Overeating
103
the living machinery requires, this surplus becomes a burden. The
system makes desperate efforts to dispose of it, and this extra work
causes a tired, weary feeling. Some who are continually eating call this
all-gone feeling hunger, but it is caused by the overworked condition
of the digestive organs.—
Letter 73a, 1896
[
Effects of Overeating Even of Simple, Healthful Food—33, 157
]
214. Needless worries and burdens are created by the desire to
make a display in entertaining visitors. In order to prepare a great
variety for the table, the housewife overworks; because of the many
dishes prepared, the guests overeat; and disease and suffering, from
overwork on the one hand and overeating on the other, is the result.
These elaborate feasts are a burden and an injury.—
Testimonies for
the Church 6:343, 1900
215. Gluttonous feasts, and food taken into the stomach at untimely
seasons, leave an influence upon every fiber of the system; and the
mind also is seriously affected by what we eat and drink.—
The Health
Reformer, June, 1878
216. Close application to severe labor is injurious to the growing
frames of the young; but where hundreds have broken down their
constitutions by overwork alone, inactivity, overeating, and delicate
idleness have sown the seeds of disease in the system of thousands
that are hurrying to swift and sure decay.—
Testimonies for the Church
4:96, 1876
Gluttony a Capital Offense
217. Some do not exercise control over their appetites, but indulge
taste at the expense of health. As the result, the brain is clouded,
their thoughts are sluggish, and they fail to accomplish what they
[133]
might if they were self-denying and abstemious. These rob God of the
physical and mental strength which might be devoted to His service if
temperance were observed in all things.
Paul was a health reformer. Said he, “I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway.” He felt that a responsibility
rested upon him to preserve all his powers in their strength, that he
might use them to the glory of God. If Paul was in danger from
intemperance, we are in greater danger, because we do not feel and