Excerpt of "Don't Eat That" - The Erotics of Abstinence in American Christianity

"Prentice Mulford (1834-1891) was one well-known New Thought writer who considered matter essential to the life of the spirit. Mulford took care to note that as faith increased, the spirit would call in "many material aids" to aid in personal renewal, including selection of foods. Elsewhere Mulford explained his view more thoroughly:

'It is not a good sign for a person to say that he or she doesn't care what they eat...It is the spirit that demands varying dishes and flavours. The spirit has reasons we cannot now explain for such demands. When the palate becomes indifferent in these respects, and one flavour is counted as good as another, it proves there is a deadening or blunting of the spirit. The higher the spiritualisation of any person the more vigorous and appreciative becomes the palate. It is the spirit that receives the pleasure of eating through the physical sense of taste.'

The pleasures of eating, like other physical pleasures, were to be savored and taken very seriously, in Mulford's view, lest one fall into gluttony. "The glutton does not eat: Mulford observed. "He swallows. Proper eating dwells on every morsel with relish, and the longer it can be so dwelt upon, the longer it serves as the physical medium for the conveyance of life to the spirit." Readers were urged, then, to eat what most pleased their taste, rather than eating merely for health from a sense of duty.

Paradoxically, the advice to eat only such foods as were individually pleasing was followed by a lengthy exposition of the proper and most spiritual diet. Topping he list were fresh meats, vegetables, and fruits, said to "contain the most force" (though meat was noted to be "grosser" and "coarser"). Products that were salted or pickled had reduced force, since the preserving process depleted them of life. Reduced intake of food in general and of meat in particular, was unambiguously associated with higher spiritual attainment. This Mulford attributed to the fact that the fear and helplessness implanted in animals at the time of slaughter (and even the plants at harvest) was, through ingestion, transferred to the human eater."