The Health Food Ministry

A Reformation Needed

Last week we had an important gathering at the sanitarium here, of our health food workers. I spoke to them on Sabbath, and on Sunday I addressed them for about an hour upon the subject of our restaurant work. I told them that there must be a thorough reformation in the health food business. It is not to be regarded so much as a commercial enterprise. At present but little is seen as the result of this work to lead us to recommend the establishment of more places to be conducted as our restaurants have been in the past. But few have been converted by this work in Los Angeles and in San Francisco. Many of the workers have lost the science of soul-saving. HFM 76.1

Please read carefully what is published in Testimonies, volume 7, regarding the health food work and the evangelical work. I feel more and more impressed that we must make diligent efforts to present the truth. I need not now write much regarding these lines of work, for the light has been in print for some time. But since these testimonies were published circumstances have arisen that reveal the necessity for the cautions that have been given. Health reform needs a reformation before it shall stand as God designs it should. We need to practice true godliness in every undertaking. In all the restaurants in our cities there is danger that the combination of many foods in the dishes served shall be carried too far. The stomach suffers when so many kinds of food are placed in it at one meal. Simplicity is a part of health reform. There is danger that our work shall cease to merit the name which it has borne. HFM 76.2

If we would work for the restoration of health it is necessary to restrain the appetite, to eat slowly, and only a limited variety at one time. This instruction needs to be repeated frequently. It is not in harmony with the principles of health reform to have so many different dishes at one meal. We must never forget that it is the religious part of the work, the work of providing food for the soul, that is more essential than anything else. HFM 76.3

Our young men and young women should be encouraged to attend schools away from the cities, that under intelligent teachers, they may receive a training that will fit them to stand on vantage ground. How can our young people advance spiritually, while working as servants simply to prepare food for and serve worldlings. They often do unnecessary work in the preparation of foods that are not even wholesome. Shall our youth be encouraged to rest satisfied with such an education? HFM 77.1

The Lord does not design that His denominated people shall exhaust their strength to carry on restaurants in the manner in which they are now conducted. The many complicated combinations of food that are not wholesome tend to make of the health reform a health deform. Letter 271, 1905 (written September 27, 1905). HFM 77.2