimulus passes away, and he is doubly tired; while the man who lives on the right kind of diet has verified in his experience the words, He “shall run, and not be weary;” “walk, and not faint.” In the great competitive foot races, which have taken place in Europe and in certain places in America, this fact has been proved again and again during the last few years.

The man who is living upon the natural products of the earth is storing up something in his system that will continually liberate strength as it is needed, while the man who is living upon flesh foods is seeking to live upon the remnants of the strength that is left in the food after the animal had used his portion. There is also this additional disadvantage: he must eliminate not only the waste products made in his own system, but also those which were made in the animal, and which were contained in the meat he ate. To fix this point thoroughly in mind, it is only necessary to consider the fact that the animal needs a complete set of eliminating organs to constantly carry away poisons, otherwise it would soon be drowned in the stream of its own waste matter. Wheat, apples, nuts, etc., do not require eliminating organs to carry off waste products; for they manufacture none.

Careful laboratory experiments have demonstrated that the toxicity—that is, the poisonous quality of the secretion of the kidneys—is increased nearly fourfold when a person who is living upon a non-flesh diet begins to eat flesh foods. In health every organ of the body has reserve strength, and can accomplish more than is ordinarily required of it; and so healthy

kidneys are able, for a considerable length of time, to eliminate not only the waste products of the man, but also those contained in the portion of the ox which the man ate. But suppose this man is upon the very verge of Bright’s disease. How quickly such a presumptuous course on his part may carry him over! There are thousands all over this country who from various indiscretions in diet and in other habits of life are on the very brink of serious disease, and only need to have another weight placed upon their already overworked systems to quickly force them into the grave. Unfortunately many persons treat their stomachs just as penny-in-the-slot machines are treated: they simply put something in, and then expect the stomach to supply health, regardless of what they put in.