The Watchtower's Half-Century Crusade Against the Germ Theory
The Watchtower, Diet and Germs
In their articles on food the Watchtower at times gave good advice, such as the importance of variety in the diet, but they also often presented much enormously foolish advice. An example of the latter is the teaching that bananas should be eaten only with one of the cereal foods because if eaten alone on an empty stomach, especially if one is hungry, bananas "will often cause trouble" (Sillaway 1925: 466). Why this is true is never stated. They rightly condemned tobacco in the 1920s but fell far short of realizing how lethal it was.
One erroneous view the Watchtower repeatedly advocated was that "all man's bodily troubles originate in his intestines" (Woodworth 1929: 79). Conversely one wonders where such foolish conclusions as "tea and coffee exercise a hardening effect upon the tissues of the body, thereby preventing a free elimination of waste" came from (Sillaway 1925: 407). They claim the stimulating effects of tea and coffee were due to "a mild irritation of the nerve centers." Actually their effect has to do with caffeine's influence on the regulation of neurotransmitters.
To support their attack on the germ theory the Watchtower concluded that cancer is a disease of the middle and upper middle classes, and in places where people cannot "afford aluminum cooking utensils, cancer is practically unknown." As proof they summarized a book in which they claimed that the author concludes cancer is not due to a microbe but is a result of unhealthy tissue which has become "devitalized" by constant abuse. What physical abuse and "devitalized" is, and how this causes cancer, are not stated. Admittedly this article does give some good suggestions, namely, to ingest a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, drink plenty of water and avoid meat (Woodworth 1928: 178). This advice, though, has been part of the folklore of the west for years.
Other absolutely erroneous or misleading advice includes teaching that fats and oils are okay but "too many starches and sugars often cause disease" (Newcomb 1928: 46) for the reason that the cause of sickness is the waste that remains in the body which attracts "germs and disease" (1928: 47) and sugars and starches remain in the body. Actually fats and oils remain in the body far longer than sugars and starches which are the first foods to pass through the system.
The Watchtower argues that an overload of certain foods--specifically starchy foods--causes extra secretions of mucous, and this will "show up in some form of catarrh or constipation" (Stuart 1925: 781). Actually most of us do not eat enough starchy foods, and secretion of mucous is due mostly to problems such as irritation of the mucus membranes. It is a response to disease (secondary mucous) and rarely a problem in itself (called primary mucous).
The Watchtower concludes disease is "caused by poisoning the system through harmful foods and drinks, by vaccination, or by any other means of filling the body with poisons in such quantities that the elimination system is inadequate to the immediate exigencies of the case" (Stuart 1925: 781). Actually, disease by poisoning is relatively rare unless one classifies fat as a poison. Fat, which is probably the leading killer in the world today, was never condemned by the Watchtower in the many articles this writer reviewed.
The Watchtower also claimed that constipation, which is a "result of indulging the craving of a false appetite" is the cause "of most diseases" (Stuart 1925: 782) The definition of a "false appetite" is not given. Caster oils may "remove the filth from the intestines for a day or so, but what of the poisons which saturate the fibers and sinews of the body, and have even gotten into the very marrow of the bone" (Stuart 1925: 752). To solve this problem the author recommends the elimination of macaroni, spaghetti, potatoes, and all prepared breakfast foods--all of which are excellent foods, except pastries which are high in fat and sugar.
To their credit, the Watchtower did recommend a diet high in uncooked fruits and vegetables, a recommendation which squares with the best advice today. Ironically, this good advice is all but ignored today by modern Witnesses--the writer was raised a Witness, and the diet of those around him was atrocious. Fatty, over-prepared foods and diets high in meat and over-refined processed and cooked foods were common. The advice which the Society gave that has proved true is now forgotten advice. They correctly warned of over-consumption of meat, although they never gave valid reasons for why meat should be avoided (primarily because it is high in fat).
They likewise largely ignore this excellent advice today. That they were correct was not due to any outstanding knowledge. Even relative to meat consumption, they expounded much foolishness such as teaching "Beef eaters lay the foundation for tuberculosis, and pork eaters are inviting the dreaded disease of cancer . . .[and] meats should not be eaten in hot weather" (Stuart 1925: 783). One must conclude that what they were right about was due to chance, not to any special insight into the factors actually involved.
The Watchtower also astoundingly recommended not eating breakfast because "breakfast is no time to break a fast. Keep up the daily fast until the noon hour. The stomach needs the rest; it is tough we know. . ." Ironically, both orthodox and hetero-orthodox nutritionists have been recommending a good breakfast for at least a century. The Golden Age continues, stating if a person "is digging coal or post holes . . . it may be permissible to eat the morning meal; but such meal should consist of fresh fruit or prunes, or figs, not thoroughly masticated; or of fresh tomatoes, lettuce, rhubarb, greens of some kind . . ." (Stewart 1925: 764).
The Golden Age also recommends drinking plenty of water only two hours after each meal, and none just before the meal. They warn against "promiscuous mixing of too many [food] varieties at a time" even recommending eating "one thing at a time, is ideal." One can only guess the reasons for these groundless conclusions. This advice is an Alice-in-Wonderland creation, seemingly written to entertain and not to make sense. The tragedy is people actually followed this horribly ill-founded advice. And no doubt many died because of following it.
The Watchtower also taught that white blood cells are "only waste" and not part of the body's immune system, because no immune system exists. This is another lie by the medical doctors to make money. Further, the lungs are a "pump" and the heart a valve "instead of the reverse thereof, as held and enforced on the world by medical science, so called" (Barnes 1929: 434). Further, the theory of "metabolism" is "the most dangerous teaching ever imposed on man" (Barnes 1929: 434). The "food values" and recommendation to eat food in various combinations "are a part of the great deception imposed by the Devil on the whole world" (Barnes 1929: 434). These few ideas illustrate the incredible foolishness perpetuated by the Watchtower.