Greetings! In today’s class we shall look at some stimulating substances that can lead to degenerative diseases.
Spices and Condiments
Spices and condiments—hot pepper, mustard, cloves, horseradish (especially the things that are “hot” when they are cold), injure the
cells of the organs which have to handle them, and they should be excluded from the food. Note the following:
“In this fast age, the less exciting the food, the better. Condiments are injurious in their nature. Mustard, pepper, spices, pickles, and other things of like character, irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure. The inflamed condition of the drunkard’s stomach is often pictured as illustrating the effects of alcoholic liquors. A similar condition is produced by the use of irritating condiments. Soon ordinary food does not satisfy the appetite. The system feels a want, a craving for something more stimulating.” MH 325
a. Their constant use prevents one from really appreciating good, wholesome food flavors.
b. The highly seasoned food tends to cause overeating with its troubles.
c. Their constant contact with the stomach mucosa produces irritation, which eventually results in disease.
d. The liver, kidneys, and other vital organs are forced to fight constantly against irritant bodies; this eventually causes damage to their structure.
e. The use of these substances produces a thirst for drink stronger than water.
f. Those who use condiments find it necessary gradually to increase the amount used to satisfy the unnatural appetite created by them.
Vinegar
This is wholly unfit for food. The acetic acid in it will prevent the action of saliva. One teaspoonful can stop the starch digestion in an ordinary meal. It is an irritant. The “eels” in vinegar often take up their abode in the intestine and become parasites there. It is twice as active in producing “gin liver” as is alcohol. It reduced the alkaline reserve of the blood; is said to aid in destroying red blood corpuscles; and hinders the digestion of protein.
Furthermore, vinegar should never be used (internally). This, of course, eliminates pickles made with vinegar. Pickles have also been hardened by the action of acetic acid and salt until they are almost indigestible. Don’t worry, we have an healthy vinegar-free recipe below!
Healthy Pickles!
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp sea salt may use less
- pickling cucumbers
- 1-2 cloves garlic peeled
- 4 sprigs fresh dill per jar
Instructions
- Sterilize jars and lids.
- Put 1-2 garlic cloves into the bottom of each jar. Add 4 dill sprigs to each jar.
- Wash and trim the ends of your cucumbers. Cut into thin rounds or spears (or whole) and pack into the jars tightly.
- To make the brine boil the water, lemon juice and sea salt. Pour the boiling brine into the jars over the cucumbers and put the lids on the jars.
- Let cool on the counter and then refrigerate. Pickles will be ready the next day.
- Eat and Enjoy-to the glory of God! (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Notes
Coffee, Caffeine, & Cocoa
The addition of a strong coffee infusion to a purin (uric acid) free diet causes a marked increase in excretion of uric acid. The analyses showed that the amount of uric acid after tea (caffeinated) drinking was doubled.-Professor Mendel. There is more uric acid (xanthin purin) in a cup of coffee than in the same quantity of urine.
The damaging effect of this increase of uric acid will be better appreciated when the recently ascertained fact is recalled that the human liver does not posses the ability to destroy or detoxicate uric acid, which is an important function of the liver in all carnivorous animals.
Coffee cripples the liver. Tibbles, an eminent English authority on diet, calls attention to the pernicious influence of caffeine on the glycogenic function of the liver which leads him to condemn the use of coffee altogether. This observation suggests that the coffee habit may be one of the causes for the notable increase of diabetes in this country in recent years.
The following are abstract:
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With adults it invariably leads to persistent functional disturbances of the nervous system, and disturbed digestion, nervous excitement, insomnia, anxiety, apprehension, palpitation of the heart, vertigo, heartburn, dyspepsia, constipation, distressed breathing, weakness of muscles.
Caffeine paralyzes the absorbing power of the convoluted tubules of the kidney.
Causes tetanic contraction of the heart. Inhibits peptic and salivary digestion.
Accelerates fatigue.
Tea (caffeinated) and coffee numb the sense of fatigue which is a warning as a safety measure to protect the body.
Coffee overstimulates the glands of the stomach that secrete hydrochloric acid.
Tannic acid in tea (caffeinated) precipitates pepsin.
Tea (caffeinated) and coffee cause headaches, nervousness.
The writer has in many cases seen the blood pressure drop twenty to forty points in cases of high blood pressure after the disuse of coffee, and with a notable improvement in health.
Dr. W. Faessler of Zurich summarizes (in the British Journal of Physical Medicine) the results that well-known investigators have elicited by experiments on men and animals. He quotes Professor Mendelsohn as stating: ‘Caffeine is a dangerous substance, and any doctor who frivolously maintains the contrary makes himself responsible for injuries to many of his fellow men.’ This view is confirmed by many others….
Rudolf Bayer says: ‘Caffeine as a strong uric acid former has a bad influence on the metabolism, inasmuch as, given in large doses, it disturbs the balance of the glandular functions.’…
Among the effects of caffeine on the heart and circulation of the blood are palpitation from irritation of the cardiac nerves, lessened expansibility of the chambers of the heart, due to increases muscle tone, resulting in a leaking of the circulation with rapid irregular beats. With regard to the nervous system, caffeine may be looked upon as an evil genius. Many authors describe the symptoms of chronic caffeine intoxication as follows:
‘By irritating the cereal cortex and spinal and heart centers, pressure and congestion of the head are produced, also general unrest and excitement, sweating, hallucinations, increased tendon reflexes, cold and numbness in hands and feet, rapid fatigue of body and trembling of muscles and hands, shortness of breath, increase of respiration, palpitation, rapidity and reduction of pulse volume, cardiac and pulse irregularity, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, colic, dyspepsia, gastralgia, flatulence, loss of flesh and loss of appetite.
Dr. Faessler concludes with the following statement of his own experience: In my practice of thirty-eight years I have never seen anything but disadvantage from the frequent enjoyment of coffee, and have therefore felt it my duty to give a warning against that so-called ‘harmless’ poison, caffeine. With the use of three to six or eight cups of coffee a day, which is not uncommon, serious nerve disorders occur which are even more disturbing than those occasioned by the smoking of two or more packages of cigarettes daily
Tea (caffeinated), coffee and cola drinks are all habit-forming. Tea (caffeinated) is an intoxicant, a habit-forming drug, and one which leads to the forming of other drug habits….Cases of delirium tremens resulting from the use of tea (caffeinated) have been reported. Chronic tea (caffeinated) poisoning is frequent affection whose most common symptoms are loss of appetite, dyspepsia, palpitation, headache, vomiting and nausea, combined with nervousness, and hysterical and neuralgic affections, frequency accompanied by constipation and pain in the region of the heart.
The Texas State Board of Health, after a careful investigation of the causes of nervousness and stupidity among school children brought in the following report:
Children who drink coffee for breakfast come to school exhilarated. They work strenuously in the morning, and are overflowing with energy and vitality; but they do not last under the school routine. They become fatigued more quickly than the other pupils; and by the close of school in the afternoon, they are exhausted to the point of stupidity. They are nervous and therefore unstable in their deportment.
The following table shows the amount of caffeine found in various caffeine-containing preparations:
As usually prepared, tea (caffeinated) and coffee both contain about the same amount of caffeine. Dry tea contains about one-third as much caffeine as does the
same weight of coffee. Cocoa contains about the same amount of caffeine as does coffee. Cocoa nibs also contain caffeine. Fortunately there is something better! Carob! Have you tried any of our carob bars in our end-time store? We just added a new flavor, almond! Taste and see!
Let’s Recap:
1. What type of things can irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure?
2. Why is acetic acid harmful?
3. What is something better to use than vinegar when making pickles?
4. How does coffee cripple the liver?
5. What substance accelerates fatigue?
6. What is something better than cocoa?
Grab a friend and share the wealth, from what you’ve learned in the School of Health! In next week’s class we shall learn more about stimulating poisons that can lead to degenerative diseases. Until then, God bless!
Previous Lesson: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Additional Sources: Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Article