In the last article the principle was stated that anything, the effect of which is only to stimulate, is not food, and therefore is not to be used all: and its correlative, that anything that carries with it any stimulant is not good food, and is therefore not to be used if it is possible to avoid it.
This is one of the reasons that flesh-meats are not good food. Flesh-meats have in them stimulating properties akin to those in tea, coffee, cocoa, etc. Perhaps we had better have the proofs of this statement, too, so here they are. The Encyclopedia Britannica, in discussing tea and its kindred stimulants, says:
The theobromine of cocoa is closely allied to theine, and the characteristic components of the extract of meat shows certain points of contact with these stimulant bodies.
And Dr. Foote writes on this point as follows:
All flesh contains excrementitious products, upon which depend its so-called stimulating properties, as well as the strong or distinct flavors which may take the flesh of the feeders. Those who are unaccustomed to the use of meat are, by its occasional use, noticeably stimulated by the so-called "extractive matters"--so-called because they can be extracted in the laboratory, though it is not possible to eliminate them from the butcher's meat.
The Abyssinians other tribes addicted to occasional gluttonous sprees, when they consume immense quantities of raw meat, have been observed to exhibit signs of intoxication, as if stimulated with wine. ...
It is a common observation that children are made restless, irritable, and quarrelsome by much meat-eating, due to the fact that they are very susceptible to it stimulating properties. ...
The origin, nature, and effects of ... these extractive matters ... are analogous to those of alcohol and ammonia. Every drop of venous blood is laden with them, so much so that if an animal is not well bled when it is killed, the meat is rendered quickly putrescent, and is not a safe food.
All waste products of living tissues, when applied to other living tissues, produce the effects which are called stimulating. To the hungry stomach and faint heart these affects give a sort of quick satisfaction, and this is soon followed by the more staying gratification of the real food properties of the meat. ...
Meat-eaters are generally impatient of any delay of their meals beyond the usual hours; they miss their accustomed stimulus at the expected time. The stimulating effects of meat are probably the cause of that habit of the system which makes it seem sometimes unwise as well as difficult to do without it. Those who are prompted by their finer feelings to rid themselves of what they have come to regard as a savage propensity, are often held in the strong bonds of appetite and habit, and reluctantly conclude that it will be "unnatural" for them to do without it.[1]
After these plain statements of scientific authorities as to the stimulating properties of flesh-meats, perhaps I may be allowed to present, without being counted an extremist on health reform or the Testimonies, the statement the Lord made to us thirty years ago, that "meat stimulates"[2]. And in view of the fact that so "high" an authority as the Britannica shows the stimulating effects of the extract of meat to be akin to the stimulating effects of tea and coffee, it may not be too "strong meat" to present a statement to the same effect upon the authority of the Lord from the Testimonies:
We do not hesitate to say that flesh meat is not necessary for health or strength. If used it is because a depraved appetite craves it. Its use excites the animal propensities to increased activity and strengthens the animal passions. When the animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers are decreased. The use of the flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of body and benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind.[3]
This and other statements concerning the injurious effects of flesh-meats are followed immediately with the statement of the injurious effects of tea and coffee. Thus these things are classed together in the Testimonies, just as they are by the scientific authority. And this was done for us thirty years ago.
Shall we, then, allow the evil effects of the stimulant in flesh-meats to hold us "in the strong bonds of appetite and habit," any more than we shall allow the kindred stimulants in tea and coffee and cocoa to hold and injure us? Not if we are to be temperate in all things; not if we are to practice temperance--self-control--indeed.
There is another thing which should be mentioned in this connection before we close,--a thing that makes me much more injurious than it would otherwise be, and much more injurious than it was in olden times. That is the way in which it is killed, and the length of time between the killing and the eating of it.
The way that animals are taken to market, the way that they are killed, the way that the meat is handled, and the length of time that it is kept after the animal is killed before the meat is sold,--all these things are only direct and positive means of manufacturing those "extractive matters" in which lie the stimulating properties. Besides, such usage puts the meat in a condition where the fiber of the meat itself begins to break down in the first stages of putrefaction; and to eat such meat is to take into the system that which can only load it with deadly humors. And this is the kind of meat that nine tenths of the people use meat, buy and eat.
Those who subsist largely upon flesh cannot avoid eating the meat of animals which are to a greater or less degree diseased. The process of fitting the animals for market produces in them disease; and fitted in as healthful a manner as they can be, they become heated and diseased by driving before they reach the market.
The fluids and flesh of these diseased animals are received directly into the blood, and pass into the circulation of the human body, becoming fluids and flesh of the same. Thus humors are introduced into the system. And if the person already has impure blood, it is greatly aggravated by eating of the flesh of these animals. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat-eating.[4]
Could you know just the nature of the meat you eat, could you see the animals when living from which the flesh is taken when dead, you would turn with loathing from your flesh meats. The very animals whose flesh you eat are frequently so diseased that, if left alone, they would die of themselves; but while the breath of life is in them, they are killed and brought to market. You take directly into your system humors and poison of the worst kind, and yet you realize it not.[5]
These statements could be abundantly corroborated from the writings of others; but what is the use of it? If a person will disregard the evidences here presented on this subject, he would disregard all the evidences that could possibly be brought together. The evidences here given clearly show that flesh-meats, cocoa, tea, and coffee form but a graduated scale of stimulants and intoxicants, and that flesh-meats, as they are today, are not the least injurious in the scale.
As true temperance is not to use any stimulants at all, it therefore excludes all foods which contain stimulants; consequently, true temperance excludes flesh-meats from dietetics.
Will the people who are preparing to become holy, pure, and refined, that they may be introduced into the society of heavenly angels, continue to take the life of God's creatures, and subsist on their flesh, and enjoy it as a luxury? From what God is shown me, this order of things will be changed, and God's peculiar people will exercise temperance in all things.[6]
There are other things yet to be named that are not good food; but we shall consider them later. In the meantime, be sure that in leaving off these things that are injurious, you do it by taking that which is good, and only good, and good for you.--Advent Review, June 14, 1898.
Notes: