HEALTH by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 27, 1879

HEALTH

By R. F. Cottrell

AGAIN I wish to express my decided belief, founded upon obvious scientific facts and testimonies of the Spirit, and confirmed by experience, that a plain diet of grains, fruits, and vegetables, prepared in the most simple manner, free from grease and other condiments, is the best and most wholesome, and will richly repay us for all the self-denial it costs, in exemption from colds and pains, and distressing ailments of numerous kinds.

No one can give specific rules to regulate diet under all circumstances. All are left free to act for themselves. But it is our wisdom to act according to our best light. If we believe the testimony that animal food is not the best, it becomes us to act in accordance with this faith. If the meat-eater is more liable to disease, even to a tenfold degree if he eats largely of it, then it certainly is our interest, to choose a more healthful diet. It is certainly best to prefer life to death, and health to disease.

The testimony of those who have thoroughly tested the effect of both animal and vegetable diet, ought to have some weight. For myself, while others are suffering from severe colds, I still am exempt. Not that I do not take colds at all, but they do not abide with me; they go as readily as they come. And rheumatic and neuralgic pains and troubles, with which I have been acquainted in former times, have left me, so that I only remember them as things long since passed away.

As a people professing the faith which we do, it is my settled judgment that we ought to make progress toward a pure diet of grains, fruits, and vegetables, free from animal fat and other condiments. Butter cooked in food is much worse than it is when spread upon our bread, and eaten in its natural state. The less of it in any way, the better. R. F. COTTRELL.