Practically applied physiology is what is evidently meant by the following statement in the book, "Counsels on Diet and Foods:" "Since the laws of nature are the laws of God, it is plainly our duty to give these laws careful study. We should study their requirements in regard to our own bodies, and conform to them. Ignorance in these things is sin."—Page 18. This section in the book is not a study of the names of structures and organs, and their size and location, but a study of function uses. A new kind of school physiology will need to be written for such a study as this. But the material is very abundant today.
There is a wealth of research material delving into the laws of our being—what habits of life (in eating, drinking, working, resting, sanitation, etc.) cause disease, and what habits and practices maintain or restore health and give abounding energy of mind and body. Such studies are not dull and tedious memory exercises, but are alive and keenly interesting. The laws of physiology are more marvelous than electricity, radio, or light, and really more important than any other science—or all other sciences.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Without health and vigor of mind, we lose the most important of life's opportunities. This duty to study the laws of physiology, to apply them and conform our habits of life to them, is certainly not confined to physicians, nurses, teachers, or ministers. It is every man's duty, and especially the duty of every Christian. "Ignorance in these things is sin." Are we free from this sin of ignorance? Have we as leaders and teachers embraced every opportunity to learn for ourselves, and embraced every opportunity to teach these laws of life to others? In this knowledge, are Seventh-day Adventists "as far ahead of any other class of people on th.e earth, as their profession is more exalted than that of others"?—"Counsels on Diet and Foods," p. 25. These are questions which we may very properly ask ourselves, and especially we who are teachers of God's people.
What textbooks shall I get to carry on these studies? First of all is the divinely given guide to such studies, "Counsels on Diet and Foods," the one we are studying in the 1939 Ministerial Reading Course. Is this enough? Does it contain these "laws of physiology" which we are told it is our duty to study? Personally, I shall ever remain thankful that Dr. David Paulson years ago gave the incentive to study researches in physiology when he started us out as medical students with the "Work of the Digestive Glands" by Pavlov, the great Russian physiologist. Since then I treasure with care the many books on physiologic research which I have marked from cover to cover.
Physiologic Research Sources
For our present study, one or two will largely suffice. "Food and Health" by H. C. Sherman is brief and excellent. "The Foundations of Nutrition" by Mary Swartz Rose is more comprehensive and most interesting, especially in regard to the vitamins. "How to Live" by Fisher and Fisk, in addition to discussing food and drink, covers other habits bearing on health. The work of Chittenden, Newburg, Hindhede, and others that might be named, reveals quite fully and conclusively the needlessness and the harm of meat eating. Some information on this subject is well given in "The Fleshless Diet" by Buttner, which is now out of print. My conclusions from these researches have been gathered into one small book, called "High Blood Pressure and Degenerative Disease." With it, and either Sherman or Rose, the scientific research bearing on this study of the testimonies on diet and food will be largely covered.
It is designed that the series of articles now appealing in this section each month shall, as far as possible, and as space permits, give these laws of physiology. In some cases a very full physiologic explanation is given by the research ; in others, science is a side light only, or touches the Testimony statement as it were at a single point. As must be expected, many unknown facts as well as those which are known, may have a bearing on advice given or the effects stated. Present knowledge, we know, is still very incomplete. Indeed, we hear but "a whisper of His power." The effects of malnutrition on mental activity and spiritual development, for instance, are very inadequately known to human science and cannot be demonstrated by animal experiments.
Since we began the study of the Testimonies on health thirty-five years ago, many obscure and scientifically unexplained statements have been made clear. Facts given us by revelation have been demonstrated'' by science. Not a single one, rightly understood, has ever been proved false by true science. Incomplete knowledge has often been the basis of doubt. The importance of fruit, vegetables, and whole-grain breads in the diet has now been the subject of the most extensive research which throws a flood of light upon the health principles given this people by the Spirit of prophecy so many years ago. This is accompanied by so many details of vast and crucial importance to health as to be marvelous almost beyond our comprehension.
Some took extreme views regarding warnings of the harmfulness of certain foods and the transmission of infectious disease by certain animal products. This only served to emphasize Testimony statements which revealed a knowledge wholly unknown to the science of the day in which it was given, but since that time amply demonstrated and fully confirmed by numerous successive researches. In one case one of these statements was written to correct a condition which produced a serious disease. A scientific demonstration thirty years later confirmed the testimony and gave the reasons. Since one after another of these principles of diet has been so fully revealed by the research of later years, may we not gather added confidence in these health messages to place beside our faith in the divine leadership of this last-day movement and its right arm—"to make plain natural law and to urge the obedience of it"?
