SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 3, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 27.

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SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler

THE STARCH FAMILY.

(Continued.)

DIETETIC DIFFICULTIES DUE TO THE SIN-CURSED CONDITION OF THE EARTH.

Before sin cursed this earth, undoubtedly grains and fruits were ripening at all seasons of the year; hence grains could always be secured while in the milky, or sugar, stage, in which condition they are ready to be acted upon at once by the digestive fluids of the body, thus requiring no cooking whatever. The earth must also have been covered with luscious fruits, while now in many sections of the country there is a scarcity of fruit. To-day, in many parts of the earth, nuts are also scarce, and are little used as food. Thus man has been compelled largely to live upon the carbohydrates as they are found in the dry, ripe grains; that is, in the “starch stage,” or insoluble form. If we can not get our carbohydrates (starch) naturally in a soluble form, in which form the Creator undoubtedly intended that we should eat them, we ought, by artificial means, to bring the starch as near as possible to the soluble stage. But it is extremely difficult to get people to recognize the necessity of properly cooking starch. They will endure untold privations in order to get to the Klondike regions, to fill their pockets with gold; but they are unwilling to go even an extra block to find a restaurant where the starch is perhaps cooked a little more thoroughly than in the one just across the street.

THE STEPLADDER FROM STARCH TO SUGAR.

There are more than two dozen different stages through which the carbohydrates pass in the transition from the insoluble to the soluble form, or from raw starch to maltose, or fruit sugar. If this change from insoluble starch to soluble sugar can to any great extent be effected by proper cooking, then it is certainly of great importance that the proper cooking of starches be carefully considered and fully understood. In fact, starch is the only food element that is to any great extent improved or made more digestible by cooking. Many forms of the proteids are just as easily digested when raw as when cooked. The same is true of fats. And yet modern cookbooks give almost their entire attention to the cooking of proteids and fats, scarcely making mention of the proper preparation of starch. The question of starch-cooking is of great importance, not only because of the fact that it is the only food element that is benefited to any great extent by the cooking process, but also because of the fact that three fourths of our daily rations consist of starch. The average person who subsists upon natural foods eats about twenty ounces of solid food each day,—that is, his daily food, minus the water it contains, would weigh twenty ounces,—sixteen ounces of which consists of starch (carbohydrates), about three ounces of proteids, and a little more than one ounce of fat. So it can be seen at a glance that three fourths of all our food is made up of starch; and it is this food element that either furnishes a large share of our heat and energy, or becomes, if improperly cooked, the cause of a large share of our digestive troubles.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF COOKING.

Kettle-Cooking.—As ordinarily cooked, cereals or grains,—oatmeal, mushes, etc.,—the breakfast foods, advertised as being so prepared that they may be “cooked in from five to fifty minutes,” are examples of kettle-cooking, but it is impossible by even prolonged cooking, properly to cook starch at the kettle-cooking temperature of 212°. By kettle-cooking is meant cooking by moist heat, boiling in such a utensil as a double-boiler, etc. Such cooking simply changes the starch into a paste. If a little oatmeal that has been thus cooked is rubbed between the hands, it will be found to have a characteristic sticky and pasty feeling. The inside of improperly baked bread—bread from which the moisture has not been driven by sufficient baking—is another example of this form of cooking. This half-baked bread can be made into balls, which will rebound almost as successfully as a rubber ball, when thrown against the floor or tossed against the wall.

Oven-Cooking.—An example of oven-cooking is a slice of thoroughly baked bread. The inside of this bread, when pressed in the hand, instead of making paste bullets, will form crumbs.

Roast-Cooking.—In roast-cooking the starch has been subjected for a sufficient length of time to a degree of heat above three hundred degrees Fahrenheit (the degrees of the ordinary thermometer). Of this we have beautiful examples in thoroughly toasted zwieback, browned rice, toasted crackers, granose, crystal wheat, mush that has been kettle-cooked, and then cut into thin slices, and baked in the oven until it is browned all the way through.

If we wish to add to our sorrows on earth, we can eat starch that is simply kettle-cooked. If we wish to eat the starch in a better condition, we can take it in the form of the oven-cooked, but it is the best and most healthful when roasted or thoroughly toasted. By toasting we have changed, or digested, the starch as far as heat is able to transform it; it is now changed to dextrin. As soon as the saliva comes in contact with it, it will be instantly changed into sugar. The ladder that reaches from the lowly earth of raw starch to the vaulted skies of digested starch is made up of the following steps: (1) Raw starch; (2) kettle-cooked starch; (3) oven-cooked starch; (4) toasted starch; (5) sun-cooked starch; and (6) chemically digested starch.

FERMENTATION, OR HOW MUSH-EATING PAVES THE WAY FOR MEAT-EATING.

In Isa. 55:2 we are told to “eat ye that which is good.” Here we have the whole diet question in a nutshell. Most persons eat that which tastes good to a perverted appetite. But is it not possible by some means to convert a perverted taste into one that is normal? Then

that which tastes good is quite likely to be good for the health, as well as pleasant to the palate. Poorly cooked grains are responsible for a large share of the dyspepsia and indigestion from which multitudes are suffering. The constant eating of grains, breakfast foods, and oatmeal that are cooked just enough to be partly; and bread so doughy that it can easily be made into dough balls, is sure, sooner or later, to produce disorders of digestion. Starch thus cooked is not only almost indigestible, but it is perfectly fermentable.

In stomachs subject to fermentation, such products as acetic acid, formic acid, and butyric acid are being formed. These acids have been shown by scientific research to be more destructive to the liver and its healthy action than even alcohol itself. Dr. Boix, of France, added these fermentation products to the bran upon which he was feeding rabbits, and after a certain length of time he killed the rabbits, and found that their livers had become diseased; in fact, serious changes had taken place in different parts of their bodies. What took place in the rabbits under these experiments is precisely what takes place in the bodies of thousands of persons who are living upon oatmeal, grains, and mushes, in which the starch is so slightly cooked that it is little easier of digestion than when perfectly raw. At the same time this slight cooking renders the starch much more liable to fermentation.

The object of food is to furnish nourishment to the blood, that it may be carried to various parts of the body to heal or build up the tissues. The blood is the life, and healing is simply getting more life. When God heals us, it is through the avenue of the blood. Hence, any food substance that produces pure blood is to that extent healing to the man. On the other hand, anything tending to render the blood impure is productive of disease. One of the quickest ways of getting disease is to get impure blood. One of the most satisfactory ways of getting well is to get good blood. By eating only proper food, we can assist in the production of healthy blood. But how often the blood, which was intended for the nourishment and repair of the tissues of the body, becomes an active agent in producing disease! Instead of being a messenger of life to the body, it becomes the messenger of death.

If we put something into our systems that will poison the blood and render it impure, God will allow it to destroy us; for he has said that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It is our privilege to be used by the Lord to present to a dying world the principles of healthful diet and the intelligent use of water. And thus, with the glorious gospel in our hearts, we may bring healing to both soul and body. There is one great divine law running through all divine healing with which it is our privilege to come into harmony. Then we may be agents of God for the uplifting of man and the betterment of his fallen condition. Civilized people are generally living in such a way that they can reap nothing but disease. We may be the conservators of the health of the people by telling them of their errors, and teaching them better habits of living.

INDIRECT RESULTS OF FERMENTATION IN THE STOMACH.

The various gases that are formed in the stomach as a result of fermentation have a tendency to produce dilatation and distention of that organ. It is possible to take a spiral spring and pull it up so far that it will not bound back; and if the stomach is stretched too much day after day, its muscles after a time cease to contract. Such a stomach is crippled; in fact, often dislocated; and a dislocated stomach is a more serious thing than a dislocated shoulder.

A man with a disabled stomach, who attempts to live upon improperly cooked food, goes through life half anaesthetised, on account of the poisons produced by undigested food. Such a person is unable to appreciate the beautiful harmonies of creation, or fully to enjoy the pleasure of life. It is such conditions as these that are productive of a large share of family quarrels, church trials, and the troubles of society in general. Many persons are apparently half-cooked, all ready to go off at the least touch of the trigger. Such a condition of the nervous system is created largely at the dinner table. Life to a man with such a stomach begins to be intolerable, and he gradually learns that in proportion as he substitutes meat for grains he does not have a sour stomach and other troubles due directly or indirectly to the eating of insufficiently cooked starch.

Next week the question of mush-eating and its relation to meat-eating will be considered further.