THE INFLUENCE OF DIET ON MEN AND NATIONS.
By G. T. Wilson
DIET has its moral as well as its physical effects on us, and so in our home life we are greatly influenced by what we eat and drink. This question of eating and drinking is therefore of great importance to the Christian. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17. Our Saviour said we were not to say, “What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Where-withal shall we be clothed? . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:31-33. Again, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of13God.” 1 Cor. 10:31. And in the ladder to Christian sanctification, mentioned in 2 Peter 1:4-8, the next step from temperance is patience, and the next step upward is godliness. So the only way to be patient is to be temperate in all things; and we can not be godly unless we are patient. Thus diet affects a man’s Christian character. We do not look for a drunkard to be a patient man, but it has occurred to me that if men, women, or children put into their stomachs pepper, mustard, strong vinegar, and other condiments, with large quantities of meat and other stimulating foods, which tend to irritate the delicate nerves of the digestive organs, they will manifest a tendency to get angry at trifling things, and make themselves and those around them unhappy. In harmony with this I have heard mothers say, “Meat makes my children very irritable and cross, and I find I can manage them better when they do not have it.” Said a mother to me not long ago, “Since my children have given up meat, they are much sweeter-tempered.” I was pleased to find the other day the following extract, bearing on this subject:— Ill-temper a Symptom of Excessive Meat-eating.
One deplorable result of excessive meat-eating in England is the ill-temper which is a chronic moral complaint among us. In no country, I believe, is home rendered so unhappy and life made so miserable by the ill-temper of those who are obliged to live together as in England. To everybody who reads these lines, examples will occur of homes which are rendered quite unnecessarily unhappy, when they might be happy, by the moroseness and rudeness of the head of the family, by the peevishness of the wife, or by the quarreling of the younger members. If we compare domestic life and manners in England with those in other countries where meat does not form such an integral article of diet, a notable improvement will be remarked. . . . In fish-eating Japan, harsh words are unknown, and an exquisite politeness to one another prevails even among the children who play together in the streets. In Japan I never heard rude, angry words spoken by any but Englishmen. I am strongly of the opinion that the ill-temper of the English is caused in a great measure by a too abundant meat dietary, combined with a too sedentary life. The half-oxidized products of albumen form urates and uric acid, and these, circulating in the blood, produce both mental and moral disturbances.—Mrs. Ernest Hart, in “Diet in Sickness and Health,” pp. 56, 57, pub. London, 1895.