p. 3 | CHOOSING A DIET by John Harvey Kellogg

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 26, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 17.

CHOOSING A DIET.

By John Harvey Kellogg

WHEN the Lord gave instructions to one of old concerning her diet, He said: "Drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing." Judges 13:4. In those days there was a plain line of distinction drawn between two classes of animals, the clean and the unclean. In these days, many of those animals that were once designated as clean, have come into a condition which the world generally recognizes as unclean, tho men still continue to partake of their flesh. If a "clean" diet was necessary then, when the persons of the eaters were in a much healthier condition than now, how much more essential is it to health that we have a clean dietary now.

The movement toward a reform in diet is a most commendable one, and it is a pleasure to note the fact that the movement is growing in strength and influence. Vegetarian restaurants are increasing in number in our large cities, and vegetarian societies are increasing in membership.

With the multiplication of diseases in all the animal kingdom, and the liability of their transmission to the human body by eating the unhealthy food, this growing influence in favor of the no-meat diet is refreshing indeed. It is

too much to hope for that there will be any sudden and overwhelming change in this regard. Human nature is more prone to pander to appetite than to follow knowledge, where appetite must be curbed.

Like all good things, this work of reform is occasionally injured in the house of its friends, by those who do not know how to temper zeal with knowledge. The extremist is bound to get into trouble, no matter with what good movement he may associate himself. Not long ago a college student practically starved himself on a very meager diet, and the case was given much unfavorable comment by the daily press, unfriendly to the rational diet. These organs took occasion to show the necessity for an unstinted meat dietary, where intellectual activity is required. As a matter of fact, there is a class of literature being produced at the present time that does require a strong meat diet, with tobacco and liquor adjuncts; but it is a literature as unwholesome to the mind as the diet itself is to the body; and the flagging imagination is being whipped up to the sensational task by these health- and mind-destroying stimulants. Good, plain, wholesome food is not relished by the one who continually flavors his food with hot spices or tabasco sauce; and good, wholesome, elevating reading is insipid to the mind fed on a literature which such a diet begets.

The blood of the human being, loaded down with the impurities contained in the meat he has eaten, can not generate the highest, purest thoughts in the brain to which it is sent. If we saturate the system with intoxicants, the brain registers the fact at once. Inhale coal gas, and the head "swims." The influence of the epicurean diet is not so rapid or so noticeable, but it is none the less certain. Poisoned blood can not make a healthy brain; and an unhealthy brain can not produce the most elevating and purest thoughts. The alcoholic stomach does not crave pure water; the tobacco-, liquor-, and meat-poisoned brain does not crave solid, serious, helpful literature. The food of Eden was a pure food, with no suggestion of flesh of any kind; and the food of Eden restored, will be as pure as that of the Eden lost. Nowhere in the Bible is there any hint that man shall live upon the flesh of other creatures, when sin has been purged from the universe of God. Flesh-eating is one of the results of sin. It will not be found when sin is no more; and they who are wise, who are seeking to put away sinful tendencies, will not cling to this sin-breeding child of sin.

On the other hand, we are told something of what will be the food of man when redemption is complete. First, and most important, they shall "eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." Rev. 2:7. "They shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them." Amos 9:14. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord." Isa. 65:25. Flesh shall not feed upon flesh there, nor life be sacrificed to sustain other life; but all will be peace and joy and satisfaction. For the good of His people there, God will feed them upon the fruits of the earth. If such a diet is good for man when sin has run its course, it certainly is good for man while still suffering from the results of sin. There never was a time in the history of the world when we needed pure food so much as in this generation; and there never was a time when so much of the food eaten by man in general was more impure than it is now. He who would have pure health now can not afford to load down his system, through the food he eats, with the impurities and diseases of other creatures. If you would choose health, then choose the diet that has in it the least of disease, the diet planned for man by Him who knows man's needs more perfectly than man himself can possibly know them. S.