We have found that one of the vital principles of true health reform is to eat that which is good, rather than merely to do without that which is not good,--that it is not health reform to stop the use of what is not good, unless that which is good is put in its place. And that is because an impoverished diet, even of things that are not injurious in themselves, has the same effect as a diet of those things that are, of themselves, not good. And it is but proper to say that good cooking of the things that are good in themselves is an essential in the carrying out of this principle.
In putting into the dietary what is good in the place of what is not good, the attempt is a failure if that which is good in itself it not well cooked, or otherwise well prepared if it does not need to be cooked. That which is good in itself may be so poorly prepared as to cause it to be really injurious. And material that, in itself, is not good, may be so well prepared as to be really better food than material that, in itself, is far better, but is poorly prepared.
For instance, fine-flour bread is not so good as graham or whole-wheat bread; yet light, well-baked, fine-flour bread is far better than heavy, poorly baked graham or whole-wheat bread. Yet it is a fact that too many people who could make good, light, fine-flour bread have attempted to be health reformers, and to make their families health reformers, by leaving off the use of this fine-flour bread, and proposing to put in its place graham bread or "gems," so heavy, and many times even so sour, as to be unfit for any use in the world. And all this because "the Testimonies say" that "fine-flour bread can not impart to the system the nourishment that you will find in unbolted wheat bread."
But this is not health reform in any sense. Light, well-baked, fine-flour bread is far better than is heavy, poorly baked bread of graham or any other kind of flour. And bread that is sour should never be put on the table in any form or for any purpose. The only thing to do with sour bread is to throw it away. Nor is it any waste to throw it away. The eating of sour bread is the greatest possible waste that there can be about it. Yea, that is worse than waste--it is injury. No bread at all is better than sour bread.
It is much the same, also, with that stuff (probably we have all seen it) which is called graham bread, or "gems," and which, though not exactly sour, is so heavy as to be turned back to dough, rather than to anything else, by eating. It is true that the Testimonies say that:
Fine-flour bread can not impart to the system the nourishment that you will find in the unbolted wheat bread...the common use of bolted wheat bread can not keep the system in a healthy condition.[1]
And they say a good deal more than this. It may be well to set down here some of the main points in this matter, in addition to what is so often quoted in justification of the use of graham bread of the sort we have mentioned. Here it is:
Because it is wrong to cook merely to please the taste, or to suit the appetite, no one should entertain the idea that an impoverished diet is right. Many are debilitated with disease, and need a nourishing, plentiful, well-cooked diet.
We frequently find graham bread heavy, sour, and but partially baked. This is for want of interest to learn, and care to perform, the important duty of cook.
Sometimes we find gem cakes, or soft biscuit, dried, not baked, and other things after the same order. And then cooks will tell you they can do very well in the old style of cooking, but, to tell the truth, their families do not like graham bread; that they would starve to live in this way.
I have said to myself, I do not wonder at it. It is your manner of preparing food that makes it so unpalatable. To eat such food would certainly give one the dyspepsia.
These poor cooks, and those who have to eat their food, will gravely tell you that the health reform does not agree with them. The stomach has not power to convert poor, heavy, sour bread into good; but this poor bread will convert a healthy stomach into a diseased one. Those who eat such food know that they are failing in strength. Is there not a cause?
Some of these persons call themselves health reformers, but they are not. They do not know how to cook. They prepare cakes, potatoes, and graham bread, but there is the same round, with scarcely a variation, and the system is not strengthened. They seem to think the time wasted which is devoted to obtaining a thorough experience in the preparation of healthful, palatable food. Some act as though that which they eat were lost, and anything they could toss into the stomach to fill it would do as well as food prepared with so much painstaking.
It is important that we relish the food we eat. If we cannot do this, but eat mechanically, we fail to be nourished and built up as we would be if we could enjoy the food we take into the stomach. We are composed of what we eat. In order to make a good quality of blood, we must have the right kind of food, prepared in a right manner.
It is a religious duty for those who cook to learn how to prepare healthful food in different ways, so that it may be eaten with enjoyment. Mothers should teach their children how to cook. What branch of the education of a young lady can be so important as this? The eating has to do with the life. Scanty, impoverished, ill-cooked food is constantly depraving the blood by weakening the blood-making organs.
It is highly essential that the art of cookery be considered one of the most important branches of education. There are but few good cooks. Young ladies consider that it is stooping to a menial office to become a cook. This is not the case. They do not view the subject from a right standpoint. Knowledge of how to prepare food healthfully, especially bread, is no mean science.
In many families we find dyspeptics, and frequently the reason of this is the poor bread. The mistress of the house decides that it must not be thrown away, and they eat it. Is this the way to dispose of poor bread? Will you put it into the stomach to be converted into blood? Has the stomach power to make sour bread sweet? heavy bread light? moldy bread fresh? ...
Many a wife and mother who has not had the right education and lacks skill in the cooking department is daily presenting her family with ill-prepared food which is steadily and surely destroying the digestive organs, making a poor quality of blood, and frequently bringing on acute attacks of inflammatory disease and causing premature death. Many have been brought to their death by eating heavy, sour bread.
An instance was related to me of a hired girl who made a batch of sour, heavy bread. In order to get rid of it and conceal the matter, she threw it to a couple of very large hogs. Next morning the man of the house found his swine dead, and, upon examining the trough, found pieces of this heavy bread. He made inquiries, and the girl acknowledged what she had done. She had not a thought of the effect of such bread upon the swine. If heavy, sour bread will kill swine, which can devour rattlesnakes and almost every detestable thing, what effect will it have upon that tender organ, the human stomach?
It is a religious duty for every Christian girl and woman to learn at once to make good, sweet, light bread from unbolted wheat flour.[2]
The point in all this is: Do not try to make health-reform foods take the place of the old until they are at least as well prepared as the old. If the old were well prepared, and the new are as well prepared, the new will always be better than the old.
It is true, and experience will demonstrate it every time, that when the health-reform dietary is as well prepared as the old, it will always be not only accepted, but freely chosen, instead of the old.
I have seen families who despised the thought of Seventh-day Adventists, and hated the name of health reform, won to a full health-reform dietary, simply by the wisdom and tact of the faithful wife in putting on the table, along with the other foods, the health foods brightly prepared. In a little while the health foods were so freely chosen that the old kinds were not wanted at all, and so found no place.
These changes should be made cautiously, and the subject should be treated in a manner not calculated to discussed and prejudice those whom we would teach and help.[3]
Having found in the list of what is good, that which is good for you, and having prepared it in a healthful and inviting manner, then thank the Lord for it, cast off all care and anxious thought, and eat with a cheerful heart; and then, having so eaten it, let it alone. For if you do not let it alone, it will hurt you. Of all the times that food should be let alone, it is after is eaten. On this point I can do no better than to quote the words of the Testimonies. So here they are:
Exercise will aid the work of digestion. To walk out after a meal, hold the head erect, put back the shoulders, and exercise moderately, will be a great benefit. The mind will be diverted from self to the beauties of nature. The less the attention is called to the stomach after a meal, the better. If you are in constant fear that your food will hurt you, it most assuredly will. Forget self, and think of something cheerful.[4]
And again we read:
You ... keep thinking on what you eat and drink. Just eat that which is for the best, and go right away, feeling clear in the sight of Heaven, and not having remorse of conscience.[5]
This closes the series of lessons on health and temperance, that we have been studying together. There has been no effort to treat the subject exhaustively, or even fully. All that has been attempted is simply to set forth the principles, with sufficient other matter to make clear the application of the principles, in order that all may see that the health reform is as simple as any other of the Christian principles.
I know that if these principles are studied, and carefully applied by faith in Jesus Christ, who is the Author of all right principles, nothing but the best of health can possibly follow. And thus will be fulfilled in all the "wish" that, "above all things, you may prosper in be in health." (3 John 1:2)
So we may close were we began, with the statement that all health reform, with all good health, is contained in this simple statement:
• Find out all that you can as to what is good food.
• Then find in this list what is good food for you, then cook it well, or otherwise prepare it in an inviting form.
• Then thank the Lord for it, and ask Him to bless it to your good.
• Then eat it with a glad heart.
• Then let it alone. And breathe right.
Do these things by true faith in Jesus, and you will be all right. Let us all do these things by true faith in Jesus,
" For whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23),
--and we shall all be all right. Then we shall be healthy and tem-perate indeed, and so be true health reformers.--Advent Review, July 5 & 12, 1898.
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