Those who try to conform their habits of eating to right principles may often be inclined to think of appetite as something to be controlled, curbed, or denied. But perhaps they do not stop to think that God did not originally give man any natural desire that would lead him astray. Instead, the sense of taste was very evidently given both for our good and for our enjoyment.
Through Moses, God told Israel, "I am come . . . to bring them . . . unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Ex. 3:8. And again, "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, . . . a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey." Dent. 8:7, 8. Speaking of God's goodness to men, David says, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things." Ps. 103 :5. Of even the manna about which the children of Israel complained, "Our soul loatheth this light bread," it is said, "The taste of it was like wafers made with honey." Ex. 16:31, "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food."
Surely what God originally provided for man's food must have been most appetizing and much more pleasing to the sight and taste than any of the unnatural, artificial dishes or viands ever produced by human culinary art. Is it not proper to ask if there is not some way whereby our appetites, if perverted, may be corrected, and whereby we may really come to like best the food God originally provided?
Medical experience leads me to believe that a diet deficient in certain elements supplied in abundance by the diet the Creator originally provided for man, leaves an unsatisfied hunger because of this very deficiency. This craving is often, yes usually, misinterpreted, either because of custom or ignorance of the body needs. Often the craving seems to call for meats or sweetmeats, confections, or sweet desserts. That the craving is the expression of an entirely different need brought about by an inadequate or unbalanced dietary, may not occur to those who lack the background for correct interpretation.
Ten years ago there came an experience which seemed a key to the solution of this problem, and a very pleasing answer it was to the question of how appetite may be made a guide to what is good instead of a craving for that which is not good. Our staff at the Washington Sanitarium found it first in 1928 in the experiences related by some who were on an experimental alkalinizing diet. The desire to overeat disappeared, and especially the desire for sweets. Shortly after this, in making practical use of the knowledge gained by this experiment, I lost my own appetite for candies and sweets.
Of late years, we are inclined to believe that a chief reason for a perverted appetite is the lack of a normal supply of vitamins and mineral salts in the diet of .a large majority of vegetarians as well as of meat eaters. Animal-feeding experiments have shown that a large volume of "protective" foods is really needed to ensure full physiologic health. These experiences, together with Sherman's statement of the high proportion of such foods needed in the daily diet, have confirmed our opinions.
Healthful Dietary Habits
In the last four years, experiences with patients have opened up another field of this sort. While taking postgraduate work in New York last year, one of our physicians spent some time in the New York Lying-In Hospital, where they had been paying particular attention to diet. Prospectiye mothers were required to use a large proportion of fruits and vegetables. The occurrence of eclampsia was so rare that interns got almost no experience in the treatment of this dangerous and baffling disease.
Having secured a high degree of cooperation in this prenatal diet program during the last few years, it has been gratifying to hear many young mothers say they have permanently adopted the diet because they have felt so much better while on it. Meat is used very much less, and bread and eggs have been kept within a good balance. Some husbands have also changed their dietary habits, and report that they, too, now enjoy the more healthful dietary which hinders the formation of a perverted appetite.
May it not be proper to conclude that when we conform our habits to scientifically determined physiologic needs, the appetite thereby becomes restored to normalcy, under which condition there is no craving for foods known to be unphysiologic? Such an experience gives one added assurance that he is at least on right lines. It is not only that right desires and determinations result in obedience to physiologic laws, but that obedience in turn results in right desires and appetites. Surely there are yet larger lessons to learn from the interrelationship of all divinely instituted provisions for man's health and salvation.
