Among the great rapidly developing problems is the question of what is the ideal food.
      It has long been a fact for the developed spiritual researcher that mankind is undergoing an evolution, ascending from a primitive, coarse animal state to a more perfect or refined form of existence. It is likewise also a fact for this researcher that the more refined an organism is, the finer the sustenance or nourishment this organism must have. While the primitive human being can eat almost unconstrainedly from a dustbin or consume putrefied and stinking products, the refined, civilised human being can consume only so-called "fresh products" produced, preferably "untouched by human hands", under the most refined hygienic processes. However, it has to be pointed out that the evolution of the latter being's senses of nutrition, which in this case means the organs of taste in particular, are still far from being able to keep pace with the rest of its evolutionary state. The purpose of the senses of nutrition is to produce natural hunger and natural thirst. By natural hunger and thirst must here be understood a healthily or naturally appropriate desire for those particular substances the organism must absorb and assimilate for its fully healthy maintenance. The countless instances of organic illness and considerable suffering that the civilised human being endures are a proof that the senses of nutrition of this being do not create a completely natural hunger and thirst but, on the contrary, to a great extent promote hunger for unnatural sources of nourishment and unnatural stimulants. From a cosmic point of view only a very small percentage of civilised people are absolutely healthy. But here other circumstances must also be taken into consideration, such as their relation to climate, exercise, sleep, fresh air, light, cleanliness and clothing. One's appetite for these realities must also be healthy; if not it is no use that the food is healthy. So it is no use if a human being consumes healthy food while living constantly in bad air and light or while wearing clothes that are far too thin, just as it is equally no use his living in fresh air and a healthy climate, and wearing good, warm clothes and so on while constantly taking into his organism unnatural substances in the form of food.
      Originally, every living being is equipped with organs that develop normal hunger and thirst or normal appetite for food that is absolutely natural for the organism, or for the fulfilment of the particular special conditions upon which its absolutely healthy existence is based. Generally, in the animals, these organs and this consciousness of nutrition are still in their purest form, protecting them almost one hundred per cent against errors in ways of living or to a corresponding degree bringing about the fact that only those forms of consumption and ways of living can be felt as pleasant that are absolutely normal for the evolutionary standard of the beings in question. Something quite different is the case for those beings we usually call "human beings", but who, according to "Livets Bog (The Book of Life)", are not completely evolved as such, and therefore to a certain extent still belong to the animal kingdom. The senses of nutrition of these beings are, to the very highest degree, distorted, degenerated and unreliable. This in turn means that the beings in question can sometimes have a very strong hunger or even a very strong desire for more or less unnatural substances; indeed, sometimes to such a degree that these in many cases become their daily food and drink.
      Since unnatural substances, which means substances whose actual food content demands for its extraction far too great an expenditure of energy on the part of the organism, are virtually indigestible by the human organism and are almost entirely without food value (just as they of course also sometimes represents an output of energy that is far too strong in relation to the organism and therefore shake it to its foundation), these unnatural substances become pure poison for this organism. It is a matter of course that when the senses of nutrition or organs of taste of terrestrial Man are so poorly stabilised that they can sometimes dictate a daily or constant consumption of such poisonous substances, the organisms of these beings become to a corresponding extent sick, abnormal or miserable in appearance.