Simplicity in Diet by G. H. Heald, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1904

Simplicity in Diet

By G. H. Heald, M. D.

G. H. HEALD, M. D.

MANY persons of rather feeble health have managed, by giving close attention to their manner of living, to live to a vigorous old age. The rules they have adopted and recommended to others differ very much as to detail; but we have as yet to hear of a successful health system which omitted simplicity in diet and abundant exercise. These are essentials in all health systems.

This is in harmony with the light that has come to us. We are told that of all the errors of diet, overeating is the most harmful. Again and again are the directions given to eat plain food, prepared in a simple manner, and to take more exercise.

One of the curses of civilization—to many—is the cheapness of food, and the ability to get it without hard work, so that now the problem is not how to get sufficient food, but how to prepare it in great variety so that we can enjoy eating a larger quantity.

Men who have made a specialty of food values and the requirements of the body have declared that, as a rule, people eat more than they need, and that this excess is probably a damage to the body. The experience, in freedom from disease and in increased length of life, of men who have been sparing of their food, attests the same fact.

The Testimonies call this overeating “idolatry;” “worshiping at the shrine of perverted appetite.” And of those who do this we read: “The powers which, sanctified and ennobled, might be employed to honor God, are weakened and rendered of little service. An irritable temper, a confused brain, and unstrung nerves are among the results of this disregard of nature’s laws.”

“Nearly all the members of the human family eat more than the system requires.” “If more food, even of a simple quality, is placed in the stomach than the living machinery requires, this surplus becomes a burden, the system makes a desperate effort to dispose of it, and this extra work causes a weak feeling. Some who are continually overeating call this all-gone feeling hunger.”

Our nervous haste, our hurrying, twentieth-century life, with insufficient time for meals, recreation, and sleep, are well calculated to develop a habit of hasty eating, which is furthered by the habit of drinking at meals. In proportion as we bolt our food down, we destroy that sense which should warn us when we have had enough; hence hasty eaters damage themselves, not only by insufficient mastication, but also by excess of food. The variety and quantity of our foods and the hasty eating probably do more than anything else to break down the health.

We may discard the use of meat, tea, and coffee, but if we continue to have a large variety, including some poor combinations, some sloppy food, some rich desserts, and add to these haste in eating, we can hardly hope to reap anything but dyspepsia and all its attendant ills.

“Do not have too great a variety at a meal; three or four dishes are a plenty.”—Review and Herald, 1884, No. 31.