Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

Healthful Cookery 625I have said to myself: I do not wonder at it. It is your manner ofpreparing food that makes it so unpalatable. To eat such food wouldcertainly give one the dyspepsia. These poor cooks, and those whohave to eat their food, will gravely tell you that the health reform doesnot agree with them. The stomach has not power to convert poor,heavy, sour bread into good; but this poor bread will convert a healthystomach into a diseased one. Those who eat such food know that theyare failing in strength. Is there not a cause? Some of these personscall themselves health reformers, but they are not. They do not knowhow to cook. They prepare cakes, potatoes, and graham bread, butthere is the same round, with scarcely a variation, and the system isnot strengthened. They seem to think the time wasted which is devoted [682]to obtaining a thorough experience in the preparation of healthful,palatable food. Some act as though that which they eat were lost, andanything they could toss into the stomach to fill it would do as well asfood prepared with so much painstaking. It is important that we relishthe food we eat. If we cannot do this, but eat mechanically, we fail tobe nourished and built up as we would be if we could enjoy the foodwe take into the stomach. We are composed of what we eat. In orderto 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 preparehealthful food in different ways, so that it may be eaten with enjoyment.Mothers should teach their children how to cook. What branch of theeducation of a young lady can be so important as this? The eatinghas to do with the life. Scanty, impoverished, ill-cooked food isconstantly depraving the blood by weakening the blood-making organs.It is highly essential that the art of cookery be considered one of themost important branches of education. There are but few good cooks.Young ladies consider that it is stooping to a menial office to becomea cook. This is not the case. They do not view the subject from a rightstandpoint. Knowledge of how to prepare food healthfully, especiallybread, is no mean science.In many families we find dyspeptics, and frequently the reason ofthis is the poor bread. The mistress of the house decides that it mustnot be thrown away, and they eat it. Is this the way to dispose of poorbread? Will you put it into the stomach to be converted into blood?