308
Counsels on Diet and Foods
dress it, and to care for it, saying, “To you it shall be for meat.” One
animal was not to destroy another animal for food.—
Letter 72, 1896
704. Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at
second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition
that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and vegetables
passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal.
How much better to get it direct by eating the food that God provided
for our use!—
The Ministry of Healing, 313, 1905
Meat a Typical Stimulant
705. When the use of flesh food is discontinued, there is often
a sense of weakness, a lack of vigor. Many urge this as evidence
that flesh food is essential; but it is because foods of this class are
stimulating, because they fever the blood and excite the nerves, that
they are so missed. Some will find it as difficult to leave off flesh
[397]
eating as it is for the drunkard to give up his dram; but they will be the
better for the change.—
The Ministry of Healing, 316, 1905
[
See also 61
]
706. Flesh food also is harmful. Its naturally stimulating effect
should be a sufficient argument against its use; and the almost univer-
sally diseased condition of animals makes it doubly objectionable. It
tends to irritate the nerves and to excite the passions, thus giving the
balance of power to the lower propensities.—
Education, 203, 1903
707. I was somewhat surprised at your argument as to why a
meat-eating diet kept you in strength, for, if you put yourself out of
the question, your reason will teach you that a meat diet is not of as
much advantage as you suppose. You know how you would answer
a tobacco devotee if he urged, as a plea for the use of tobacco, the
arguments you have advanced as a reason why you should continue
the use of the flesh of dead animals as food.
The weakness you experience without the use of meat is one of
the strongest arguments I could present to you as a reason why you
should discontinue its use. Those who eat meat feel stimulated after
eating this food, and they suppose they are made stronger. After one
discontinues the use of meat, he may for a time feel a weakness, but
when his system is cleansed from the effect of this diet, he no longer