Healthful Living
Effects of Meat Eating
Physical Effects
443. We do not hesitate to say that flesh meat is not necessary for health or strength.—Testimonies for the Church 2:63. HL 98.2
444. One of the great errors that many insist upon is that muscular strength is dependent upon animal food. But the simple grains, fruits of the trees, and vegetables have all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 98.3
445. Speaking in support of this diet, they said that without it they were weak in physical strength. But the words of our Teacher to us were, “As a man thinketh, so is he.” The flesh of dead animals was not the original food for man. Man was permitted to eat it after the flood, because all vegetation had been destroyed.... Since the flood the human race has been shortening the period of its existence. Physical, mental, and moral degeneracy is rapidly increasing in these last days.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 11, 1897. HL 98.4
446. The weakness experienced on leaving off meat is one of the strongest arguments that I could present as a reason why you should discontinue its use. Those who eat meat feel stimulated after eating this food, and they suppose that they are made stronger. After they discontinue the use of meat, they may for a time feel weak, but when the system is cleansed from the effect of this diet, they no longer feel the weakness, and will cease to wish for that for which they have pleaded as essential to strength.—Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896. HL 98.5
447. You may think that you cannot work without meat; I thought so once, but I know that in his original plan God did not provide for the use of the flesh of dead animals as a diet for man. It is a gross, perverted taste that will accept such food. To think of dead flesh rotting in the stomach is revolting.—Unpublished Testimonies, February 17, 1884. HL 99.1
448. The eating of flesh meats has made a poor quality of blood and flesh. Your systems are in a state of inflammation, prepared to take on disease. You are liable to acute attacks of disease, and to sudden death, because you do not possess the strength of constitution to rally and resist disease.—Testimonies for the Church 2:61. HL 99.2
449. The physical powers are depreciated by the habitual use of flesh meat. Meat eating deranges the system.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 99.3
450. The use of the flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of the body.—Testimonies for the Church 2:63. HL 99.4
451. Their meat diet, which was supposed to be essential, was not necessary, and as they were composed of what they ate, brain, bone, and muscle were in an unwholesome condition because they lived on the flesh of dead animals. Their blood was being corrupted by this improper diet. The flesh which they ate was diseased, and their entire system was becoming gross and corrupted.—Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896. HL 99.5
452. When we feed on flesh, the juices of what we eat pass into the circulation. A feverish condition is created, because the animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissue and blood. Then, when exposed to the changes of a malarious atmosphere, to prevailing epidemics and contagious diseases, these are more sensibly felt, for the system is not in a condition to resist disease.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 100.1
453. Because those who partake of animal food do not immediately feel its effects, is no evidence that it does not injure them. It may be doing its work surely upon the system, and yet the persons for the time being realize nothing of it.—How to Live 1:59. HL 100.2
454. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat eating.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 100.3
455. The practise of eating largely of meat is causing diseases of all kinds,—cancers, tumors, scrofula, tuberculosis, and other like affections.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 11, 1897. HL 100.4
456. The mortality caused by meat eating is not discerned. If it were, we should hear no arguments and excuses in favor of the indulgence of the appetite for dead flesh.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 100.5
457. Her system is full of scrofulous humors from the eating of flesh meats. The use of swine's flesh in your family has imparted a bad quality of blood.—Testimonies for the Church 2:62. HL 100.6
458. Cancers, tumors, and various other inflammatory diseases are largely caused by meat eating. From the light which God has given me, the prevalence of cancers and tumors is largely due to gross living on dead flesh.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 100.7
459. Cancers, tumors, diseases of the lungs, the liver, and the kidneys, all exist in the animals that are used for food.—Unpublished Testimonies, March, 1896. HL 101.1
460. When a limb is broken, physicians, recommend their patients not to eat meat, as there would be danger of inflammation's setting in.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 101.2
Mental and Moral Effects
461. If we subsist largely upon the flesh of dead animals, we shall partake of their nature.—Testimonies for the Church 2:61. HL 101.3
462. A meat diet changes the disposition, and strengthens animalism.... To educate your children to subsist on a meat diet would be harmful to them.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 101.4
463. Its use excites the animal propensities to increased activity, and strengthens the animal passions. When the animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers are decreased. The use of the flesh of animals ... benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind.—Testimonies for the Church 2:63. HL 101.5
464. It is impossible for those who make free use of flesh meats to have an unclouded brain and an active intellect.—Testimonies for the Church 2:62. HL 101.6
465. Eating much flesh will diminish intellectual activity. Students would accomplish much more in their studies if they never tasted meat. When the animal part of the human nature is strengthened by meat eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 101.7
466. Meat eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 102.1
467. Such a diet contaminates the blood and stimulates the lower passions. It prevents vigor of thought and enfeebles the perceptions, so that God and the truth are not understood.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 11, 1897. HL 102.2
Spiritual Effects
468. O, if every one could discern these matters as they have been presented to me, those who are so careless, so indifferent in regard to their character building, those who plead for indulgence in a flesh-meat diet, would never open their lips in justification of an appetite for the flesh of dead animals.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 11, 1897. HL 102.3
469. A religious life can be more successfully attained and maintained if meat is discarded; for this diet stimulates into intense activity the lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 102.4
Diseased Meats
470. The meat diet is a serious question. Shall human beings live on the flesh of dead animals? The answer, from the light that God has given, is, No, decidedly no. Our health institutions should educate on this question.... They should point out the increase of disease in the animal kingdom. The testimony of examiners is that very few animals are free from disease.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 11, 1897. HL 102.5
471. Disease of every type is afflicting the human family, and it is largely the result of subsisting on the diseased flesh of dead animals.—Unpublished Testimonies, March, 1896. HL 102.6
472. Those who subsist largely upon flesh cannot avoid eating the meat of animals which are to a greater or less degree diseased. The process of fitting the animals for market produces in them disease; and fitted in as healthful a manner as they can be, they become heated and diseased by driving before they reach the market. The fluids and flesh of these diseased animals are received directly into the blood, and pass into the circulation of the human body, becoming fluids and flesh of the same. Thus humors are introduced into the system. And if the person already has impure blood, it is greatly aggravated by eating of the flesh of these animals.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 103.1
473. The very animals whose flesh you eat are frequently so diseased that, if left alone, they would die of themselves; but while the breath of life is in them, they are killed and brought to market. You take directly into your system humors and poisons of the worst kind, and yet you realize it not.—Testimonies for the Church 2:405. HL 103.2
474. There are but few animals that are free from disease. Many have been made to suffer greatly for the want of light, pure air, and wholesome food. When they are fattened, they are often confined in close stables, and are not permitted to exercise, and to enjoy free circulation of air. Many poor animals are left to breathe the poison of filth which is left in barns and stables. Their lungs will not long remain healthy while inhaling such impurities. Disease is conveyed to the liver, and the entire system of the animal is diseased. They are killed, and prepared for the market, and people eat freely of this poisonous animal food. Much disease is caused in this manner. But the people cannot be made to believe that it is the meat they have eaten which has poisoned their blood, and caused their sufferings. Many die of disease caused wholly by meat eating, yet the world does not seem to be the wiser.... It may be doing its work surely upon the system, and yet the person for the time being realize nothing of it.—How to Live 1:59. HL 103.3
475. Animals are frequently killed that have been driven quite a distance to the slaughter. Their blood has become heated. They are of full flesh, and have been deprived of healthy exercise, and when they have to travel far, they become exhausted, and in that condition are killed for market. Their blood is highly inflamed, and those who eat of their meat, eat poison. Some are not immediately affected, while others are attacked with severe pain, and die from fever, cholera, or some unknown disease.... Some animals that are brought to the slaughter seem to realize what is to take place, and they become furious, and literally mad. They are killed while in this state, and their flesh is prepared for market. Their meat is poison, and has produced, in those who have eaten it, cramps, convulsions, apoplexy, and sudden death.—How to Live 1:59, 60. HL 104.1
476. Swine have been prepared for market even while the plague was upon them, and their poisonous flesh has spread contagious diseases, and great mortality has followed.—How to Live 1:60. HL 104.2
477. Meat eating is doing its work, for the meat is diseased.—Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896. HL 105.1
478. The flesh which they ate was diseased, and their entire system was becoming gross and corrupted.—Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896. HL 105.2
479. Death was caused by the abundant eating of meat which at the last was tainted.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 105.3
480. Pulmonary diseases, cancers, and tumors are startlingly common among animals. It is true that the inspectors reject many cattle that are diseased, but many are passed on to the market that ought to have been refused.... Thus unwholesome flesh has gone on the market for human consumption. In many localities even fish is unwholesome, and ought not to be used. This is especially so where the fish come in contact with the sewerage of large cities.... The fish that partake of the filthy sewerage of the drains may pass into waters far distant from the sewerage, and be caught in localities where the water is pure and fresh; but because of the unwholesome drainage in which they have been feeding, they are not safe to eat.—Unpublished Testimonies, January 19, 1895. HL 105.4
481. The fact that meat is largely diseased should lead us to make strenuous efforts to discontinue its use entirely.... It will be hard for some to do this, as hard as for the rum drinker to forsake his dram; but they will be better for the change.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 9, 1896. HL 105.5