WHAT SHALL WE EAT? WHAT SHALL WE DRINK?
By B. F. Richards
A LIBERAL sprinkling of common sense with the food we eat, the fluid we drink, and the air we breathe, would save an untold amount of suffering, a world of inconvenience, and the lives of a nation. Man is made of food, water, and air, and every particle of these passes through the mouth and nostrils, which are the doors. Keep on the outside of the door every particle of unwholesome food, contaminated water, and impure air. Do not ever let them enter; for they are the lowest type of highway robbers, thugs, and hold-ups, bent on an errand of destruction and death. Were we to enter a shipyard where ships are in process of building, and there see the carpenters framing and mortising timbers that were decayed, worm-eaten, and in every way unfitted for their intended use, we should at once say, “Why, that ship will never stand the storms on the ocean for a single season!” Why do we come to this conclusion?—Because the material from which the ship is made was decayed, rotten, and worthless before it entered into the construction of the vessel. We are vessels on the ocean of life, confronted with dangers and perils of a very hazardous nature, exposed in calm as well as in storm, by both day and night, whether awake or asleep; hence the importance of personally inspecting the material that is used in building this body of ours and keeping it in good repair. Let us notice the attention we give to the horse, and watch the results of our labor. We groom him daily, from the tip of his ear to the ends of hoofs and tail; we give him water to drink at least three times each day, and more frequently six times; we give him his grain by actual measure, and as an extra precaution lock the grain box, or secure it in some other way, so the horse can not, if he should get loose, go to the bin and founder himself by overeating. Turn him out in the lot, or hitch him to the buggy, and notice the grace and ease of his movements. The horse looks well, acts well, and is well, because proper care has been given to his body in keeping it clean, and to the quantity and quality of his food and drink. There are valuable lessons to be learned from the care we give our dumb animals; for the same attention given to ourselves will secure us, as a reward, a healthy body, a sound mind, and many happy days. What shall we eat and drink? has become an all-important and perplexing question, notwithstanding the direct command given by the great God, the Maker of all things, that we should not be anxious about our lives in regard to what we eat or drink. Matt. 6: 25. But, regardless of command, the human family have gone on disobeying and violating the laws relating to the body, so that to-day we are a nation of dyspeptics, reaping a crop of misery and pain, natural results from seed of our own planting. We do not receive health and strength from the food eaten, but from the food digested. So every particle of food left in the stomach that can not be taken care of by the system, will sour and decay; and sour or decayed matter is the same in the stomach as it is in any other place,—it is full of death and destruction, never quiet, but dealing out, with a heavy hand, deadly germs that travel through every portion of the body, leaving their poison all along their trail. The sin of the age is overeating and gluttony. So voracious have we become as a nation, so rapidly do we devour our food, that it would almost seem that we think our very lives depend on removing it from the plate to the stomach in the shortest time possible. We do not stop to consider that there is a very important station between, known as the mouth, in which every particle of food should pass through a rigid milling process, being ground and pulverized with the teeth; and, while the mill is grinding, the food is becoming saturated with the first and very important digestive fluid, called saliva, which has a prominent part to act in the digesting of starch foods and in inducing the stomach to secrete its gastric juice. The classification of foods should be known by every person; for a large per cent. of suffering is caused by not knowing that foods are like people, and do not, and will not, agree with each other. So foods that are antagonistic to each other should be kept apart, and not brought together at the same meal. Fruits, grains, and nuts are of a peaceable family, and will agree in one meal; but when taken with vegetables, a quarrel will usually occur. Grains and nuts with vegetables will agree if properly cooked and masticated; but for the safety and comfort of the persons eating such a meal, it is not best to take fruit, for fruit and vegetables are more often in war than in peace with each other. The acid in the fruit and the starch in the vegetable make yeast when brought together in a warm place. Yeast is leaven, and a “little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” B. F. RICHARDS.
San Francisco, Cal.