We can ask again; how did we get to this point of widespread chronic diseases and obesity? Didn’t our ancestors know how to eat and how to have healthy children?
In order for the industrial food industry to have the much-needed authority, old ancestral knowledge of food use and preparation had to be depicted as primitive.
I thought I finished with the official players in the “bad diet advice” business. However, intriguing facts of the even more distant past, will create a fascinating continuous story line. I just could not resist.
In the previous blogs I mentioned Ancel Keys (Mr Cholesterol) as the promoter of the “saturated fat bad, meat bad” narrative. However, he was standing on the shoulders of a religious force that still determines our dietary guidelines.
Many powerful leaders knew that the biggest threat to any system is a new powerful ideology. If it also manages to convince people that it comes from God, the old system is doomed.
Dietary advice created by the interpreters of the needs of the Creator
First off, I must mention a Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) who in order to control lustful thoughts and action prescribed a high-fiber vegetarian diet. He also promoted bread rich in fiber, that lead to the creation of crackers, cookies and the like. Apparently, he died age 57, as an angry, lonely man. Some say this could be the result of protein deficiency and unstable blood sugar. His teachings were further expanded by the most important force in today’s dietary narrative; the Seventh-day Adventist church.
The Church
Two biographies connected to the Church, that must be researched if you wish to understand our dietary guidelines are: the “prophetess of Health” Ellen G. White (1827-1915) and John H. Kellogg (1852-1943), the spiritual and material might behind the creation of modern-day food industry. They maintained that only a diet without animal products can lead one to the Creator. One must then eat, a “garden of Eden” diet. I wonder how they missed the story of Cain and Able.
Cain was a farmer and Abel a shepherd. They brought an offering unto the lord. Cain the fruits of the ground and Abel the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. God had no respect for Cain and his offering. For some unexplained reason the vegetarian kills his own meat-eating brother.
The food industry
To make it easier for the plebs they created and later manufactured substitutes to animal products. In comes the sugared breakfast serials fortified with fiber, breakfast bars, peanut butter spreads, soy and almond milk and protein energy drinks. All on the road to meet the Creator, no matter how obese or sick we are.
Mr Kellogg had a very interesting prescription for health: Course vegetarian diet, one to three ounces (28-85g) of bran daily, and paraffin oil with every meal.
Paraffin oil to the rescue
The paraffin (lamp oil) was needed as a laxative and lubricant for the large stools and its side effects; haemorrhoids, anal lacerations and general pain when defecating.
You will say, come on, we have gone a long way since then. Yes, we certainly have, but the Adventist mind set has been with us for the journey as well. There is now a new addition or spin to the vegetarian diet. We must stop eating animal products, in order to save the planet.
The above may serve well as an intro to the fascinating world of dietary narrative creation.
Two quotes from Ellen G. White:
“The health food business… is to supply the people with food which will take the place of flesh meat, and also milk and butter….”
“Our fare is simple and wholesome. We have on our table no butter, no meat, no cheese, no greasy mixtures of food. Food should be prepared in as simple a manner as possible, free from an undue amount of salt.”
I would also recommend the in-depth research of this topic by Belinda Fettke at: https://www.isupportgary.com/articles/seventh-day-adventist-plant-based-nutrition
“People are destroyed for lack of knowledge”