A Friend in the Kitchen; Or, What to Cook and How to Cook It. / Sixteenth Edition

by Anna L. Colcord

Animal food is one of the greatest means by which the pure sentiment of the race is depressed.—Alcott.

The candidates for ancient athletic games were dieted on boiled grain with warm water, cheese, and dried figs, but no meat. Modern athletes are not allowed meat while in training.

I have known men who prayed for a good temper in vain, until their physician proscribed eating so much meat; for they could not endure such stimulation.—Henry Ward Beecher.

The liability to disease is increased by flesh eating. Where plenty of good milk and fruit can be obtained, there is rarely any excuse for eating animal food.—“Christian Temperance.”

From the instruction given at the beginning respecting foods, it is evident the Creator did not design that either man or beast should subsist on flesh foods. To Adam and Eve he said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat.” Gen. 1:29, 30.

But sin brought many changes into our world, and because of the changed circumstances, customs, and practises were instituted and allowed which were not in harmony with the primeval order of things. Among other things meat eating was permitted. Just after the flood, when the face of the earth had been desolated, God said to Noah: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” Gen. 9:3. But the blood was not to be eaten with the flesh,—a very wise provision, for if there is any disease in the system, it is sure to be found in the blood.

A little later, as a further precaution in the interests of health, instruction was given that only the flesh of “clean beasts” was to be eaten, such as that of the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, etc. See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

But for all this it must be admitted that the flesh of animals is not a natural diet for man, nor does it constitute the most healthful food. Of this it may be truly said as Christ said of the granting of a writing of divorcement, it was suffered because of the “hardness” of their hearts, “but from the beginning it was not so.” Matt. 19:8. It was never intended that man should take the life of any innocent, living creature.

Meat eating tends to excite the passions. This is seen in the animal kingdom. The animals that are mild, patient, and docile are generally herbivorous, such as the cow, the sheep, the horse; while the excitable, quick-tempered, and ferocious animals are meat eaters, such as the lion, the tiger, the leopard. A meat diet also tends to constipation, the great scourge of the race.