The Greatest Challenge You Face

TimeWatch Editorial
November 11, 2015

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, meat eating was definitely a sign of affluence. In fact, even the poor sought to satisfy themselves with this desired feast. Pigeons, Beef, Mutton, Turkey, Pigs, Ducks, were all part of the daily diet. As more and more people moved to the cities, this meat had to be transported longer distances. The means of storage was limited and therefore, the swift deterioration of the animals created an odor that became rather customary. In fact, the odor was often so strong that Colin Clair, in his book  “Kitchen & Table”,  published in New York: Abelard-Schulman, in the year 1965, on   page 141, warned that the odor of meat was such that one should keep it away from his/her nose while eating it!

Jane Carson says this about storage in colonial America:

"With refrigeration and commercial canning yet unknown, the colonial housewife depended upon other expedients to keep her food supplies edible. Meat, the most important element in the Virginia diet, posed special problems because it spoiled quickly in the warm climate. The practice of preserving it with salt was so universal that guests in private homes and public taverns found salted meat on the menu at nearly every meal. One of Rochambeau's officers, for example, observed that Virginians ate a great deal of it because "fresh-killed meat must be consumed within twenty-four hours or else it will spoil." Hogs, which furnished "the principal food" of the inhabitants, were never slaughtered in summer, and pork was seldom eaten fresh. "The people here have a special way of curing them that consists of salting and smoking them" he explained, "almost as we do in France; however, ours cannot touch theirs for flavor and quality." --- Colonial Virginia Cookery, Jane Carson, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA 1985 (p. 113)

Even so, a careful analysis of the methods of meat salting reveals that not everyone was able to properly preserve their supply. Then storage was another problem. The temperature of the room was important, at least for the first week or so, if the idea was to maintain the supply long term. This also was a problem. Because of the lack of expertise, the deterioration of the meat produced illnesses that were not necessarily immediately recognized, but later experienced.

Even when the preservation process was properly carried out, the health of the animal was never even assessed, or examined, entirely because there was no existing means of doing so. In 1869, the author Ellen G. White made the following statement.

“A cow may be apparently well in the morning, and die before night. Then she was diseased in the morning, and her milk was diseased; but you did not know it.” {2T 368.4}

The exact same situation exists today. This has caused the World Health Organization to proclaim that eating a diet heavy on meat and cheese may be as harmful to you as smoking a cigarette, researchers claim.

A new study, published in Cell Metabolism on March 4, shows that middle-aged people who eat a diet high in animal proteins from milk, meat and cheese are more likely to die of cancer than someone who eats a low-protein diet. The research also showed the people who ate lots of meat and dairy were more likely to die at an earlier age.

Listen to the author Ellen G. White again; this time in a book entitled “Child Guidance:”

“Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. Those who use flesh foods little know what they are eating. Often if they could see the animals when living and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.” {Child Guidance, Page 382.3}

If you are a meat eater, then this might be your greatest challenge yet.

Cameron A. Bowen