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Counsels on Diet and Foods
organs are unnecessarily taxed, and the brain nerve power is called
to the stomach to help the digestive organs carry on their work of
disposing of an amount of food which does the system no good....
And what influence does overeating have upon the stomach? It
becomes debilitated, the digestive organs are weakened, and disease,
with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result. If persons were
diseased before, they thus increase the difficulties upon them, and
lessen their vitality every day they live. They call their vital powers
into unnecessary action to take care of the food that they place in their
stomachs. What a terrible condition is this to be in!
We know something of dyspepsia by experience. We have had
it in our family; and we feel that it is a disease much to be dreaded.
When a person becomes a thorough dyspeptic, he is a great sufferer,
mentally and physically; and his friends must also suffer, unless they
are as unfeeling as brutes.
And yet will you say, “It is none of your business what I eat, or
what course I pursue?” Does anybody around dyspeptics suffer? Just
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take a course that will irritate them in any way. How natural to be
fretful! They feel bad, and it appears to them that their children are
very bad. They cannot speak calmly to them, nor, without especial
grace, act calmly in their families. All around them are affected by
the disease upon them; all have to suffer the consequences of their
infirmity. They cast a dark shadow. Then, do not your habits of eating
and drinking affect others? They certainly do. And you should be very
careful to preserve yourself in the best condition of health, that you
may render to God perfect service, and do your duty in society and to
your family.
But even health reformers can err in the quantity of food. They
can eat immoderately of a healthful quality of food.—
Testimonies for
the Church 2:362-365, 1870
221. The Lord has instructed me that as a general rule, we place
too much food in the stomach. Many make themselves uncomfortable
by overeating, and sickness is often the result. The Lord did not bring
this punishment on them. They brought it on themselves; and God
desires them to realize that pain is the result of transgression.
Many eat too rapidly. Others eat at one meal food which does not
agree. If men and women would only remember how greatly they
afflict the soul when they afflict the stomach, and how deeply Christ